Most Disappointing Hardware Release (2008)

[Xello]

790i Ultra SLI.

[Etihtsarom]

Most Disappointing Hardware Release (2008) :::: THE NVIDIA "CAN OF WHOOP ASS"... Can be yours for five easy payments of $2999, plus if you upgrade within the next minute, we'll give you a free, yeah , that's right, a free...badge....but that's not all, after rebadging your card, we'll shrink it down to 55nm and slap a new name on it, call it a new card, and take more of your money to the bank. But wait a minute, that's not all...

[Budwise]

DDR3 would be a contender. In general its overpriced and under-performs but I think Nvidia wins for the absolute worst. AMD's CPU's take a close 3rd.

[jaredpace]

4800's were a great card, but the fan control in drivers was a failure 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, and 8.9. duh?

gt200 = big flop, unless gotten for ~$200. $650? My favorite all-around forum quote is, "FASTEST SINGLE GPU GOD DAMNIT!!!!!"

e8400 for best hardware

prices on rv770 & wolfdale are excellent for their value & potential.

[B.E.E.F.]

4800's were a great card, but the fan control in drivers was a failure 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, and 8.9. duh?

Minor software tweak to fix that.

[ownage]

DDR3 would be a contender. In general its overpriced and under-performs but I think Nvidia wins for the absolute worst. AMD's CPU's take a close 3rd.

It's normal for a new memory type to be more expensive then the older one. Logical and normal. So in my book DDR3 doesn't qualify as disappointing hardware.

I don't think GT200 is that bad. OK, I would never buy one but performance is good. The price sucks compared to HD48xx.

I think the 9800GayTX was a huge disappointment. After the 8800GTX had ruled for centuries I expected nVidia's next flagship would be a great improvement over the 8800GTX.

[chunkylover77]

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa...r_hr03gtx.html

ThermalRight HR-03 GTX edition.

Its not out yet.

[Mungri]

Yep, worst hardware is Phenom, not the Geforce Cards. Nvidia are just expensive, but their cards still perform well. Phenom doesnt perform well at all.

Maybe this Zerotherm cooler would be good enough for the GTX 280:

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/pro...lers/zt-hc92cu

It is rated for up to Geforce 8800, as long as the pin sockets are the same on the GTX 280, it should be compatible.

This Scythe Mushashi is also GTX 280 / 4870 compatible:

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/pro...oolers/musashi

It looks good, but its an Aluminium cooler (booo!).

[mep916]

Maybe this Zerotherm cooler would be good enough for the GTX 280:

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/pro...lers/zt-hc92cu

Is it compatible? AFAIK, this is the only passive cooler compatible w/ the 280...

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa...r_hr03gtx.html

EDIT: Okay I read your edit, nvm.

[Mungri]

The Zerotherms are only listed up to 8800 compatible, like I said, you would have to find out if the pin locations are the same on the GTX 280, but they have a lot of pin connectors on them and are very well designed for both ATI and Nvidia compatiblity. Maybe contact Zerotherm support if you are interested in the coolers. But they are also only listed as being up to ATI 3870 compatible, and work fine on the 4800's because the cards are pretty much identical in layout.

The Scythe Mushashi is already listed as GTX 280 compatible, so the best bet would be to buy one of them and save some hasstle.

[chunkylover77]

I'll keep an eye open for the Musashi.

[PhxProvost]

personally the only real disappointment i had this year was the Lian-Li pc-xb01. i know its kind of off topic but not by much....its made by lian but really i had so many ideas for the tiny little case until they unveiled the price...180$ us + for a metal box roughly the size of a toaster...no thanks

[xMrBunglex]

the GeForce 9800 GTX was the biggest disappointment of the year. it was a new flagship that wasn't any faster than the previous flagship - sometimes it was even slower. everyone thought the 9800 was going to set the world on fire, but it obviously just fizzled.

iirc, the Phenom and DDR3 were both released last year. that shouldn't make them eligible for this list. and DDR3 was released early so prices would be lower by the time Nehalem came out. Nahalem will probably be able to make use of all that bandwidth - unlike current processors.

[stangracin2]

the GeForce 9800 GTX was the biggest disappointment of the year. it was a new flagship that wasn't any faster than the previous flagship - sometimes it was even slower. everyone thought the 9800 was going to set the world on fire, but it obviously just fizzled.

we also thought there was a chance that nvidia would kill off the 9 series

[Klarko]

Hardware release: Phenom, hope deneb is wayyy better

Pricing release: GTX280/260, what a joke they where

[Omastar]

Yep, worst hardware is Phenom, not the Geforce Cards. Nvidia are just expensive, but their cards still perform well. Phenom doesnt perform well at all.

So merely by virtue of its inability to trounce Intel by 40% in every benchmark means it doesn't perform well *at all*? Are you wearing all blue right now? Because that's the impression I'm getting.

And I'll hop on this nVidia dog pile. GTX280 rolled out at like $600 and didn't compete with the HD4870 at ALL in terms of design efficiency or memory bandwidth efficiency. nVidia already had the market by its juevos and decided to milk some more by just brute forcing more power into G80 and making a big, hot, low-yield die. I guess AMD really is the 'smarter choice' in the most literal meaning.

[cloned]

nVidia by a longshot.

[jcool]

Failures of this year? Omg that is a lot... lets see:

- Nvidia's whole 9 series of cards, because they are simply rebadged, cheap ass copies of a more than 2 year old card design
- Nvidia's crappy chipsets might have improved, but the 790i still can't compete with Intel when it comes to reliability. Corruption issues, bad raid drivers and a whole lot more, no thank you
- Nvidia STILL not being able to manufacture GTX 280 cards that don't overheat. From the dozen GTX 280 I have used for customer builds so far, around 40% of them were crashing at >110C core after 2 minutes of Furmark. WATERCOOLED cards, no less. Had some fun RMAing 3000$ worth of GFX cards
- Intels 45nm Quadcore lineup. C0 CPUs mostly had crap FSB capabilities, and no usable mult to speak of until recently.
- Phenom still blows of course, which is sad
- Samsung ing F1 drives. Almost every 1TB drive I got died, some of the 640's too. WD FTW!

I bet I forgot loads, so much crap was released this year, it's hard to keep track.

[Mungri]

So merely by virtue of its inability to trounce Intel by 40% in every benchmark means it doesn't perform well *at all*? Are you wearing all blue right now? Because that's the impression I'm getting.

And I'll hop on this nVidia dog pile. GTX280 rolled out at like $600 and didn't compete with the HD4870 at ALL in terms of design efficiency or memory bandwidth efficiency.

Hypocrite?

There is a far smaller gap in performance between a GTX280 and 4870 then there is between a Phenom and a Core 2.

The GTX280 consumes the same amount of power as an 8800 GTX does, and at least performs a lot better. It is actually faster then the 4870.

I dont understand how someone can believe the GTX 280 to be a 'dog pile', while defending the Phenom which a true pile of garbage. But if the Phenom was released last year as pointed out, then it doesnt count.

The GTX 280 is by far a lot less of a dissapointment then the Phenom was. The GTX 280 is ahead of the 4870 in single card performance. The Phenom just totally blows at just about everything and cant even compete with Intel's dual cores.

The GTX 280 still isnt as big a dissapointment as the Geforce 5 was. They are still capable cards and perform great in the latest games, unlike the Phenom.

Nvidia's motherboards are a bigger dissapointment then their graphics cards too.

[Caparroz]

(...)The GTX 280 is ahead of the 4870 in single card performance.(...)

Yes, but there's a single card called 4870X2 and it's much faster than a gtx280.

And gt200 is not bad per se but compared to rv770 it kinda of is. They're not bad cards but they're really bad products. And why people keep saying Phenon? It was released in 2007!

[zanzabar]

no1 said creative fatality pro, thats a huge let down

[Omastar]

Hypocrite?

There is a far smaller gap in performance between a GTX280 and 4870 then there is between a Phenom and a Core 2.

The GTX280 consumes the same amount of power as an 8800 GTX does, and at least performs a lot better. It is actually faster then the 4870.

I dont understand how someone can believe the GTX 280 to be a 'dog pile', while defending the Phenom which a true pile of garbage. But if the Phenom was released last year as pointed out, then it doesnt count.

The GTX 280 is by far a lot less of a dissapointment then the Phenom was. The GTX 280 is ahead of the 4870 in single card performance. The Phenom just totally blows at just about everything and cant even compete with Intel's dual cores.

The GTX 280 still isnt as big a dissapointment as the Geforce 5 was. They are still capable cards and perform great in the latest games, unlike the Phenom.

Nvidia's motherboards are a bigger dissapointment then their graphics cards too.

Stop grasping at straws. I never implied the 4870 was NOT faster than the GTX280. Phenom was a disappointment, sure, but that's 2007 tech, NOT 2008. Which reminds me: why are people still trashing Phenom? The thread is titled "Most Disappointing Hardware Release [OF TWO THOUSAND FRIGGIN' EIGHT]". I embellished there for effect. So stop trashing Phenom and find something new to rag on, at least in the context of this thread. Or, is reading for comprehension not anyone's thing here?

[xMrBunglex]

no1 said creative fatality pro, thats a huge let down

i've never had high hopes for any Creative product, so they can't really disappoint me SoundBlasters suck.

[Mungri]

I am sure the Phenom 9950 and 9350e were released in 2008.

The latter was definitaly not good at all, the first was only able to perform as well as a Q6600 at stock frequency.

Far from being an Nvidia fan, I still dont consider the GTX 200's to be a let down. ATI maybe the better buy right now, but that doesnt make the Nvidia cards bad.

As I was an AMD fan for years, I am still disappointed by their CPUs.

[Kondik]

I'm happy with nVidia GTX 200 series althrough the price at the beggining was somehow .... WRONG. The biggest letdown ?
DDR3 because of the limited 775 / AM2+ arch. With Nehalem the DDR3 will be usefull but now nyeh.
Then AMD CPU's .. the only good thing at them is the low price and the color of the box, I like green.