|Rants||By Shamus||Sep 3, 2008||74 comments|
The dire fate I predicted here is coming to pass:
It’s a new graphics card from NVIDIA. Let’s see:
- It takes up the space of 2 internal expansion slots. So, you’ll need to use up a PCIe slot, and one beside it.
- It’s numbered all crazy. There’s little new technology or functionality. It’s actually an 8800 series chipset with some different tweaks to the production and clocking, but they renumbered it as 9800.
- It’s designed to be used in conjunction with additional cards, so you could put two of these things together. (Assuming you have room for a couple of these space heaters in your computer case.)
I can’t wait until game developers have to list this stuff on the side of the box. We already have stuff like this:
Video Card - Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550).
But now they’ll have to tell you what chipset, how much memory, what shader model, and how many cards you need. Maybe you’ll need two 9800’s, but certain versions of the 9900 can do it alone, if you have it configured right and you have enough memory. You’ll need a degree in engineering just to understand if your computer can run the game or not.
Sigh. All this so we can play another five-hour tech demo about space marines that runs like a dead sloth.
We’re standing in front of the burning house labeled “PC Gaming”. Hardware manufacturers are holding a can of gas, and game developers are holding a lighter, and each is pointing at the other and crying about how it’s all his fault.
Wasn’t this supposed to be about having fun?