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GPU Rant

S

Sly

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 17, 2004
Messages
5,749
Is anybody else getting frustrated with this?!

I've been to quite a few gaming forums. You'd think that they'd atleast be knowlegeable on the different video cards but the thing that sticks out the most is that they OFTEN pick video cards by memory size!

I've had people asking me what video card i'm using, i tell them exactly what it is, and then they later call me on it because they bought the same card and it was nowhere near the performance of mine. It turns out that they DIDN'T get the same card and got the cheap ones. "But they're both 512MB!", "But they're both Geforce 4!", "But they have almost the same model number!", i've heard it all. They can't get it into their thick skulls that there is no f*cking way you can get card that's 1/4th the price of a high end to run on anything but lowest settings (a $50.00 card vs a $300.00 one).

Right now, whenever someone asks for a video card advice, i tell them the price range instead of the model number. That's the only thing they can understand. If you go into geek speak mode, they'll buy the low end ones anyway and complain about your 'misinformation' afterwards so what's the point :rolleyes:

And now some guy says that a 128MB nVidia card is ok, but you'll need a 512MB ATI to get the same performance. Note that he doesn't even mention the name of the cards. A lot of the time, when i ask what video card they have, they say the memory size, but have no idea what brand it is :mad:


PS: Most memorable argument. A guy insists that his 1GB card should be able to handle crysis, but it's slowing down for some reason. Took me a couple of days to get him to check what the exact model is, turns out it was an integerated intel.
 
I don't mean to use one-liners, but that's exactly the reason why I don't look at things like GPU rebranding with a very kind eye.

Ideally people would do their research as enthusiasts often say they should do. They're right, but the reality is that is people don't or can't or receive bad information(which surprisingly happens a bit less often than you would think amongst the half-informed) all the time, and a possible result is that people get frustrated, which is quite troublesome for the computing scene.
 
And this is why I NEVER get into a hardware discussion outside this forum (and maybe a couple others, like Beyond 3D, Slashdot and Real World Tech). In a "general" forum that just happens to have a computer section, I don't bother.
 
I concur. I know a few acquaintances like that. Just recently someone I know bought a new [emachines] PC for SC2 [beta] and the card he bought was a 9400gt, despite me telling him "NO! Don't do it!" and ignoring all my recommendations... but he goes "It has 512mb memory!" ... end story: After buying the system he calls me up and asks why the game looks like shit and why mine looks way better. I LOL'ed, sighed, facepalmed and just said "I told you so ... you didn't listen". He can barely handle 1280x720 at medium settings.
 
People used to buy processors soley based on the clock speed. And power supplies on the rating on the box not knowing the rating was PEAK and not SUSTAINED power. Consumers will generally be uninformed. It's stupid, yes, but there it is. Eventually they'll wake up. Or we can at least hope they will...
 
Well that's why we're enthusiasts =D

If it came to cars or some other hobby, I would be in the same position as I don't know jack shit besides horsepower...
 
rUmX said:
Well that's why we're enthusiasts =D

If it came to cars or some other hobby, I would be in the same position as I don't know jack shit besides horsepower...
Click to expand...

Except I bet you would research and ask questions...and not think that one 3.0L engine is the same as another 3.0L engine.
 
One of my co-workers was like this. He knows enough to build his own computer and some troubleshooting but not much else. He kept asking me about the cheap video cards in the Frys ads, saying this one has 256MB and the other one has 512MB, The 512MB is better, right?

I had to educate him that unless you are a hardcore gamer, video ram doesn't really matter. It's all about the exact model number/name of the card.

It's not like you will be able to run any game at a high enough resolution with AA to make that 512MB choke from running out of ram. You might be able to run it at 1920x1080 with 4x AA but it's going to run at unplayable framerates or look like a game from 10 years ago.

Another thing I have had to educate people on is keeping their screen resolution at the native resolution for the LCD panel. Yeah it can display 1024x768 and your game will run faster but it's going to look like a fuzzy blurry ass compared to your native resolution of 1280x1024.
 
Last edited:
Sly said:
Is anybody else getting frustrated with this?!

I've been to quite a few gaming forums. You'd think that they'd atleast be knowlegeable on the different video cards but the thing that sticks out the most is that they OFTEN pick video cards by memory size!
Click to expand...

Same here. I left one of the forums that miserably failed me. I was about to do the whole community a huge favor by pointing out an issue with ATI's 5xxx cards (with the severe "brilinear" AF quality), but that forum stabbed me from left and right, and from the back just because they could not be smarter than me.. simple as that.

Here's some advice for you.. just leave the forum(s) that miserably fail to meet your expected level of intelligence. You might feel a bit frustrated at first (like I did), but then in the long run you'd realize that it was for your own greater good. You have more time to spend elsewhere in other places that are more deserving of your own precious time.

These forums can rot away on their own or perhaps after you leave, they will realize how juvenile and ignorant they were and then try to learn at their own pace. Some people just aren't made to teach unappreciative children at a daycare--they'd be much better suited in a more sophisticated environment.
 
God I can't tell you how much this happens to me OP. I have a friend who repeatedly refused to ask me for my FREE AND CONCISE ADVISE and ended up buying an 7400GT, 8400GT, and a GTX220 to game on...and he's NOT a light gamer...his excuse? "It has 512!"
 
My sisters and one Uncle are like this. My one cousin at least does research, doesn't change the fact that he's an Intel & Nvidia fanboy blind to the other offerings of AMD/ATI. First it was "I'm waiting for FERMI it's going to wipe the floor with ATI." He hadn't even read the reports on what FERMI was supposed to be. Then finally after the GTX 480 launch & reviews (I'm waiting for the FERMI refresh, I don't buy first runs.).

My sisters, the younger one is just learning that Apple does not make the best computers in the world. And it doesn't matter how much you paid for that Apple laptop it's not worth a fraction of that now. The older one, well she's cheap. She wants top tier performance yet she'll only pay bottom tier prices.

My Uncle buys the new shinny in thing, half the time he buys the knock off through. He wastes a lot of money and then gets upset that his TV or PC aren't doing what he wants or needs. He does zero research on anything while having a bad case of keep up with the Jonses.
 
Humm don't really have this problem now. I rebuild all the family pc now. If they want to buy parts they ask me first. Anyone else well I don't really care if they buy crap and then complain to me.
 
XeroHouR said:
God I can't tell you how much this happens to me OP. I have a friend who repeatedly refused to ask me for my FREE AND CONCISE ADVISE and ended up buying an 7400GT, 8400GT, and a GTX220 to game on...and he's NOT a light gamer...his excuse? "It has 512!"
Click to expand...

God I hate people sometimes. I've explained this simple shit a million time to no avail.
 
This reminds of a co-worker who wanted to buy a 5.1 system, that he found in a flyer, because his new LCD had crappy speakers. I asked him about it and he said "It's Only 130 bucks!" I told him those are gonna have little 10w speakers just like your TV and his response was "But it's 1000 watts!" He likes car stereos so I said thats peak not RMS, hoping that it would make some sense to him but he took off to his car to go get it.

The next day he said he didn't buy it because the speakers were tiny (duh) and ended up getting a Samsung HTIB I think. 'They're way better than my TV speakers." I just let him be.
 
Anything to do with technology is pretty much an exacting science. You either KNOW something about it or you don't. To KNOW something about it you actually have to read and understand the technology. You have to read the reviews. One thing I like 'bout [H] is if there is something I'm not up on, I can post a question here and it is ground that someone has already covered. That is a great resource.
I really think people go to retailers and let the salesman make all the decisions.
Sale people are going to push what they get fat commissions on!

20 years ago I was in the electronic service business, but I learned to NEVER tell people what I did for a living. I got a phone call from a guy asking when his stuff was going to be fixed. I asked what he was talking about. "what stuff??" He said he gave a bunch of electronics to my brother to bring to me to fix. I walked out to the garage and saw a pile of junk. Old CBs, a blown car amp and a VCR that someone sprayed full of WD40. I called the guy back and told him to come get his junk, I'm not his local fix it shop.
 
nvidia and ati have pretty easy to follow labling. although nvidia has a bad habbit of rebranding the same cards over and over again.

Would you buy a car without knowing what it has under the hood or what its specs are?

Same goes for anything you buy. You buy things to fit a need. If your not sure what roll it fills then you do some reasearch.


Aso your rant sucks. Its more like a anoying letter. A rant has alot of swears and stuff and you have to regret writing a it after you post it.
 
Silverghost said:
This reminds of a co-worker who wanted to buy a 5.1 system, that he found in a flyer, because his new LCD had crappy speakers. I asked him about it and he said "It's Only 130 bucks!" I told him those are gonna have little 10w speakers just like your TV and his response was "But it's 1000 watts!" He likes car stereos so I said thats peak not RMS, hoping that it would make some sense to him but he took off to his car to go get it.

The next day he said he didn't buy it because the speakers were tiny (duh) and ended up getting a Samsung HTIB I think. 'They're way better than my TV speakers." I just let him be.
Click to expand...

LOL!

I use to work on professional power amp a lot. I have several old school Peaveys and other brands around.
It amazes me when I tell someone a amp is 400w and they say "that's not much power".
WTF??? To blow your punk arse down and leave you deaf. It is because all most people know is the CRAP the sell that is rated in PEAK power and not continuous RMS.
Most people have NEVER HEARD a real power amp. :cool:
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Anything to do with technology is pretty much an exacting science. You either KNOW something about it or you don't. To KNOW something about it you actually have to read and understand the technology. You have to read the reviews.
Click to expand...

This isn't just limited to technology though, anything you buy really you need to know about it, even purely aesthetic things like artwork to avoid bad deals. However the majority of consumers go by box appeal/curb appeal/cover appeal.
 
Dark Shroud said:
My Uncle buys the new shinny in thing, half the time he buys the knock off through. He wastes a lot of money and then gets upset that his TV or PC aren't doing what he wants or needs. He does zero research on anything while having a bad case of keep up with the Jonses.
Click to expand...

OMG! This is one of my friend's to the T! :eek:

It's so frustrating because he's a broke college student too no less. So when he actually comes across some money (in the form of student loan refund money) he spends it all without a second thought to researching for better options. Money to him seems like a game of hot potato, he just has to get it out of his hands before he burns a hole in his pocket. :p
 
I've got a friend who will spend good money to brag, but cheap out where it counts.

Nice JL subs for his car, but shit Jensen amp. Nice i7 920 setup, but cheap Sunbeam PSU with LED fan haha:p

Stuff like that. Just enough to "know" but not enough knowledge.
 
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