BlackOmega

No, I don't deny that at all. It is speculation at best.


Well lets see. Lucid would sort of force Ati and Nvidia to produce cheaper NB's, thus cutting their profits. Then if they don't really have any Fermi's or have anything sufficient to surpass the ATi offering by a great margin and at a competitive price, that's going to kill them more especially if it's not ready to sell by Christmas. That's the short term.
I would think that that would be the beginning of the end for them if they don't get their asses in gear and think of something really great. At this point they're playing catch up on 2 fronts. It could be a steady downward slope for them.

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nathris

They don't need to pay MSI to delay Hydra. They didn't have to pay Eidos to drop AA support from Batman. They just went in and put the lock in, saying that the code was their property and that the devs couldn't change it.

Likely what happened was nVidia offered to help MSI put an nForce 200 chip on their motherboards if they would put off Hydra until they can actually start producing competitive graphics cards again (so we probably won't see Fuzion until March).

I doubt nVidia threatened to drop driver level Hydra support. Just because they pulled the same tactic with PhysX doesn't mean they will do it here. This time all they would end up doing is pissing off their loyal customers while giving a major advantage to the Red team.

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Mygaffer

At this point is anyone surprised? Nvidia is one of the most evil companies around in my opinion.

Seriously? Come on man, if you believe that you are fooling yourself.

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MagicBox

At the end of the article Charlie is wondering whether MSI's hands were tied up, or had their pockets wealthily lined up.

It's hard to tell but I am inclined to find the first more likely. MSI is one of the bigger suppliers of NVidia graphics solutions, making this a source of income. If NVidia has something to do with it, it probably wouldn't be beyond them to say something alone the lines of "You want to implement that SLI undermining Hydra chip? Fine, no more Gxxx chips for you". Which missed revenue would be bigger.. Nvidia's, or MSI's? I don't know.

The Hydra technology isn't illegal or patent infringing as far as is known, this couldn't be a reason not to implement the chip.

If indeed denial of graphics chips would be the catalyst in preventing from Hydra making an appearance, then it's probably that more board manufacturers are not going to use Hydra - at least the board makers that also offer whole line-ups of NVidia graphics cards. ASUS, EVGA to name a few.

Come to think of it, I can hardly think of any mobo brand that doesn't also offer NVidia graphics. Yeah, maybe the likes of SiS and Biostar.

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We Are The Red Tide

iquark

Talking like any of these big companies give 2 ***** about us is utter BS. I'm sick of seeing people say "oh AMD is good, and Intel is bad" or "Nvidia is so horrible, I love ATI" or any of the other popular company bashing phrases now a days.

In the end no large PUBLIC corporation cares about the end consumer. They care about P/E ratios, profit margins, and the quarterly warroom calls. If the tides were turned, 9/10 times these companies would all act the same as Nvidia and Intel. In the end it's about profits, not the consumer.

Ya, sometimes it sucks to see the extent of a companies profit strategies, but hey it's a capitalist market system! If you don't like it, don't buy it, and they'll eventually be forced to give in. In cases of Oligopolies sometimes it takes longer, but do we really want MORE government protection then we already have? If you need more "government competitive protections" move to China.

Even if this is true, Lucid will find it's way onto someone's board. It'll just take a company with balls to produce it. Ya, it sucks for now, and it might hinder advancement of technology, but that's life.

Note, I really hate when companies inhibit advancement of technology, but my main point is that these companies don't really care about US! Don't pretend they do...

Mygaffer

Did I ever say that any OTHER company was "good"? No, I didn't. I realize that the profit motive is what drives these public companies at the end of the day. That doesn't mean I have to like it or excuse it.

Also, it is a fallacy to say that all companies exhibit the same corporate ethics. I won't comment about my thoughts about AMD or Intel in this thread, but I hate all the apologists who come out and basically say, "Its ok they screw us over, they are trying to make money after all"

Well I won't just excuse that kind of behavior. They just take away choices from us consumers and end up costing us more for less.

Stand up for yourself as a consumer. Show some self interest, they sure are.

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Newbie2009

Really? Why was the Femi board a mock up? Why were there no chips shown running the demo?
Where is Femi now as it is supposed to be out end of THIS month/early December.So far everything points to him being correct, not wrong. Still no sign of fermi.
GT200 EOL? Well Since that article I have seen ALL my the stores I usually use go from about 40-50cards per line to about 3-5!

Anyway I doubt this is true with lucid, I would imagine ATI would be all over this if this was the case.
If this turns out to be true, Nvidia will loose me as a customer immediately.

MisterAutomatic

Interesting read.

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iquark

My internet ranting abilities are limited. I'm really of the viewpoint that we shouldn't expect companies to be our friends. As I said, I hate non-competitive practices as much as the next guy, but I understand why they happen.

You're right, not every company has the same business philosophy, but I really do think that given a flip-flop of nvidia/Ati or Intel/AMD positions we would see similar practices (on some level). Any company with 80% (hell any %) of a market is going to protect with all it's power. Maybe not the same way, but there will be slightly 'dirty' dealings nonetheless.

Give most companies the chance, and they will eventually become jerks. If they weren't pressing the limits of consumers how else would they maximize profits? The more profit they make, the more they can put into RnD and such, therefore I don't mind when a hardware manufacturer presses our buttons once in awhile. If we talk with our wallets they'll get the picture.

Anyway I still have about the same effect on the companies decisions as anyone else does. Just as you all, I don't buy products which aren't good value, and I support manufactures who make good quality items. It's all one can do to 'stand up' for the consumer.

Snowblind

While it would have been nice to get one of these boards before 2010....

Nvidia is on the wrong side of history, and is fighting a losing battle. MSI is just one of many motherboard manufacturers; Nvidia cannot possibly buy off the entire industry.

Granted, I'm sure that the Lucid technology is patented, but that represents a mere delay, not a critical setback.

We'll be mixing up our ATI cards with Nvidia GPUs before too long.