Oddly enough I was talking about the current scene rather than past history, as my jibe against AMD's lack of profits should indicate. If you go back far enough you can find mud to throw at any IHV, but the post is a pun in answer to the pun immediately above my post.
Just for the record and not particularly OT, both IHV's have similar attitudes towards their cards. GTX Titan range might be gaming cards but they are also heavily used in prosumer workloads (
3D rendering for example) - as their prices attest. AMD's nearest analogue is closer to FirePro than Radeon given the relative framebuffers. Both Nvidia and AMD don't allow deviation from reference on those SKUs. The 290/290X and lower (along with previous Radeons) are analogous to Nvidia's numeral based nomenclature - both of which feature non-reference variations.
Even the
GTX 480. Both GPU vendors tend to frown upon deviation from reference for dual-GPU models.
The only real difference in reference/non-reference cooling is that Nvidia has a tendency to allow both non-reference cooling, and non-reference clocks on launch day (thus ensuring multiple graphics reviews per site at launch), while AMD keep PC Partner happy by withholding vendor cooling/clocks for weeks/months - ensuring a single review per site- unless the site is blessed with enough hardware for a CrossfireX review also.
Anyhow, since the subject seems to have morphed from humour to a sales pitch for PC Partner's commercial brand rather than OEM business I have edited my original post.
I see. I'm sorry if I came off as a bit aggressive, that was not my intention. I certainly didn't want you to edit any post on my account. I just saw this as an opportunity to have an interesting debate.
That being said, I'm pretty sure we see the same things, just from different viewing angles.
nVidia's pitch with the GTX Titans is an interesting one: they're trying to find a way to get people to spend more on their high-end stuff, at least for a while (until they consider it's time to roll out the GTX vanilla "equivalent"). It's a widely known fact that the high-end stuff rakes in less cash than the mainstream parts (they may get more per card sold, but they sell a lot less in the grand scheme of things). Things are quite different when it comes to professional-class cards, like the Quadros or Teslas, where they make a healthy (to say the least) profit and sell in large(r) numbers. AMD, on the other hand, stuck with the old way of doing things, including (for the most part, at least) pricing. Now, to the best of my knowledge, Radeon cards, especially the high-end stuff, have just about always been able to do the DPFP part quite well (I'd say just as well as their FirePro siblings), the difference was mainly related to software. nVidia's approach was different, they crippled the cards' DPFP crunching power to some extent, mainly via firmware, so their pro stuff wouldn't be threatened. The GTX Titans are somewhere in between.
As for custom coolers for dual-GPU cards... I'm not really sure what to say. nVidia does indeed frown upon custom stuff for their dual-GPUs, which are sometimes designed to make custom air cooling impossible by any practical means (see: GTX 295). On the other hand, there were SOME custom built models, such as the ASUS very limited editions (the Mars cards). AMD had some ASUS custom-built stuff as well (Ares) and the very brief collaboration with Palit/Gainward that resulted in a custom-built HD 4870X2. It could very well be that both manufacturers (AMD and nVidia) are actively discouraging OEMs from pumping out custom dual-GPUs, or it may be that said OEMs simply consider the investment not worth it for a low-volume (high-margin though it may be) product. Frankly, it could be both.
As for stock cards, frankly, I do tend to favor AMD's reference PCB+VRM design. They're usually top-notch, especially on the high-end (as opposed to nVidia's designs, sadly). Some of the best and most satisfying cards I had were AMD reference. And this is also why I generally look out for reference PCB+VRM when I want to buy a new AMD card, even though I do generally opt for custom coolers nowadays. With nVidia cards, I do tend to look for models with a redesigned PCB and VRM (especially the VRM). Besides, I don't mind waiting a couple of months or even longer, if need be.
So, if you would like to continue this conversation, I suggest we do it over PM. I'm not sure how much people mind all the off-topic here, and I don't want to find out.
Cheers!
