ED#92 : NVIDIA Spy @ Computex

NVIDIA has been extremely paranoid about their GTX 200 graphics cards. They even have a spy (a Chinese bloke wearing glasses and masquerading as a journalist) patrolling the Computex exhibition halls to enforce the NVIDIA law and catch leaks from their partners. Somehow, that also includes questioning real journalists about their sources. Well, Mr. 007, you should never threaten journalists...

Thanks to Mr. 007, I skipped much needed sleep to write this editorial and post these photos of an NVIDIA GTX 280 reference card in a demo case. Not that I thought they were particularly important, to be honest. That's why I didn't bother to post earlier. But since he "asked" so nicely, I thought I should oblige him.

Note that these were taken prior to the NVIDIA press briefing. Don't bother asking me where I took them, Mr. 007. For more details on the GTX 280 and other NVIDIA (and non-NVIDIA news), take a look at our ongoing Computex 2008 coverage!

If you ask me, all this secrecy during Computex is stupid. If NVIDIA really didn't want any news leaked about the GTX 200 cards, they should either announce the damn cards before/during Computex or don't send reference cards to their partners until after Computex.

First, everyone already knows about the new cards. The leaks started way before Computex. Even if additional "secret" information was leaked during Computex, it's not as if ATI can magically pull a GTX 280-killer out of their hats.

Frankly, Computex would have been a perfect time to launch the new GTX 200 cards. After all, most of the tech world have gathered here in Taipei. NVIDIA couldn't have created a better opportunity for maximum publicity.

The only reasons I can think of for the delay is either poor yield/supply issues or they just wanted to spite ATI by officially launching the cards just a day before ATI launches their Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. Of course, ATI had already delayed that launch, so if the specific launch date of June 17 was selected merely to spite them, then it was a waste of time.

Finally, Computex is all about vendors demonstrating their new hardware technologies. If you want to hide something, don't come to Computex!

Questions & Comments

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