Speaking only for a party of one, me, if the performance improvement is anywhere near what has been initially reported and initial reviews confirm its stability and performance, I will buy or build a system based on one.of their chipsets- and think it cheap at twice the price of the competition.

I think Nvidia is aiming, not at the high or very low end but right square in the middle. Sytems currently selling for $1000 to $1500 will drop $50 to $100 in price, because of the lower assembly/integration costs. After they are well established in mid-range systems, Nvidia can expand both ways and push all the other chipset makers off the map. This will take about two or three years, and then they will be the chipset equivalent of Intel or Microsoft, just as they will soon be the same in the video world.

If you think this is BS, just think back on how swiftly they have marched thrugh the 3D-video world. Three years ago, they were nothing, now look where they are..

They did it on the strength of relentless improvement and innovation in their chosen field. They just out-did their competitors and left them in the dust. They look set to do the same in the PC chipset world, which has long been a bastion of second-rate engineering made on third -rate fabrication technology. I pity VIA, but not very much, they HAD their chance.

The only chance I see for the competition is if the PC market drastically contracts and squeezes them out, before they have a chance to get well-established. They do have to be able to fund their R&D and recover their investment to keep their pace of improvement at fever pitch.

Look for Intel to be knocking on their doors, cap in hand, in six months to a year, when sales of boards using their chipsets start to really take off.

Cheers,

Frank

I think that's the problem. Some people are willing to pay 50 bucks more for 10% more performance, and some aren't (those are the same people who are buying KT boards instead of DDR ones right now).

Guess we'll just have to wait and see how many are, and how many aren't. Assuming the performance is there, of course - the only numbers we have right now are from nVidia's PR department. Not that they'd lie, but you learn not to take numbers from PR people seriously, especially when they're preceeded by the words 'as much as' or 'up to'.

Dan Mepham

Editor in Chief, Hardware Analysis
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