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I personally think there's a pretty big difference between being compensated for their work and using software to limit where the hardware can be used (and Im n

I personally think there's a pretty big difference between being compensated for their work and using software to limit where the hardware can be used (and Im not saying Nvidia is the only company that does this, like Tektronix who is even worse for it). This differs than a purely software product like you mentioned between home vs professional usage. When I buy a GPU, I expect to be able to use it as a....GPU regardless of the software it connects to. Sure, I get it, there is some additional software work such as CUDA and driver stuff depending on the package but at a basis with something like DirectX, this should be more or less software agnostic. Unfortunately our market is heading towards that direction (e.g Tesla and John Deere) where even "unlocking" the features via hardware means is a violation of DMCA.

shard 6y ago
The other choice would be to actually manufacture different product lines with different hardware, which would 1. increase costs, and 2. prevent the user from being able to upgrade via software, and have to buy completely new hardware. From a business, consumer, and environmental point of view, unlocking via software seems the superior solution.
babypuncher 6y ago
It's not that simple though. It's cheaper to engineer one chip that does everything then selectively disable certain features for lower end SKUs. Going to the effort of making different hardware for the lower end SKUs that completely lacks these features would end up raising prices for consumers because it makes engineering and manufacturing more costly. The other alternative is they just don't offer lower price SKUs and make everyone buy top-end parts.
TomVDB 6y ago
You say that this is different than a software product, but you don’t explain why. You didn’t buy a GPU, you bought a consumer class GPU promised you the advertised consumer class features. Why do you expect it to give you professional class features from a higher pricing tier?

shard 6y ago

The other choice would be to actually manufacture different product lines with different hardware, which would 1. increase costs, and 2. prevent the user from being able to upgrade via software, and have to buy completely new hardware. From a business, consumer, and environmental point of view, unlocking via software seems the superior solution.

babypuncher 6y ago

It's not that simple though. It's cheaper to engineer one chip that does everything then selectively disable certain features for lower end SKUs. Going to the effort of making different hardware for the lower end SKUs that completely lacks these features would end up raising prices for consumers because it makes engineering and manufacturing more costly. The other alternative is they just don't offer lower price SKUs and make everyone buy top-end parts.

TomVDB 6y ago

You say that this is different than a software product, but you don’t explain why. You didn’t buy a GPU, you bought a consumer class GPU promised you the advertised consumer class features. Why do you expect it to give you professional class features from a higher pricing tier?