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273
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Hardware / Graphics Cards / NVIDIA in trouble
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on: February 11, 2009, 06:51:49 PM
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Nvidia in trouble: 60% lower revenue, will reduce chip starts
ultra relliable source: 11feb09
"In one of the most dramatic representations yet of the downturn in the global economy, GPU maker Nvidia's entire fiscal 2009 dove deep into the red ink, turning a banner year into a red flag in just one quarter.
If it hadn't have been for the economy, Nvidia's year would actually have turned out okay. But a $147.6 million loss for just the quarter ending last January -- its fiscal Q4 2009 -- dipped the entire year into the red to the tune of $30.
"Our sell-in was less than the channels sell-out," reported Nvidia CFO Marvin Burkett yesterday (our thanks to Seeking Alpha for the transcript). "We believe current channel inventory is only slightly more than one month, down from almost three months last quarter. ASPs [average selling prices] across the board were relatively unchanged from the prior quarter, so the decline in revenue was primarily a reflection of the decline in unit volume."
In other words, builders aren't buying, in a very big way, and it's builders who constitute the bulk of Nvidia's customers. As a result, fiscal 2009's total year profit is down 37% over fiscal 2008, due in major part to the last quarter reaping 60% less revenue over the previous year's Q4, and gross profit (before expenses) that's down annually almost three-fourths.
The cause: Somehow, you knew Nvidia would find a way to blame Intel. This time, it's the rise of the netbook -- a PC form factor that doesn't need, or have room for, discrete graphics chips.
"All of a sudden the Atom processor has driven a dramatic surge of netbook PCs," stated Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang yesterday. Echoing language from Microsoft last week, Huang went on, "Some people call it a netbook PC but the fact of the matter is they're inexpensive PCs. And during difficult times many people who still need to have a PC or would like to have a PC now has a very inexpensive version to buy. And so the demand for Atom PCs and these net books if you will has really, really surged.
"I think what's going to happen is that the low end part of the marketplace is going to cannibalize the mid-range part of the market," Huang continued. "And people who want performance still will go for performance. The netbook will hardly serve their needs. But for a lot of people in the mid-range part of the marketplace the net book is clearly, clearly going to disrupt that."
Huang's solution to the problem involves two phases, one of which employs an if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them approach. Nvidia will be putting more emphasis on its Ion graphics chipset introduced in December, in an effort to leverage the success of Atom to create a platform that rests on Atom.
The second involves further investment of resources in departments other than conventional discrete GPU cards, with one of them being its own Tesla "desktop supercomputer." It was launched in June 2007, but Nvidia executives reported yesterday that the system "continues to ramp," without providing much further detail.
Huang also reported "some progress" with Tegra, the company's planned low-power processor for mobile computing devices (we don't want to call them "netbooks" just yet). It's still planned for shipment in the second half of the calendar year, though analysts appeared skeptical yesterday that such devices would have a significant impact on margins -- a number which, for now, is negative.
While Nvidia touted its innovative new designs, customers shouldn't expect to see very many instantiations of them in the coming quarter. As CFO Burkett found himself admitting yesterday, "We have significantly cut back our [wafer] starts. I don't think that's a surprise to anyone. When you have this inventory level we don't need a lot more wafers."
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276
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Hardware / Processors - CPU / i7 950 and 975 to replace 940 and 965 in second quarter 09
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on: February 09, 2009, 04:53:08 AM
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No Source rumor: http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=390120"According to sources in the Taiwan motherboard industry, Intel plans to update its Core i7 processor lineup next quarter with two new models, the Core i7 950 and Core i7 Extreme 975. These models will essentially replace the Core i7 940 and Core i7 Extreme 965 at higher clock speeds, a new stepping revision, and the same respective price points. The recently announced Core i7 950 will run at 3.06GHz, roughly 130MHz faster than its 940 predecessor, and will be priced again at $562 in quantities of 1000. Likewise, the Core i7 Exteme 975 will run at 3.33GHz, roughly 133MHz faster than its 965 Extreme predecessor, and will be priced again at $999 in quantities of 1000. As usual with Intel's Extreme Edition processors, it will have an unlocked multiplier to "justify" the price premium. Additionally, both CPUs will carry Intels new D0 stepping, which promises better overclocking potential as shown by Fugger and Mikeguava from XtremeSystems in their 3DMark 05 world record set on the 975 Extreme. Additionally, some internal testing has been done by motherboard manufacturers in Taiwan who have reported significant overclocking potential over the C0 stepping launched back in November. A few days ago, Intel also revealed that it will launch its Core i7 920 D0 revision on March 2nd. We can expect higher overclocking potential from this chip as well, although no specific performance increases are known as of yet. This chip will be priced again at $284 in quantities of 1000. On a final note, both C0 and D0 stepping processors will be out on the market at the same time, so it is solely the consumer's responsibility to be careful when choosing this time around. (up on Fudzilla soon) " |
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278
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Hardware / Motherboard / Re: evga GTX 295 benching at the D :
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on: January 16, 2009, 08:46:32 PM
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and I thought I was slow  classified/reference board... it's a stillborn cow, no lucid and outrageously priced how much did you pay for your press kit? did it contain the proprietary powersupply from evga?  |
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280
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Hardware / Graphics Cards / Re: [HardOCP]: NF200 3-way SLI Results
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on: January 13, 2009, 01:53:54 AM
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lol
really...
No quad SLI... TRI SLI + PhysX
@ what cost?
You should be adding a seperate 30 amp breaker at the power source
and $50.00 transient voltage surge protector for the wall outlet... get
a watt meter while you are at it. Your power bill is going to go through
the roof.
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