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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxOCTOBER 2006 MAXIMUMPC 5
Tech TragediesTech Tragedies
t Maximum PC we aim to cover only
the best technology available, but
that doesn’t mean we don’t run into
the occasional “steamer.” You know,
the kind of product that lands a company
in court, puts it out of business, destroys
its market share, or all of the above.
We’re talking about the true tech trag-
edies —the Hindenburgs and Titanics of the
Information Age.
How do such terrible products make it
to market? Sometimes a technology isn’t
fully cooked when it ships, and bugs are
discovered after it’s already in consum-
ers’ hands. Because recalls are expensive,
companies try patches, bug fi xes, and othernonsense that doesn’t always work. Then
there’s good old corporate hubris, fear,
paranoia, and greed. Sometimes corners
are cut to save a buck or two, or a little last-
minute “tweaking” goes too far. Sometimes
people just make bad decisions. And then
there’s the stuff that was just plain stupid to
begin with—we see a lot of that.
So let’s reminisce. Join us as we
tour the hall of shame that represents
tens of billions of dollars fl ushed down
the toilet. At the end, we’ll take a closer
look at a tragedy that’s unfolding before
our very eyes. It’s just another reminder
that those who don’t know history are
doomed to repeat it.Behold the “leaf blower.”
A videocard so loud even nVidia mocked it.nVidia NV30
How video nearly killed the video star
Her name was Dawn, and we all loved her
fairy wings and elfi n ears. Unfortunately,
nVidia’s gorgeous fairy-based demo
couldn’t hide the fact that Dawn was
naked beneath her wings and pixie dust:
The GeForce FX 5x00 cards (code-named
NV30), which the impish Dawn represented,
stand as possibly the greatest debacle in
the still-nascent history of videocards.
After months of hype (and years of
dominance), market-leader nVidia launched
the GeForce FX 5800 to compete against
ATI’s Radeon 9700, which had beaten nVid-
ia to market and racked up several favor-
able reviews. Early benchmarks of the 5800
were promising: 3DMark03 scores were
impressive, and nVidia promptly declared
victory over the 9700.
It wasn’t long before the truth was
discovered: nVidia had cooked its drivers
to reduce detail and even prevent parts of
the benchmark from being rendered. nVidia
called the tweaks “optimizations,” but
when they were removed, the 5800’s per-
formance was nowhere near that of ATI’s- Later benchmarks would uphold this
fi nding, and high-end FX cards were sub-
sequently relegated to the budget bin with
ATI’s midrange boards.
To add insult to injury, the card’s high
clock speeds (500MHz for core and clock)
necessitated an enormous heatsink and fan
that took up two slots, versus one for the
ATI 9700. Even worse, the fan made a loud
sucking sound (ironic, we know) while draw-
ing twice as much power. It was quickly
dubbed “the leaf blower,” and nVidia even
released a video mocking the card—the
NV30 was referred to as “the Harley
Davidson of videocards.”
nVidia cleaned up its act with the totally
redesigned GeForce 6 series, but the NV30
fallout took years to recover from. Even
worse, it shattered nVidia’s credibility, leav-
ing lingering doubts in reviewers’ heads
about whether the company would “opti-
mize” its drivers again in the future.Behold the “leaf blower.”