No more lonely cores?

M

mikelz85

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 3, 2004
Messages
1,342
Not sure where to post this, but the banner running above me got me thinking about consumer electronics and advertising. This has got to be one of the stupidest marketing campaigns I've ever seen. Anyone that needs a dual core KNOWS what it is, and doesn't care about the core being lonely. Anyone that doesn't need a dual core, doesn't know what a core is most likely, but will hopefully want to buy one so that the core in their next cpu doesn't suffer the same melancholy loneliness that the current cpu's core is certainly suffering. Or maybe they'll just buy it hoping it's faster. Engineers have got to hate marketing people! (I guess it's called dilbert).

Also on my rant list is the "discover the power of TURBOCACHE" ad that nvidia has.
http://images10.newegg.com/UploadFilesForNewegg/promo/Nvidia/turbocache/NV_TC_119x119_banner.gif
They forget to mention that the product being advertised is a 6200, but wait there's more! Little did you know that turbocache is marketing slang, meaning: "really fast for shared system memory". The turbocache version only comes with 16mb on card (the rest is system memory, up to 128mb), and is clocked 150-200mhz slower on the memory (must be the 16mb) than its not tc brother, which sports a price tag of a whopping $12 more on agp, and $20 on pci-e, not to mention the other 112 megs of ram. It's like stealing 112mb of ram from you, and then advertising it (with ram money of course) as a feature.
 
I don't know, ever since I've owned a CPU I've always felt "Oh man, I'll bet that core sure is lonely :(". Often this heart-wrenching realization would torture my soul for months on end. There were times when I could bear it no longer, and sat alone at night, next to my CPU, whispering to it words of comfort.

I mean, think about it, every other component has a friend: SLi video cards, dual DDR, RAID hard drives...This advertising campaign has struck a chord deep in my heart. I will be picking up a dual-core CPU for this sole reason alone. A core needs a mate, yeah?
 
mikelz85 said:
Also on my rant list is the "discover the power of TURBOCACHE" ad that nvidia has.
http://images10.newegg.com/UploadFilesForNewegg/promo/Nvidia/turbocache/NV_TC_119x119_banner.gif
They forget to mention that the product being advertised is a 6200, but wait there's more! Little did you know that turbocache is marketing slang, meaning: "really fast for shared system memory". The turbocache version only comes with 16mb on card (the rest is system memory, up to 128mb), and is clocked 150-200mhz slower on the memory (must be the 16mb) than its not tc brother, which sports a price tag of a whopping $12 more on agp, and $20 on pci-e, not to mention the other 112 megs of ram. It's like stealing 112mb of ram from you, and then advertising it (with ram money of course) as a feature.
Click to expand...
Turbo Cache cards come in 3 memory sizes/bus widths: 16MB/32-bit, 32MB/64-bit and 64MB/64-bit. The memory speeds vary between 500MHz and 700MHz, depending on the model and manufacturer (newegg lists one 16MB model @ 350MHz memory... it really is 350MHz DDR = 700MHz effective speed).

Not everyone needs something faster. The 6200TC is a low power, low budget card. I benchmarked a 64MB/500MHz 64-bit memory model in the nvidia forum if you care to look it up. Performance is actually pretty good for the minimal features in the NV44 core.

BTW, "* supporting 128MB" doesn't mean the video card always takes the maximum amount of memory. In fact, the card typically only takes a fraction of that maximum memory since most 3D apps/games don't need more than 32-64MB. 2D Windows and video playback doesn't seem to use any extra system memory. The 2 exceptions that use much more than 32MB-64MB were Doom 3 and HL2, but neither play that great above 800x600 resolution.
 
The banner (advertising) did just what it was supposed to do. It got your attention and you did not forget what it said. They get an A+ for marketing.
 
Actually, I'd argue that the people who need dual core likely don't know what it is. Dual core is going to be great for office workers and whatnot, because it makes multitasking much smoother. Their computer won't get real slow when running the virus scanner, etc. For home users, dual core means they can rip CDs in iTunes without their computer slowing down. So lots of people do need dual core who likely don't know what a core is.
 
The typical consumer always equates quality to # and $$$. If it costs more it must be better, if the numbers are bigger it must be better. Another problem with the average consumer is they can only +/*/. They don't understand about diminishing returns well; dual cores does not mean double power.

So honestly...Intel has done a kick butt job with that banner. People will see it, fall for it, and be happy thinking they have a "dual core" system. Guess what....AMD would have done the same thing if their marketing people were on their game. There is so much potential with the X nomenclature they are using to totally have fun with the market.

-tReP
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top