Returning with interest...

Fluff_eei

Fluff_eei

Fluff_eei

Associate
Joined
6 Aug 2005
Posts
126
Location
West Sussex
Hello all.

After a couple of years at university spending very little time reading about / buying PC components, I am coming to the end of my degree. The prospect of having income from a job (hurrah!) is spurning me to revive my interest in upgrading my PC, and, let's face it, playing brand spanking new games at high end settings with no worry.

My interest waned just as the X1900xt and 6800GTX (SLi) were beginning to see their replacements, and when we were all getting super excited about Conroe. Anyway, the point of this post (hopefully the first of plenty) is to ask if anyone can give me a brief update on where things have gone since then, or point me towards some good articles? I know I could just go and read the last 2 years worth of TomsHardware articles, and likely will to some extent, but I have always preferred forum opinions / content to articles, which tend to be a bit nichey.

Thanks for any comments in advance.

All the best.

Fluff_eei
 
OK....I'll have a go :)

June 2006 - Intel launches Core 2 Duo. Blows every other CPU out of the water, and makes Athlon 64 look rather old. The chips also overclock very well, meaning there's a lot of bang for buck if you're prepared to get your hands a bit dirty.

November 2006 - Nvidia launches the GeForce 8800 series. Much like Core 2 Duo, it sweeps everything before it into the gutter and becomes the de-facto performance standard. The new architecture runs DX10, only available on Vista, but performs very well in DX9 games as well.

Jan 2007 - Intel launches Core 2 Quad. Basically comprises two dual core dies taped together, but performs well, although multithreaded software is thin on the ground.

May 2007 - ATi launches the HD2900XT. A riposte to Nvidia's 8800 series, the cards perform fairly well (about on par with a GeForce 8800GTS 640mb) but use a lot more power and get very hot. They don't sell too well.

November 2007 - ATi launches the 38xx series, a die shrink of the 2900s with a few extra features and updates. The cards sell better, due to their aggressive pricing and low power requirements. However, they are still not enough to dethrone the 8800s, and face an even tougher task due to the launch of the GeForce 8800GT the previous month, which performs nearly as well as an 8800GTX for considerably less.

Jan 2008 - ATi goes for broke with the 3870X2, a dual GPU card intended to finally take the performance crown from the 8800GTX.

February 2008 - Nvidia launches the 9xxx series of GeForce cards, which are actually based on several of the later 8800 models. Enthusiasts are underwhelmed. In March, Nvidia sticks two 9800GTX GPUs on one graphics card, calls it the 9800GX2, and takes the performance lead back from ATi.

March 2008 - AMD launches the Phenom line of chips, based on the AMD64 archictecture, but intended to directly compete with Core 2 Quad. The chips are a step in the right direction, but still quite slow and use a lot of power.

June 17th 2008 - Nvidia launches the GTX 280, based on a new architecure which can basically be thought of as the 8800 on steroids. The cards perform very well, but not much better if at all than the 9800GX2. The GTX260 follows. The cards are extremely expensive and don't sell particularly well because of it.

June 25th 2008 - ATi launches the 48xx series, which performs very well and is aggresively priced. The GTX cards' pricing goes into freefall, as at last, Nvidia has some decent competition.

November 2008 - Intel launches Core i7, the replacement for Core 2 Quad, and to some extent, Core 2 Duo (this will be replaced by Core i5, coming later in the year). The chips are well designed and perform extremely well in multi-threaded applications, but the platform is very expensive for the first few months and adoption is low.

April 2009 - AMD launches the Phenom II line, which feature a load of improvements over the old Phenoms and finally give Core 2 Duo some decent competition. ATi launches the 4890 series and Nvidia follows suit with the GTX275.


It's a bit brief, but that's basically what happened in the past four years :D
 
That's actually a great synopsis - i found it of interest and i have pc format delivered to my door every month.

Plec
 
I'd call it pretty accurate; at least within the enthusiast market.

The only thing I'd add is that for the rest of the market, laptops are taking huge swathes of ground from desktops as people realise they do all the basic home tasks for a similar price, are easier to set up and far more portable.
 
Very nice.

Agree about the laptos as well. Also add Netbooks in there as they're ultra portable and a lot of people realised they don't need the power of a big PC all the time, merely something to browse net / watch vids on
 
Cheers

Cheers guys, especially reflux, that was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Something to give me a bit of general context in which to read website reviews etc. Thanks very much.

Following up the netbook comments, I've seen these cropping up at university more and more, got any general opinions on them? They seem to be the laptop of choice for some of my nerdier friends (thoroughly including myself in this group, not meant in a derogatory way at all) who have good quality desktops at home.

Fluff_eei
 
Netbooks are indeed quite popular with those who have to travel or who only need light usage - university students are the biggest example of this (myself included, love my Eee 901)

Travelling home on the weekend and can't be bothered carrying either a PC or even full size laptop, plus the fact there's plenty of room and battery life for the train. Brilliant for lectures - the 8 hour battery life means I can often fit two days of usage into a single charge (assuming a few hours of practicals each day, rather than solid lectures).

It just annoys me when people (I'm looking at you, PC Pro and Custom PC magazines!) try to compare them to laptops. Very few people have JUST a netbook - they're very clearly a niche item, yet they insist on doing huge feature length articles on why they're no good in general use. Yes, people get that! Gah - okay, enough on that rant.
 
Doctor_Zhivago said:
June 06 to April 09 is the past 4 years? Oh dear... :eek:
Click to expand...

Hmmm, what can I say, I scraped a C at GCSE maths :( :D

Re the netbooks thing - yeah, missed that. They are intend quite a driving force in the industry these days. I was going to get one for myself, but I think personally I'd be frustrated at the limited use.

They are great for businessmen though.
 
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