Have we forgiven Nvidia?

[Mendel]

I just suddenly realized... Not long ago I was still VERY pissed at Nvidia for obvious reasons... Up to the point where I spent some of my time doing a patch for UT2004 to remove the Nvidia logo and giving tips to people on how to remove them elsewhere.

And now... I find myself ordering a 6800 GT.

So a practical forgiveness in form of my business from me... They made a good product this time, and even have control panel options disabling some of their optimizations, though many unclear optimizations are probably left in their drivers...

You still mad at them?

 

[martrox]

I voted - no suprises here - no. They are still doing some of the things that make them a fairly unethical company... they alway have and, as long as current management is in power, alway will..... However..... I did purchase both a 6800GT and a 6800 - which are excellent products.

 

[Kain]

H... no . I hate Nvidia bigtime , but that doesnt stop the 6800gt from looking like a tempting deal

 

[nutball]

Ummm... aren't there more important things to worry about in the world?

 

[Entropy]

Ummm... aren't there more important things to worry about in the world?

Of course there are. Do you imply that means we shouldn't care about anything other than that which is the most important in the world?

Nope, I haven't forgiven them, and that's the only reason I won't buy a 6600GT when it becomes available - reasonable power draw, good D3 performance and support for 3D-glasses. A good product in my book. But I simply refuse to support nVidias company policy. And incidentally, my gaming card isn't the most important thing in my world, so being a consumer who votes against bad practises with my cash is perfectly straightforward in my book. If it had been a highly immoral company that produced the best anti-cancer drugs, then there would have been a dilemma. But we're talking gaming accessories here - no way they get my money.

 

[DarN]

I agree with Entropy on the company policy, though that won't affect my decision when it comes to actually buy a card. (Sometime next year, god willing.)

 

[digitalwanderer]

"Have we forgiven Nvidia?"

I don't know about we, but me?

No.

 

[trinibwoy]

I was never 'pissed' but that might be because I've never owned an NV3x. But if I was then I would also be pissed at DFI for having to rma my board twice, and pissed at Creative because my speakers blew after 3 months. IMO, the whole ethics in the graphics industry issue is a bit trifling and overdone but I was never a 'victim' so to speak.

Also, for those who voted no and still bought an nvidia card....you already cast the real vote with your cash.

 

[Diplo]

I find it slightly bizzare that people can get worked up enough to either love or hate a company that make video cards. I think all companies will indulge in what is termed unethical practicies to further sales if they think they can get away with it; it's the nature of the beast. However, as far as I can see there's no way you can get 'hurt' by this if you don't rush out and buy new products before they've been around long enough to get proper reviews.

 

[AlNom]

I've never personally been mad at them. I didn't buy an FX card though... so there

 

[jvd]

I was never pissed off but it will take alot more than one product gen to make me think about buying a nvidia card .

It wasn't just one thing last gen. It was alot of things .

 

[Sovere]

I was never angry at Nvidia. Nvidia is a company out to make money and has done underhanded things like any other company. If Nvidia offers a better product than the competition at the price segemnt I wish to buy; I am going to buy the Nvidia product. I have never settled for second best nor will I begin to.

 

[Entropy]

I find it slightly bizzare that people can get worked up enough to either love or hate a company that make video cards. I think all companies will indulge in what is termed unethical practicies to further sales if they think they can get away with it; it's the nature of the beast. However, as far as I can see there's no way you can get 'hurt' by this if you don't rush out and buy new products before they've been around long enough to get proper reviews.

Worked up? Love or hate a company?
Are you implying I'm a deranged f-boi, because my opinion doesn't coincide with yours?

I'd say it's the other way around, I don't care about one gfx-ASIC manufacturer or another, I do however care if a manufacturer of anything that I may be interested in purchasing is consistently trying to mislead both me and the reviewers that try to serve the public with evaluations and advice. No matter what that device may be.

What got up my nose was that when they were caught cheating, they didn't repent. Didn't scratch their foot, and say, "- erm, hmm it's a bug...We'll fix it immediately.", but rather kept lying, implementing new cheats, and when people started looking really closely on their drivers, rather than give up on the whole sad game, they said they would encrypt their drivers.... That tore it for me.

Not only won't all companies indulge in unethical practices just because they think they can get away with it, it is almost unheard of that the company keep doing it once they are caught at it. It speaks of an attitude towards their consumers and a disregard for the well being of the industry that shouldn't be tolerated, IMHO.

How can any consumer or reviewer ever trust any result they get from an nVidia card? How can anyone ever say that an nVidia card is a good performer for the money? It's impossible. Why should a consumer support such a company? After all, they produce gaming accessories, not life support systems. If they were the only game in town, I'd simply spend my fun money on camera gear and a new coffee grinder. In fact, I just did.

And that sums things up for me. It has nothing to do with being a f-boi, it's about having no need of nVidia for anything important, and having no desire to support them.

 

[ZoinKs!]

I got ticked at nVidia for a number of reasons. One was the lying and misleading they've done before, after, and during the fx fiasco. However, that didn't directly harm me because I know enough to see through it.

However, there's plenty else they've done which has affected me. (To be more precise, they've harmed my preferred hobby... pc gaming.) The geforce 4mx helped hold back the introduction of pixel shading. More recently, the fx cards (especially 5200's) have held back the use of ps 2. Iirc, Dave Bauman has mentioned at least two developers decided to not use shaders much because the fx's are too slow to use them.

Most recently, I've heard rumours that nVidia has been encouraging devs to only write ps 1.1 and 3.0 paths. So the chameleon still hasn't changed it's colors.

 

[Florin]

Nvidia's cards do what I need - run 2304 x 864 or 2560 x 1024 3D across two fat 21" screens. I've been using this ever since my Ti4600. When I brought home a 9800 Pro only to discover that ATI didn't support full screen 3D across multiple outputs I didn't have to think long before returning it to the store and swapping it for a FX5900U. Yeah, better AA and shader performance would've been nice. But these things are an order of magnitude less significant in my quest for Flight Sim heaven. Seeing as only Nvidia (oh and Parhelia heh) can deliver this to me I've never gotten angry at them too much.

 

[DSN2K]

is this a group decision ? I wouldnt like to look bad.

 

[Mendel]

"Have we forgiven Nvidia?"

I don't know about we, but me?

Thread topic is "Have we forgiven Nvidia" because this thread is about B3d as a community, has it forgiven Nvidia.

The poll question, however is: "Did you forgive Nvidia's sins already?" So you are actually answering to a question about YOU personally having forgiven Nvidia or not. Of these individual votes, we reach a community decision of if WE have forgiven Nvidia or not. So far, it seems *not*

Hope that satisfies your wisdom

 

[Miksu]

Nope. I think it's going to take a loooong time before I forget NVidia vs. Futuremark -thingie.

 

[incurable]

I have forgiven them in the sense that I wouldn't hesitate buying their products anymore (and am actually actively searching for one), something that couldn't be said 6 months ago.

But this isn't as much a result of a change in nVidia's attitude or company policies as it's a result of a good product and the option to turn off their hacks with a few simple clicks.

cu

incurable

 

[Quitch]

Kind of.

Still not keen on their policies, nor such a big fan of the brand anymore, but their hardware is rather more desirable than it was.