6 ms·

So, perhaps it's me, but why do folks care about the number on the part? It's all marketing. Why does it matter? What matters is performance, right?

ben174 8y ago
Because it’s nice to be able to have some idea of what the product is without having to dig into a bunch of tech specs.
- TomVDB 8y ago
  By naming it 1660 instead of 2050, there is a lot more distance between the RTX/tensor core enabled products and those that are not. So a win?
koolba 8y ago
Because it’s easy to compare X110 > X109. Or if there’s a grouping like GP describes, you can quickly ascertain which model is the one you want.
- noisem4ker 8y ago
  Which may not be the model marketing wants you to want.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  > Because it’s easy to compare X110 > X109. That's true, but how does it help you as a customer? Wouldn't you need to know what you needed? What is the benefit of buying an X110 over an X109? https://dilbert.com/strip/2002-06-11 https://dilbert.com/strip/2002-06-11 I don't like "it's just a number" schemes, because they look like transparent attempts to get you to buy something for no reason. What's the difference between 3G and 4G? Well, they changed the number. Does that mean anything? How would you know?
brucemoose 8y ago
Software is versioned in numerical order which is pretty intuitive. At a glance it's clear which versions are minor updates, and which are major. Cars are versioned by year/model, which again makes it pretty clear to understand minor/major updates. Sometimes significant updates are introduced in a model year, but generally the core features remain the same and it could still be considered an upgrade to that model. Without a clear and intuitive versioning scheme it can be confusing and time consuming to make sense of a product line. And that gets frustrating if it keeps changing.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  No one does semantic versioning for hardware products (at least consistently), but maybe they should.
  - skohan 8y ago
    It's apple and oranges. Adobe doesn't release 5 versions of photoshop every year with different performance levels.
- alasdair_ 8y ago
  >Cars are versioned by year/model, which again makes it pretty clear to understand minor/major updates. Sometimes significant updates are introduced in a model year, but generally the core features remain the same and it could still be considered an upgrade to that model. Tesla managed to break this trend massively, which proves a problem for things like insurance. The feature set on (say) the January 2014 Model S is very different from the December 2014 Model S, even though they technically share the same "year".
  - mirashii 8y ago
    Tesla didn't break this any more than any other car manufacturer. The model year hasn't been tied to the manufacture year for a long time. See https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/why-doesnt-cars-model-year-match-calendar-year-262514 https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/why-doesnt-cars-model-ye... for instance.
LeoPanthera 8y ago
It makes it hard to know what I'm buying if I can't put it in a mental hierarchy.
- skohan 8y ago
  I agree that it's not totally obvious to new customers, but it's also no that hard: within a generation, the relative performance of the cards corresponds to the order of model numbers. "ti" cards are more powerful than non-"ti". Between generations, the whole line moves up something like one level of performance, so an (X)70 should be compared against an (X-1)80 and so on. It's not the simplest thing, but I think most people will do research once the first time they buy a GPU, and then you have your mental model from then on.
  - johnchristopher 8y ago
    No, the mental model I have from the 90's and the 00's doesn't help me in picking up a graphic card. No worries though, I decided to settle on integrated Intel GPU. Good enough for 2 years old games.

ben174 8y ago

Because it’s nice to be able to have some idea of what the product is without having to dig into a bunch of tech specs.

TomVDB 8y ago
By naming it 1660 instead of 2050, there is a lot more distance between the RTX/tensor core enabled products and those that are not. So a win?

koolba 8y ago

Because it’s easy to compare X110 > X109. Or if there’s a grouping like GP describes, you can quickly ascertain which model is the one you want.

noisem4ker 8y ago
Which may not be the model marketing wants you to want.
thaumasiotes 8y ago
> Because it’s easy to compare X110 > X109. That's true, but how does it help you as a customer? Wouldn't you need to know what you needed? What is the benefit of buying an X110 over an X109? https://dilbert.com/strip/2002-06-11 https://dilbert.com/strip/2002-06-11 I don't like "it's just a number" schemes, because they look like transparent attempts to get you to buy something for no reason. What's the difference between 3G and 4G? Well, they changed the number. Does that mean anything? How would you know?

brucemoose 8y ago

Software is versioned in numerical order which is pretty intuitive. At a glance it's clear which versions are minor updates, and which are major. Cars are versioned by year/model, which again makes it pretty clear to understand minor/major updates. Sometimes significant updates are introduced in a model year, but generally the core features remain the same and it could still be considered an upgrade to that model. Without a clear and intuitive versioning scheme it can be confusing and time consuming to make sense of a product line. And that gets frustrating if it keeps changing.

craftyguy 8y ago
No one does semantic versioning for hardware products (at least consistently), but maybe they should.
- skohan 8y ago
  It's apple and oranges. Adobe doesn't release 5 versions of photoshop every year with different performance levels.
alasdair_ 8y ago
>Cars are versioned by year/model, which again makes it pretty clear to understand minor/major updates. Sometimes significant updates are introduced in a model year, but generally the core features remain the same and it could still be considered an upgrade to that model. Tesla managed to break this trend massively, which proves a problem for things like insurance. The feature set on (say) the January 2014 Model S is very different from the December 2014 Model S, even though they technically share the same "year".
- mirashii 8y ago
  Tesla didn't break this any more than any other car manufacturer. The model year hasn't been tied to the manufacture year for a long time. See https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/why-doesnt-cars-model-year-match-calendar-year-262514 https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/why-doesnt-cars-model-ye... for instance.

LeoPanthera 8y ago

It makes it hard to know what I'm buying if I can't put it in a mental hierarchy.

skohan 8y ago
I agree that it's not totally obvious to new customers, but it's also no that hard: within a generation, the relative performance of the cards corresponds to the order of model numbers. "ti" cards are more powerful than non-"ti". Between generations, the whole line moves up something like one level of performance, so an (X)70 should be compared against an (X-1)80 and so on. It's not the simplest thing, but I think most people will do research once the first time they buy a GPU, and then you have your mental model from then on.
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  No, the mental model I have from the 90's and the 00's doesn't help me in picking up a graphic card. No worries though, I decided to settle on integrated Intel GPU. Good enough for 2 years old games.