[MW Forums]

ATI Technologies Inc. has posted a $104 million loss for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2005, but said it expects strong revenue growth for the first quarter of FY2006. more

[Netizen_Kane]

If ATI wants to reinvigorate its Add-In and retail channels, they should get together with nVidia to create a standard, upgradeable graphics card form factor for laptops. Mini-AGP, as it were. Or better yet, Mini-PCI Express. After all, Apple already uses a Mini-PCI slot for Airport Extreme cards. With the market tilting ever more toward laptops, it only makes sense to tap that market.

[bernardb]

They could also increase sales by making a DCC card available for the Mac instead of the lousy stinking GAME CARDS that are so abundant. Believe it or not there are 3D professionals out there who use Macs and would be enhanced by such a card.
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[Peter Cohen]

In reply to:

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They could also increase sales by making a DCC card available for the Mac instead of the lousy stinking GAME CARDS that are so abundant.

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Mac game card sales are a very small percentage of ATI's business. I expect that such effort would yield even smaller returns.

[RobK]

I just bought an ATI card to replace my aging nVidia card and while I won't bore with the sordid details... their customer service sucks and their website is fubar in every conceivable manner with regards to registered users.
Although the card works great (or I should say the replacement card... the first one quit after 5 days) dealing with ATI was one of the worst consumer experiences I've had in a LONG time... on every level (and I've been around the block many times).
It really wasn't what I expected from an operation as established as ATI.

[PSM]

The idea about user-replacable laptop graphics cards is great. One of the biggest frustrations of owning a laptop is that it very seldom pays to upgrade parts, because there are some (like graphics cards) that you can't replace, so you wind up buying a whole new computer. Being a Mac user, I find it less of an issue because it's not a great platform for gaming anyway, so I have a desktop at home for that (with an ATI card, as it turns out). Still, if I could upgrade my PB, I probably would eventually, just because I could.
But especially in the PC market, upgradable graphics would make laptops more viable as gaming machines. Every time I hear about those new Dell laptops for gaming, I think, "great, until your video card becomes obsolete in six months and you have to buy a new computer." This would be a great market for ATI and Nvidia to get into.

[KZ1101]

In reply to:

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their customer service sucks and their website is fubar in every conceivable manner

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If ATI provides any support at all then they are superior to nVidia in that area. According to nVidia's website they provide no support whatsoever for comsumer-level graphics cards.
From nVidea's website:
"NVIDIA does not sell any products directly to consumers, and therefore cannot provide direct technical support.
We recommend:
Contact the computer manufacturer, Add-in board partner or retail vendor from whom you received your computer or, graphics adaptor or motherboard."

[RobK]

So what? Are you saying ATI should say on their site "We provide 5000 f'n hoops for you to jump through in order to get support on a card that worked for 5 days" ?
Be SUPERIOR like nVidia and let someone else provide support in a reasonable fashion.

[sdf]

Yes, ATI's customer service and website both suck. In my experience, the only company that is worse is nVidia.
ATI did replace my Radeon 9800 card after about five months, so it is definitely possible to get service out of them. However, I had to email them instead of trying to find the information on their website.

[KZ1101]

Ive used ATI cards for ten years with no problems at all. I decided to try an nVidia card whence last I ordered a customized box from Apple. I cant even find a driver for the damn thing on nVidias website. Lame support is, in fact, better than no support at all. Next time Ill buy ATI, enough said.