"I do not think it is likely they will integrate graphics into the chipset."
home1.swipnet.se
A summary of Intel's roadmap (the same info can be found on a variety of other sites, this is just one). Read about Intel's plan for the Whitney chipset for the Celeron - they've been thinking about it for quite some time now.
Intel knows what's up with the low-end market. Maybe they can't make a decent chip to save their life but they can manufacture cheap and have more marketing and distribution channels than any of the other chip- or card-makers. I think anyone who buys a PC in the 500-1000 dollar PC is going to think it's a real steal to get the i740 "for free". Don't fool yourselves - 3Dfx won't get the low low end because simply because they don't make crappy products for cheap. But I don't think they need the part of the market that's -THAT- low. :)
James Boritz:
There is certainly a market for a $300 board that will accelerate a handful of games, but how big is this market? Most corporate PC users run word processors and spreadsheets. They have little need for 3D acceleration.
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Most home users are trying to spend less than $1000 on their PC.
The sub-1000 and sub-500 markets are definitely getting a lot of hype. At first I was going to refute your statement, but I did some reasearch - check out
winmag.com
according to which,
"Now, by some estimates, sub-$1,000 PCs account for 40 percent or more of the PC retail market."
I'm not going to take this as gospel but it's a reasonable ballpark figure. A conservative estimate might be 30%. And you can bet that a decent portion of the systems being bought for over $1,000 are for "professional" use, as you mentioned.
Anyone have any stats on the percentage of total PCs that are used as gaming platforms, size of the gaming market, and how it's changed in recent times?
-G |
