the 4 digit conundrum

[Lemon[H]ead]

Ever since the days of the Voodoo3 I have wondered why graphics card manufacturers used 4 digits to describe their cards.

Voodoo3 2000,3000,3500
Voodoo5 4500,5000,5500
Geforce4 4200,4400,4600 (4800 = 4400 with AGP 8x)
Radeon 7000, 7500, 8500, 9000, 9500, 9600, 9700.
3d labs Wildcat 7110 and 7120

any reason behind this? i suggest ATi can get a lead on nVidia by using FIVE digit codes! Think of the awesome powaaaaaa!

[RedFury]

Probably carried over from the automotive market in the sense of measuring motors by CC's ( cubic centimeters )

1600 cc's sounds better than 97.5 Cu. In.

Do those numbers mean anything like that, though, Red?

It ain't a bandwidth thing, is it?

Or is a pixel number or something?

Cheers
Mick

[cyphen]

personally, i think it was all a marketing thing revolving around the year 2000. Marketers were just drooling over the "2000" ad campaign! It sounds so futuristic, and was ingrained as the future to all who grew up in the 20th century.

after jumping from 3 to 2000, they couldn't very well go back to 4. and 2001 would seem like the piddliest upgrade from 2000. If you bought a Voodoo 2000, and then a year and a half later, they came out with the Voodoo 2001, wouldn't your immediate impression be that they added about 1k of ram, and repackaged it? But if they call it the 3000, then wow! It must be a major upgrade!

[ShawnD1]

Actually no I wouldn't think that. By now I'm smart enough to know that it's probably just a scam and that I would have to come here or Tom's Hardware to see how valid it is. A lot of people got really pissed off when they found out the old GeForce MX cards were no better than the old TNT cards

[cyphen]

I'm simply talking about psychology. And alot of advertising is based on it. It's built around perception. 2000 has a futuristic connotation. 2001 as compared to 2000 seems a very small increment. 3000 is much more than 2000. simple subliminal correlations that drive marketing. And the core of marketing isn't to fool the smart shopper, but to put forth the best persona possible for a product. Why do you think sexual imagery is so prevalent in advertising? Does it say anything about the product? No, but it makes a subliminal correlation between that appealing imagery and the product. And that correlation has a tremendous sales impact. Same with the numbering scheme. Only thing is, those who went the 2000 route had nowhere to go but up (so to speak!)

Well, it's not a bandwidth thing.

I wonder what model Ford would be at if they didn't start giving names?

I liked it when it was GeForce 2 GTS, GTS-V, Pro, Ti, Ultra, Voodoo Banshee, ATI Rage, Rage Pro, Rage Fury Maxx...

Now they're all stupid, and ATI doesn't even number the technology properly! 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200! Yeah, right!

We need code names as market names, like Voodoo Avenger, Voodoo Napalm, Voodoo Mojo, Matrox Twister, Matrox Condor.

Even ATI and nVidia's code names have gottem boring - RV100, RV200, RV250, NV10, NV11, NV15, etc...

Back to the original question, why four numbers? Because 5 is too many to say easily and Matrox and SiS use three numbers.

But anyway, when the Evil Kyro comes back (yeah, right) we'll all be able to buy an evil card that's not a commando...