The Chat Log

Tech ARP : Thanks for agreeing to this Q&A session. Have you read the reviews of the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 400 series of graphics cards?

ATI : Absolutely. How their new card performs determines how much more work we have to do. From the looks of it, many of us will be free to take the vacations we applied for.

Tech ARP : Why do you say that? The benchmark results show the GeForce GTX 480 beating the Radeon HD 5870.

ATI : Sure, it's a little faster but who cares? It is $100 more expensive and is so freaking hot to run. Haven't they heard that the polar ice caps are melting?

Tech ARP : I'm sure NVIDIA will purchase some carbon credits to make up for all that heat.

ATI : Sure, that will help the polar bears when they die from sunstroke...

Tech ARP : Well, at least you guys don't have to worry about the heat up north. If it hurts anyone, it's going to hurt them down south in Santa Clara.

ATI : I'm not complaining. We could do with a little heat up here, but think long-term. We have to live with the weather when we buy over the sonsabitches [sic].

Tech ARP : Haha... But let's be honest - the GeForce GTX 480 is more than just a little faster than the Radeon HD 5870. It's twice as fast at tessellation, and that's supposed to be ATI's pet feature!

ATI : You believe the drivel they write in their PR slides? Then you must be one of those Sarah Palin tea party nutcases. Doesn't matter anyway. It's only temporary.

Tech ARP : Why temporary? You can't be planning to launch a new series of graphics cards so soon.

ATI : No, but we will be fixing the tessellation performance real soon. You can count on a 3x increase in performance in the next Catalyst driver.

Tech ARP : How is that possible?

ATI : Simple. To reduce power and temperature, we turned off most of the tessellators in the Radeons. Why turn them all on when there are no games using tessellation? Remember - ATI loves polar bears. We will just fire them up in the next version of the Catalyst driver.

Tech ARP : Just like that?

ATI : Pretty much. Easy peasy, lemon easy.

Tech ARP : Wouldn't this increase the amount of heat produced by the cards? Any idea how much more?

ATI : Sure, power goes up, heat goes up, but what's 50 W or 100 W these days? Just numbers, but imagine how much you can save on heating bills in winter. That's conservation and good economics right there!

Tech ARP : How is that any different from NVIDIA's wanton use of power?

ATI : Don't put us in the same boat. They don't like polar bears. We do.

Tech ARP : Can we get a copy of the new driver?

ATI : Absolutely! I will have your regional rep send you a copy. Have to run now. Nice talking to you!

Needless to say, we never heard from ATI's regional representatives. To be honest, we are not even sure if they are still alive...

Other C. Lee Yu Exposes!

• Ray Tracing To Debut In DirectX 11
• ED#39 : Why ATI Delayed The R600
• ED#38 : NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS' Killer Bug
• NVIDIA Buys Over AGEIA
• ATI Trashes NVIDIA In Physics

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