...naming conventions rarely make sense. I swear, half the time the whole purpose is to maximise buyer confusion (from every company) as that stands more chance of making money. ;)
I jump around from one card to another, one manufacturer to another... although I'll admit it's been a fair while since I last used nVidia cards - been ATi for some time now. But you know what they say... the grass is always greener. :mrgreen:
Honestly, I got used to it in the 4xxx series and welcomed them sticking with that. Then they decided that the HD4870x2 moniker was too confusing and figured HD59xx would be more obvious :doh That's where they started to lose me :mrgreen: "X2" is pretty obvious to me, that its the same chip but doubled up.
When I criticised their marketing earlier, that's what I meant, that they have people working for them being paid a lot to ome up with these things, and the best they can suggest is "erm, lets make the HD67xx series into the HD68xx..."
But perhaps you have a point, maybe that is exactly the idea, like supermarkets changing the location and arrangement of goods every so often to confuse customers' routine of going where they are accustomed, but also pass by other items. :idea:
Look at it this way - CrossFire is a tech designed to get multiple GPUs to power one screen. EyeFinity is a tech for a single GPU to power multiple screens as if they were "one"... the idea of each couldn't be more opposite, when all is said and done. That the two can work together at all is impressive. :D
Very good way to explain it. I think that's how ATI should have marketed them! Because to me the usefulness of Crossfire capability became even more logical when Eyefinity came along... It was a thought in my mind at the time of purchase that I would "level up" in future with an additional HD5870 if newer titles began taxing Eyefinity max resolution too much. Reading reviews and advertising at the time, it was implied the higher res performance would be boosted by Crossfire capability, and the cards are always branded as "Crossfire Ready" etc. It never occurred to me to question that the two would work together. Lazy research, perhaps on my part, since by now I should know computer technology well enough that if you are on the bleeding edge, it's likely you'll get bloody! LOL
So now when I'm facing having to replace the HD5870 with a HD6xxx just to work that, I feel a bit peeved at ATI. I think that's where ATI need to show some thought, not new ways to number the cards. However, as you rightly pointed out, nothing stopping me from looking at NVidia in future if they offer something better :wink:
I don't think I've ever run Crysis with AA on, anyway - when I play it, I'm too busy playing to go, "Oh, jagged edge right there!"
After completing it, I use it to optimise and test performance now. The alien mothership never fails to bring down a PC... :mrgreen: so it was more a comment on the HD5870 than Crysis!
