DVCS (was Re: Moving to D)

[retard]

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:22:28 -0800, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

> On Wednesday 12 January 2011 13:11:13 retard wrote:
>> Same thing, can't imagine how a video card could break. The old ones
>> didn't even have massive cooling solutions, the chips didn't even need
>> a heatsink. The only problem is driver support, but on Linux it mainly
>> gets better over the years.
> 
> It depends on a number of factors, including the quality of the card and
> the conditions that it's being used in.

Of course.

> I've had video cards die before.
> I _think_ that it was due to overheating, but I really don't know. It
> doesn't really matter.

Modern GPU and CPU parts are of course getting hotter and hotter. They're 
getting so hot it's a miracle the components such as capacitors nearby 
the cores can handle it. You need better cooling which means even more 
breaking parts.

> The older the part, the more likely it is to break.

Not true. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

> The cheaper the part, the more likely it is to break.

That might be true if the part is a power supply or a monitor. However, 
the latest and greatest video cards and CPUs are sold at an extremely 
high price mainly for hardcore gamers (and 3d modelers -- quadro & 
firegl). This is sometimes purely an intellectual property issue, nothing 
to do with physical parts.

For example I've earned several hundred euros by installing soft-mods, 
that is upgraded firmware / drivers. Ever heard of Radeon 9500 -> 9700, 
9800SE -> 9800, and lately 6950 -> 6970 mods? I've also modded one PC 
NVIDIA card to work on Macs (sold at a higher price) and done one Geforce 
-> Quadro mod. You don't touch the parts at all, just flash the ROM. It 
would be a miracle if that improved the physical quality of the parts. It 
does raise the price, though.

Another observation: the target audience of the low end NVIDIA cards are 
usually HTPC and office users. These computers have small cases and 
require low profile cards. The cards have actually *better* multimedia 
features (purevideo) than the high end cards for gamers. These cards are 
built by the same companies as the larger versions (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, 
and so on). Could it just be that by giving the buyer less physical parts 
and less intellectual property in the form of GPU firmware, they can sell 
at a lower price. 

There are also these cards with the letters "OC" in their name. The 
manufacturer has deliberately overclocked the cards beyond their specs. 
That's actually hurting the reliability but the price is even bigger.