mboeller said:
Joe DeFuria said:Tom pulls through again...
Benchmarking the mobility 9000 against a yet-to-even-be-announce announced chip from nVidia?
And questioning "which chip will be available first" when all the other reviewers seem to know and point out (because it's unusual in the notebook sector) that mobility 9000 solutions are shipping "imminently". (Next week or two for tier 3 and tier 2 vendors)?
Oh well...
Doomtrooper said:True but again we are talking about 'proper' journalism, benchmarking a card/chip that has not even been announced yet is to say...very strange...one example is it takes away from the unannounced chip as it shows it in a bad light....I think Tom has flipped his noodle, or the Amonia in his perms has affected brain functions.
The inapporiateness of treating the 460 as shipping is a side effect of the lack of sophistication in the article, as its use otherwise is justifiable (IMO).
Joe DeFuria said:The inapporiateness of treating the 460 as shipping is a side effect of the lack of sophistication in the article, as its use otherwise is justifiable (IMO).
Well, my problem isn't that the 460 isn't yet shipping and available in products (neither is the mobility 9000).
My problem is that the 460 is not even announced as a product from nVidia.
http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=geforce4go
For all I know, this might change tomorrow. But if that's the case, Tom should wait until tomorrow to publish the review...
Joe DeFuria said:I am always against using "unannounced" products for one primary reason:
Things have a tendency to change right up until the time official announcements are made. That's one reason why things aren't announced....they aren't finalized. Particularly: clock speeds, memory speeds, availability.
Heck, sometimes, things change even AFTER official announcements. But at least an official announcement is the IHVs way of relaying some confidence in the expectations of the shipping product.
Tom may be testing a 460 based on the "planned specs" for the part, but it may very well end up that the 460 specs will change (for better or worse). And a comparison based on "the wrong specs" isn't particularly beneficial to anyone.
Is there any circumstance under which an unannounced product could be used as a reference in a benchmark of a "current" (announced, shipping to manufacturers, launched, whichever you find suitable) product?
Joe DeFuria said:Is there any circumstance under which an unannounced product could be used as a reference in a benchmark of a "current" (announced, shipping to manufacturers, launched, whichever you find suitable) product?
No. IMO, if a product is not publically announced, there are no circumstances in which it should be used in any sort of comparison to another product that has been publically announced.
So we'll just agree to disagree on that then. 8)
Now...if you have two unannounced products, and wish to compare them...
DemoCoder said:So I can expect to gain/loss only a handful of fps between these products and only 5 more minutes of play time when unplugged. Doesn't seem to be a huge difference to sway someone one way or another.
I think it will come down to a factor of price.
What is the big deal about if a chip is paper launched or not?Doomtrooper said:True but again we are talking about 'proper' journalism, benchmarking a card/chip that has not even been announced yet is to say...very strange...one example is it takes away from the unannounced chip as it shows it in a bad light....I think Tom has flipped his noodle, or the Amonia in his perms has affected brain functions.
So I can expect to gain/loss only a handful of fps between these products...
Doesn't seem to be a huge difference to sway someone one way or another.
Do not buy a GeForce4-MX for Doom....GF4-MX will still run Doom properly, but it will be using the NV10 codepath with only two texture units and no vertex shaders. A GF3 or 8500 will be
much better performers.
"The M9 laptop part allows state of the art high end game development to be accomplished on a laptop platform for the first time really since we've moved to hardware acceleration."
"You know, on our current work at Id right now we're still pushing really hard to make Doom run well on various high end desk top cards. So it's pretty startling to be able to fire it up on a laptop and see it run at a really pretty startling good pace."
What is the big deal about if a chip is paper launched or not?
Things have a tendency to change right up until the time official announcements are made. That's one reason why things aren't announced....they aren't finalized. Particularly: clock speeds, memory speeds, availability.
Heck, sometimes, things change even AFTER official announcements. But at least an official announcement is the IHVs way of relaying some confidence in the expectations of the shipping product.