PC
Partners whose business it is to sell graphics cards based on either
NVIDIA or ATI's GPUs often find it hard to differentiate their wares -
one Radeon HD 4870 is much like another, and most prospective buyers
tend to look toward price.
PowerColor has teamed up with a/v firm KONNET, and will be bundling in
FidelityHD HDMI cable with its Radeon HD 4870 X2, and the ExpressHD
standard HDMI cable with the Radeon HD 4850/70 range.
Perhaps I'm just a cynic of these kinds of bundles, but an HDMI cable
is an HDMI cable. Being digital, it either works correctly or it
doesn't, and having 24k gold-plated connectors is more a gimmick than a
useful extra, I reckon.
I've got three HDMI cables going into my TV, from an Xbox 360, Sky HD+,
and Sony Blu-ray player. The cables cost between £3 and
£27. Try as I might, inducing purchase-justification
disorder, I cannot believe I paid £27 for a cable: I see no
difference.
Yes, differentiation of a graphics-card bundle is key, but we just hope
that PowerColor doesn't hike the price up by, say £15 to
compensate.
Looking at current online pricing in the US, PowerColor's Radeon HD
4870 X2 is currently available for
$424.99,
and the HD 4870 1GB for
$234.99,
so there's a decent premium on the former, even taking the $459.99
retail price into account.
HEXUS related reading
HEXUS.net -
press releases ::
POWERCOLOR ANNOUNCES THE GRAPHICS FOR ADVANCED HD ENTERTAINMENT: HD5500 SERIES
HEXUS.net -
news ::
PowerColor fleshes out liquid-cooled Radeon HD 5970
HEXUS.net -
press releases ::
POWERCOLOR ANNOUNCES THE COOLEST GAMING SOLUTION: LCS HD5970
HEXUS.net -
press releases ::
THE LATEST IN DIRECTX® 11 GRAPHICS: THE POWERCOLOR HD5670
HEXUS.net -
press releases ::
POWERCOLOR LAUNCHES THE FASTEST GRAPHICS ON THE PLANET: HD5970
HEXUS.net -
press releases ::
Graphics for Virtually Everything with Club 3D Radeon HD 5570 and Radeon HD 5550
HEXUS.net -
press releases ::
HIS Launch the Ultimate Low Cost HD Graphics Card
HEXUS.net -
press releases ::
VERTEX3D ANNOUNCES THE HD5570 FOR OUTSTAINDING HOME ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE
HEXUS.net -
press releases ::
SAPPHIRE Launches HD 5570
HEXUS.net -
reviews ::
Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 1,024MB graphics card: the jigsaw is now completeAll PowerColor related content on HEXUS 
printer friendly layout 
discuss in the forums 
email to a friend
IE7 Search
Firefox 2 Search
HEXUS.community :: your right2reply
I bought a £400 anti-matter-free HDMI cable and I swear the pixie dust tastes better now.
:lol:
Subtle :P
But that's exactly it isn't it?.. HDMI streams are a digitally encoded signal, it doesn't matter if the HDMI cable cost 50p to make, or £10,000. What you put in is exactly the same thing as you get out of it. But you have cowboys like these trying to make out like their £60-300 HDMI cables will propel you into hyperspace. It should be banned as misleading advertising, because that's exactly what it is.Quote
But that's exactly it isn't it?.. HDMI streams are a digitally encoded signal, it doesn't matter if the HDMI cable cost 50p to make, or £10,000. What you put in is exactly the same thing as you get out of it. But you have cowboys like these trying to make out like their £60-300 HDMI cables will propel you into hyperspace. It should be banned as misleading advertising, because that's exactly what it is.
Well, no. Not quite.
Digital signals do suffer signal loss, the loss correction is just a lot more efficient than on analogue. There's two factors that lead to a bad picture over a HDMI cable; cable length and the amount of data being sent down the cable. At lengths greater than 5 meters with a 1080p24 signal you will start to suffer signal loss and (pretty quickly) signal drop out. Likewise, if you pump even more data down the cable then the length of cable you can get away with becomes shorter and shorter. Higher quality cables combat the drop out and allow you to use longer cables or simply pump more data down the cable.
In the case of these Graphics Cards though there's no point in them bundling these cables whatsoever.Quote
HDMI streams are a digitally encoded signal, it doesn't matter if the HDMI cable cost 50p to make, or £10,000. What you put in is exactly the same thing as you get out of it.
That's a very naive understanding of digital signalling. Just because us humans claim that the signal is "digital", doesn't mean that the nasty analogue reality of our universe can't bite you in the ass.
The quality of the cable is important, but if a cheap cable can transmit the digital signal successfully, then having a cable 10 times as expensive that can also transmit the digital signal successfully is just a waste of money. The ones and zeros at the far end of the cable are the same in either case.Quote
You can get HDMI Cables (http://ukhdmi.com/hdmi-premium.php) for £3.49 and they are premium tooo.
I think the GFX manufactures are not making anything on the Graphics cards want customers to pay for cables and make their margin. Good try
:stupid:Quote
Reply