NVIDIA Analyst Day: Jen-sun Goes to the Mat With Intel

New Spin on Computer Marketing

Beyond all the FUD fighting, NVIDIA talked about a new push toward marketing computers not in terms of CPU speed or GPU model number or whatever the spec of the week may be, but in terms of what the computer is designed to do. NVIDIA, OEMs, and retailers have all gotten behind the idea that it would be a good practice to start building and marketing their systems not as low-end, midrange, or high-end, but as gaming computers, multimedia computers, workstations, or business application computers.

If system builders choose to balance CPU and GPU power to favor specific applications rather than just throwing all low-end components, all midrange components, or all high-end components at a system, they can deliver much better bang for the buck to people looking to use their PC for a specific purpose. NVIDIA refers to this idea as the Optimized PC Initiative. It's kind of a side note and not an NVIDIA centric line of thought, but it is an idea that could really help the uninitiated understand what they are getting when they purchase a system. In fact, this is one of the areas that really impressed us with the Gateway P-6831 FX notebook: that it is balanced for great midrange gaming performance.

Final Words

No one can deny Jen-sun's love for his company and his hardware, but while his presentation was impressive and impassioned, we must not discount Intel's ability to compete. They are impressive in capability (they've got a lot of brilliant engineers over there) and size (they've also got a lot of money). We also can't forget that Intel is a silicon company. They've got absolutely huge resources to dedicate to producing the most bleeding edge silicon base to house their ICs. With the sheer size and power requirements of today's GPUs, every little bit helps. The combination of Intel engineers building a massively parallel floating point engine to match the power of the GPU, and then fabbed on Intel silicon could be a huge coup if they are only willing to really commit to the task and put their money (and their minds) where it matters most.

Now that both Intel and NVIDIA have hit the mat and acknowledged each other as true competitors, we hope to see some huge things happen in terms of computer graphics and massively parallel floating point computing in general. Today marks the beginning of a new era in the desktop PC world: the beginning a battle between the world's greatest silicon company and the world's greatest dedicated IC design house.