On nVidia’s UMAP thing…
nVidia says, in order to maintain competitiveness and shit, it will introduce this UMAP policy which basically dictates a minimum price for the cards based on their graphic chips, and require extra effort on the consumer’s part to find out that they (and the board manufacturers) have been screwed over.
Now I don’t know about you, but I heard that ATi’s Linux drivers have been improving steadily. And I don’t know about you, but I also happen to think that ATi’s Radeon HD 48×0 series gives me a raging boner. And again, I don’t know much, but apparently PureVideo doesn’t work under Linux, while AVIVO does. And this is all with just a RV core. The real R700 should come out within ‘8 weeks’, ATi says.
And why else would I go ATi? Because if I see a 9600GT (nVidia said this should be 199USD), I won’t be able to find a card below that price, whereas last time I could find plenty of products up to 70 bucks cheaper than the advertised retail price. Something tells me I can get even cheaper prices on the new Radeon HD products, which are already pretty good value compared to nVidia’s stuff.
And nVidia has a nice trick up its sleeve, too – don’t want to play along with this UMAP? Your chip supply will be ’suspended’. How nice, nVidia. Now there’s one less way to differentiate yourself from the big name board manufacturers (although I personally hope Biostar eats shit, shits blood and dies).
ATi, don’t screw up! nVidia’s becoming like Intel now… now’s your chance to sock it to them!
