(03-11-2015, 06:05 PM)RolloTheGreat Wrote: You quoted yourself?!
Maybe you missed the "record quarterly and annual revenue" headline of your link.
NVIDIA does not need Tegra to be one of the big players in the SOC market, or for SHIELD to succeed even. These are not their primary markets.
Your post is the equivalent of "GM back at number one car maker in the world with record 2014 revenues. Seat cover division revenues down.".
I'm personally not a huge fan of SHIELD, and my son (a console/computer gamer) said "Unless this thing runs on STEAM it won't go anywhere. Kids only know STEAM and aren't looking for Android gaming on their TV.". Then he dissed the controller design.
Am I correct in my understanding that my options for gaming with the thing are limited to using games on the GRID server? So I'd have to buy the games I want to play again? That's a deal breaker for me if so.
Yes, I quoted myself... and?
I was focusing on Tegra alone. I know nVIDIA had a great quarter and will continue doing so for many years. This not an anti-nVIDIA post at all. My post merely tackles a long argument I have been having with some guys on this forum. Of course nVIDIA does not need Tegra to succeed and in my opinion they should either:
- drop it;
- spin it off to a sister company (preferably together with another partner traditionally strong in the SoC market - just like Intel started doing with Rockship).
Option 2 is preferable, as long as the IP would be shared with the mother company, to be used on discrete GPUs.
The problem with Tegra, as I said many times here, is that it tackles markets which structure is completely alien to the their main discrete GPU business. The GPU business is driven by and commands high margins. That is what allows nVIDIA to spend so much in R&D and be able to bring us generally spectacular products (apart from "meh" products like GTX960, FX5800, etc.). And before you say that it is not a problem since they are now sharing the same IP between GPU and Tegra, think about Denver. Denver is exclusive to Tegra and it has been a money pit so far and was not even used on Tegra X1.
Now, Tegra targets markets where the margins are much much lower (even automotive is not stellar compared to GPU market.. we keep hearing about their deals but Tegra revenue barely changes.. that is because margins there are falling already). nVIDIA would need indeed Tegra to be one of the major SoCs, in order to have the volume to bring in much much bigger revenue than what they do now. Just think about it: if the Tegra markets commanded the same type of prices and margins as GPU does, how much revenue do you think they would be getting from it? It would most likely be an order to magnitude higher than what they are really getting, with exactly the same number of chips sold.
Concerning the new SHIELD, yes GRID will be the main "Made to Game" feature of that console. They are porting some games from other platforms to it, but lets be serious: only 16GB of memory? So you can have how many games installed on it? One at a time? The box was clearly made for GRID and sorry but that barely gives it the right to be called "Made for Game". Its a joke.