Computex 2004: Graphics Cards Galore
by Derek Wilson on June 5, 2004 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Gigabyte and Sparkle
We were privileged to be able to attend Gigabyte's Nan Ping factory tour while in Taiwan. It's always interesting to see what goes into mass producing motherboards and graphics cards, and some of the gadgets used in the process are very cool. Probably the most interesting thing that we saw was a device that affixed all the components to the motherboard at once by running it over a sea of molten solder. Having spent countless times in labs hand-soldering components on PCBs, we can absolutely say that this is a life-saving invention.
It is also important to have a deep appreciation for the amount of labor that goes into the boards, with many people on an assembly line building up the briskly paced line of boards like an endless lego project for hours a day. Of course, the end results are seen in desktops everywhere.
As for graphics products on the floor, Gigabyte is also one of the houses that produces both NVIDIA and ATI cards.
Their 6800 has a customized-looking 5950 style heatsink with a clear plastic sheild...
...while the X800 XT and 6800 Ultra (not pictured) products looks a little more stock.
We've taken a look at Sparkle's cards, and they will again be bringing us some NVIDIA based goodness.
Hopefully, we'll get our hands on a card to test in the not-too-distant future.
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ZobarStyl - Saturday, June 5, 2004 - link
I'm really looking forward to those LeadTek chips...I've had nothing but good things come out of my card from them. Also, they never use the NV stock cooling so the O/C's are much better as Derek mentioned. Hope the GT's hit soon...SUOrangeman - Saturday, June 5, 2004 - link
Not too many new dual-DVI offers. Sigh.Xentropy - Saturday, June 5, 2004 - link
"Why would they restrict pictures and descriptions from Comutex?"I think you misunderstood the comment. By "can't publish pictures and descriptions of all the countless booths and companies" he meant simply that there is a lack of time and server bandwidth to take, host, and caption thousands of pictures from hundreds of booths, not that they're not ALLOWED to take all the pictures they are able.
notoriousformula - Saturday, June 5, 2004 - link
"Why would they restrict pictures and descriptions from Comutex?"I think he ran outta SC..LOL
jrphoenix - Saturday, June 5, 2004 - link
"channel allocation of the 6800 Ultra parts was somewhere between 50 on the low end to 100 on the high end. Not that such small numbers really need perspective, but when we heard that allocation was low, we expected to hear that it was only a couple thousand."Wow... sounds like the 6800 is turning out to be a paper launch for the forseeable future. Diappointing... Maybe I can wait a bit longer to see the actual retail products with mature drivers going head to head (x800 & 6800)
KillaKilla - Saturday, June 5, 2004 - link
Why would they restrict pictures and descriptions from Comutex?