not really offtopic but re: AMD/ATI...

[atomic tofu]

in light of their troubles, $2bil in debt...are there people here, that would buy their cpus/gpus knowing that this company might go under? Or because of such issues, their tech support (namely gpu drivers) would suck...still buy them?

just wondering

on this same thing...are people buying ATI gpus and mixing with Intel chips? Logic would suggest that ATI gpus work best with AMD...if they so design these things...I wouldn't really know.

bought my e6600 and ATI 1800 before that merger crap and AMD/ATI trouble began...I would have gone with Nvidia had I known this

 

[Trotter]

are there people here, that would buy their cpus/gpus knowing that this company might go under?

I'm almost always for the underdog.

Or because of such issues, their tech support (namely gpu drivers) would suck...still buy them?

Third party drivers FTW!

are people buying ATI gpus and mixing with Intel chips?

Yes, because it doesn't matter. You can run ATI GPU's with NVIDIA chipsets, and vice-versa, with no problems.

I would have gone with Nvidia had I known this

Rumor has it Intel may be bringing out its own line of graphics cards. What will you do then?

 

[atomic tofu]

I don't know...current intel onboard gpus I think have always been mediocre at best because they did not want to but any dampers on ati/nvidia...

Who knows...another party may rise up to give intel some add on gpu goodness...much like realtek does with the on board audio. Of course, then I'd be one of those few that loves onboard video...as I do onboard audio

Has to be minimally as good of course. I think Nvidia is looking to do cpus aren't they? Gpus, mobo chipset...not much of a leap to cpus I guess.

hmmm

 

[Nitestick]

on this same thing...are people buying ATI gpus and mixing with Intel chips? Logic would suggest that ATI gpus work best with AMD...if they so design these things...I wouldn't really know.

this one has been completely debunked with comparisons of an x1950xtx and 8800GTX across a 965p, 680i and ATI CFX3200 chipsets. neither vendor matched pairs performed better. in fact the 965p generally beat them both.

Does Chipset-to-GPU Matching Matter? | Tom's Hardware

 

[bleeckkk]

Call me a fanboy I dunno but I've always been partial to AMD and ATI and my computing experiences have been nothing short of terrific, k6 on up.

EDIT: Oh and yeah third party drivers rule, allowed me to turn my 9500 into a 9500 pro with one card. I think it was saphire, silly people went and just made 9500 pro's but then cut off the pipelines and whatnot for the non pro version via software, then later via hardware I think but they used the same board so you could mod it... I loved that era.

 

[Apokalipse]

AMD isn't going under. They've still got R600 and K10 to get out.

 

[Trotter]

I'm looking forward to finding out more about Fusion and socketed co-processors from AMD, as well as GPU as physics processor.

 

[Harper]

Imagine what Fusion could mean for Portables and Game Consoles that don't get upgraded that much.

 

[KBlair]

If AMD does go under, we're basically all going to be screwed over by Intel.

 

[Trotter]

I don't see AMD going under... they would sell ATI first. Besides, the US Federal Government would step in to prevent a monopoly.