Graphics Chip 4th Quarter Numbers

[3dcgi]

So now both companies appear to be sitting on a pile of unsold gpus, if price reductions arent the answer to shift units, what will get sales back up?

Desirable features and performance. And a hit game/application that demands them. Despite the bad economy there are still a lot of people with spending money. They just need a little more incentive than usual to spend it. The real question is will this demand generator materialize.

edit: by the way thanks for the links Razor1 and rjc.

 

[CarstenS]

I just looked at both of my 2900's and my 3870 and neither are well reinforced as the 4870.

The 4870 also feels more solid. But that's probably just due to the extra weight of the reinforcing bar along the top of the card.

I see what you mean (and disagree nonetheless) but lets not take this thread further off-topic.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Desirable features and performance. And a hit game/application that demands them. Despite the bad economy there are still a lot of people with spending money. They just need a little more incentive than usual to spend it. The real question is will this demand generator materialize.

edit: by the way thanks for the links Razor1 and rjc.

That's the problem. The smart thing for most people to do is pay down their debt, something most should have been doing the past few years but very few actually were. Easy to get credit and all that. Especially with government sponsored incentives to lend money to more people that are a credit risk.

While something to spur consumer spending might be good for the short term economy, for the long term it won't fix anything if it encourages people to maintain their current debt levels or even increase it. After all that's a major factor in what got the world to this situation in the first place.

For the short term I'd rather see everyone bite the bullet and become more fiscally responsible. The Feds could help this along by increasing interest rates to encourage saving and discourage taking on more credit/debt.

Unfortunately stock holders of publicly held business would be very put off with this as sales/profits would stall/stagnate for the short term as the countries financial basis gets to a more sound footing, but in the longer term I think it'd be much better for all concerned.

Well other than the fact that publicly held businesses would probably react in the wrong way and cut more people/projects in order to try to show positive earnings growth.

Likewise I think most people have grown up too used to living an "extravagent" lifestyle that it's difficult to be frugal and live within your budget without resorting to credit to buy luxury items you can't afford.

Regards,
SB

 

[3dcgi]

That's the problem. The smart thing for most people to do is pay down their debt, something most should have been doing the past few years but very few actually were. Easy to get credit and all that. Especially with government sponsored incentives to lend money to more people that are a credit risk.

While something to spur consumer spending might be good for the short term economy, for the long term it won't fix anything if it encourages people to maintain their current debt levels or even increase it. After all that's a major factor in what got the world to this situation in the first place.

For the short term I'd rather see everyone bite the bullet and become more fiscally responsible. The Feds could help this along by increasing interest rates to encourage saving and discourage taking on more credit/debt.

Unfortunately stock holders of publicly held business would be very put off with this as sales/profits would stall/stagnate for the short term as the countries financial basis gets to a more sound footing, but in the longer term I think it'd be much better for all concerned.

Well other than the fact that publicly held businesses would probably react in the wrong way and cut more people/projects in order to try to show positive earnings growth.

Likewise I think most people have grown up too used to living an "extravagent" lifestyle that it's difficult to be frugal and live within your budget without resorting to credit to buy luxury items you can't afford.

Regards,
SB

I'm not sure why what I said is "the problem". Business exists to convince people to part with their money. The key aspect to this is making products people desire. I agree people shouldn't spend money on a GPU if they have short term debt like credit cards or if they can't make scheduled payments on long term debt.

It's unclear if this recession will change the fundamental nature of the consumer or if consumers will return to their old habits once they're confident their jobs won't go away. Though my guess is for most people old habits die hard and people want to keep up with the Jones'.

 

[rjc]

Preview of nvidia 4th quarter numbers here:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/119427-earnings-preview-nvidia
Prediction of 9c loss on $489.4m in revenue for the quarter. Quoting analyst:
"...Q4 margins of 38.0% on unfavorable mix and significantly weaker sales...The firm also looks for an inventory write-off in the vicinity of $100M...Wedbush is modeling Q1 revenues of $482M, below consensus of $541.8M...Wedbush looks for positive industry commentary about the Tegra handsets. Further, the firm remains optimistic with regards to Ion"

Looking at the current news stories going round, might also be an announcement relating to a microsoft smartphone or some other tegra stuff. Havent seen anything related to cutbacks of any sort.

 

[v_rr]

When does the Discrete card numbers come out?
Those reports are all about IGP. Discrete is much more important in a fight ati vs nvidia.