AMD, despite the modest success that they've had with their "True Performance" rating system, is still seeking for a better way to tackle the so-called megahertz myth. The company has joined forces with unnamed industry partners to draft a proposal for the industry due out sometime at the beginning of next year. At the heart of the matter is the fact that internal clockspeeds alone cannot accurately relay performance capabilities in and of themselves.
"Lightbulbs have better information about them at the point of sale than PCs," Moorhead [vice president of consumer advocacy for AMD] said, adding that what's good for customers is good for the business--now in the throes of a major sales slump. "A confused buyer is a buyer who sits on the sidelines. That's not good for the industry," he said.
All of this sounds remarkably similar to the editorial Moorhead published on CNet late in July, wherein Moorhead bemoaned all the techno "gobbledygook" that consumers have to wade through when buying their computers, arguing that the industry needs to put the consumer back in the center of the technology discussion. From early reports, it appears as though AMD is seeking some kind of aggregate rating system, a rating system that would largely be doomed to fail in our opinion. No single benchmark can possibly convey the overall performance capabilities nor value of any given machine, be it Photoshop or UT 2003.
As it stands, however, what defines "high-end" and "top of the line" in PC enthusiast circles is actually only a very specific set of performance indicators that revolve around, truth be told, 3D gaming. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of games played by consumers are not 3D games, it is 3D performance more so than anything else that will make or break not only video card performance ratings but also CPU ratings, motherboard ratings, etc. Perception in the industry is that performance is so "even" or "similar" among other applications that only 3D timedemos and synthetic benchmarks are capable of differentiating the performance capabilities of today's systems. Whether this is true or not, and more importantly whether this should constitute the basis for all judgment, is part of what makes this a sticky matter.
Posted February 1, 2007 @ 12:32 PM, by
Nate Anderson Bryan Lee, one of the key executives overseeing the Zune player, is out as Microsoft gives former Xbox guru J Allard total control of the music player. Full Story
Posted February 1, 2007 @ 12:28 PM, by
Jacqui Cheng Seagate announced its Digital Audio Video Experience (DAVE) this week: a portable hard drive that Seagate hopes will become a mobile content server for use with mobile phones and other devices. Full Story
Posted February 1, 2007 @ 12:06 PM, by
Jon Stokes What do hijabs and unshaven facial hair have to do with Web 2.0? Quite a bit, as Flickr is finding out. Full Story
Posted February 1, 2007 @ 11:40 AM, by
Eric Bangeman Google continues its torrid revenue growth with another big quarter. Are its multitude of partnerships and acquisitions paying off, or is it all about the advertising? Full Story
Posted February 1, 2007 @ 10:21 AM, by
Nate Anderson As the BitTorrent file transfer protocol gains both popularity and legal uses, ISPs are faced with an increasingly difficult decision about whether to throttle it or not. Network neutrality agreements can make this even more complicated. Full Story
Posted February 1, 2007 @ 10:15 AM, by
Eric Bangeman Michael Dell returns to the CEO position at the company he founded in the wake of sliding market share and disappointing earnings. Will his presence in the driver's seat be enough to bring back the good old days? Full Story
Posted January 31, 2007 @ 5:38 PM, by
Jacqui Cheng Recent data from Internet traffic management company Ellacoya says that only five percent of users generate nearly half of all Internet traffic. However, the other 95 percent are what count when deciding what new services to provide. Full Story
