IDF 07 SF: Skulltrail - High-End Has New Meaning

[Rob Williams]

Intel believes high-end gamers will be in a state of euphoria once their Skulltrail platform hits the market later this year. How does dual Quad-Cores, SLI 8800 Ultra's and 4GB+ of RAM sound?

You can read the article here and discuss it here.

 

[MakubeX]

How does dual Quad-Cores, SLI 8800 Ultra's and 4GB+ of RAM sound?

Expensive...

 

[Merlin]

Well, lets see now......
I could refinance the house, get a divorce and get rid of the dog and I might have enough, unless I win the lottery

Merlin

 

[Greg King]

This isn't going to be a platform that sells well and Intel knows this. It will however, be THE definition of ultra high performance.

 

[NicePants42]

This isn't going to be a platform that sells well and Intel knows this. It will however, be THE definition of ultra high performance.

See, I'm actually not so sure about this. I actually think it'll be the definition of an idiotic purchase, at least at this point in time.

Intel believes high-end gamers will be in a state of euphoria...

I don't care how many cores you jam into your system - once the two 8800s (or whatever) are the bottleneck, you're throwing your money away. Is Crysis octal-threaded? Put an E6850 into that setup and the gaming benchmarks probably won't change to any sort of appreciable degree, much less $2,000 worth.

In principle yes, a setup like this is like a freaking super-computer, and I'm sure it'd make a great workstation for a business (if the price ever drops), but how many computer enthusiasts (or 'high end gamers') spend their entire day rendering video?

Lately, everything is Ultra-this, Extreme-that and Fatal1ty XXX Edition. 'High-end gamers will be in a state of euphoria' is synonymous with 'Stupid people will overpay for tech that there is no use for yet'.

 

[Greg King]

See, I'm actually not so sure about this. I actually think it'll be the definition of an idiotic purchase, at least at this point in time.

The same argument can be made for a Ferrari or a piece of jewelry.

It's all about priorities to be honest. Intel doesn't care either about people complaining about the price because they know damn well that it's not a system for everyone. From what we have seen this week, there are stellar performance gains to be had from upcoming CPUs running the entire pricing spectrum.

 

[NicePants42]

The same argument can be made for a Ferrari or a piece of jewelry.

Absolutely, but a Ferrari or a piece of jewelry doesn't depreciate as fast as motherboards and CPUs.

From what we have seen this week, there are stellar performance gains to be had from upcoming CPUs running the entire pricing spectrum.

That's great news for everyone! Uh, except AMD.

 

[Greg King]

Absolutely, but a Ferrari or a piece of jewelry doesn't depreciate as fast as motherboards and CPUs.

So your saying that you would buy a Ferrari simply because it holds it's value well?

 

[NicePants42]

So your saying that you would buy a Ferrari simply because it holds it's value well?

If I had $500K to spend on either a Ferrari or the best performing, best looking, best everything PC in the world, I would definitely take the Ferrari.

 

[Rob Williams]

If I had $500K to spend on either a Ferrari or the best performing, best looking, best everything PC in the world, I would definitely take the Ferrari.

Who said the best PC in the world would cost $500,000?

 

[NicePants42]

Hey, the Ferrari was DarkSynergy's idea, not mine. I think people understand the gist of what I was saying.

 

[Rob Williams]

Not really. You said you wouldn't purchase a $5,000 PC but would purchase a $500,000 Ferrari. If you have that kind of money, please feel free to pick me up a BMW M3 next time you are out and about.