Larrabee: it's getting hot in here
Reiterating a really important point, Intel's erosion of NVIDIA's bread-and-butter revenue remains fanciful conjecture right now. There is no Larrabee being demo'd right now, performance is, well, completely unknown, and for Intel to get it wholly right first time would be a minor miracle.Still, NVIDIA appears to be taking no chances and is attacking Intel in typically belligerent fashion. The company's diatribe against Intel, on all fronts, has been increasingly scathing of late, prompting Jen-Hsun to brand Larrabee as Laughabee.
NVIDIA points out Intel has little meaningful experience in architecting discrete GPUs - it's a different ballgame. That's certainly true, of course, and we don't expect first-generation Larrabee to steal the performance crown right away.
The green team makes mention that Intel's drivers for the current range of IGPs is, well, dire. They has a point, because Intel still has to deliver DX10 drivers for its X3500 IGP on the G35 chipset, something that's been promised for a long time. Indeed, after speaking to Intel representatives it seems we're unlikely to see DX10 drivers before the launch of the 4-series chipsets in summer '08.
NVIDIA's PR machine isn't just limiting its volley to Intel's IGPs, however. In a carefully-orchestrated exercise that's designed to appeal to enthusiasts, the 'Optimized PC' campaign sees NVIDIA educate users on how to build a balanced PC. Funnily enough, the 'advice' centres around purchasing a potent graphics sub-system at the direct expense of a slower CPU. Who, after all, really needs a faster (quad-core) processor in today's world, seems be the message.
There are a couple of obvious problems with this approach, we feel. Firstly, what exactly is an Optimized PC? How should I apportion my budget? No clear guidelines are set. Secondly, the rubbishing of high-end CPUs as practically meaningless investments has a counterpoint. What if you want to edit and/or convert high-definition video or audio? What about those folk who really do multi-task?
We understand where NVIDIA's coming from with this campaign, but it needs to be better thought-out and executed if it's to gain public traction.
In essence, it's a CPU vs. GPU debate, and whilst the multi-purpose GPU is becoming far more versatile and powerful with every iteration, the much-attacked CPU, whilst bloody, will remain unbowed.
How will it play out, then?
NVIDIA's seems to be upset that a bigger, richer bully has decided to make the green playground home. Perhaps now it knows what it feels like to be squeezed, just like it has allegedly squeezed so many others in the past.
That pent-up anger has boiled over into public fulminations that arise from the fear that's striking at the very heart of the company's core (pun intended).
Make absolutely no mistake about it, there's a war going on right now between Intel and NVIDIA. Intel has quietly moved its financially-heavy guns and aligned them not at AMD but at NVIDIA; the crosshairs trained on Jen-Hsun's baby. NVIDIA's fighting back the only way it knows how, by engineering and vitriolically disseminating a campaign of carefully-worded propaganda - or is too inaccurate a word for it, we wonder?
NVIDIA's attack on the relevance of CPUs cleverly hides its own ambitions into designing, or, indeed, buying-in IP, for an x86 core to rival Intel and AMD's. We've seen NVIDIA court VIA in recent weeks, and the search for that ever-so-elusive x86 license continues at speed.
Jen-Hsun is a hugely ambitious, intelligent man who won't go down without one helluva fight. That fight appears to be against Intel. Mark our words, it'll be bloody and protracted. It'll end with either NVIDIA's acknowledgement that Intel's become a major player in the discrete GPU market, or with the chip giant running away, tail between the legs, never to darken the discrete GPU kingdom again. Who is your money on?
The ante has been raised considerably in Q1 2008; expect to see it increased further still. The war is on. Just as well that AMD can grab a ringside seat and watch what ensues. Trouble is, at this rate, it won't have any executives to fill those seats.
