AMD/ATIs new deal and Larrabee

Personally i dont think this makes anydifferance to LRB. I still say its going to have to come in at around the 3850 performance to be taken seriously. I would be amased if it worked any better than that for a start, if it does then both ATI and Nvidia may as well pack up and go home.
Yes ATI will get the benefit of these new materials but it can only affect Nvidia the way i see it. LRB will be targeted and priced for a set market and again i dont see this as being the higher end for a start at least, and i really dont think it matters how far ahead the competition is. People will still buy it just to say they have one, or it may turn out to be the best choice for a set price point.
Will it get knocked back ? well that will tell us where they are aiming, if i am guessing right it wont for the reasons i have stated above. If it does then that would suggest they are aiming for the higher end. Holding it back would also suggest that they think they can really compete with what ATI have, new materials or not. Now thats a thought. "Ok chaps ATI have just jumped us so hold the launch and we will sell it as the budget model. Phone the fabs and tell them to start making the 32 core card" ?

Mactronix

If HKMG has a positive effect, say instead of a mid range card needing 90 watts, it uses 70 watts, the difference can be taken up in performance, this is what Im saying, just not the high end but accross the board. So just by using this process, its almost like gfx cards will be getting a node change for free, and sooner rather than later. Compare a 3650 to a 4670 today, and youll see what I mean. At the 45nm node, with HKMG, we may be looking at cards with the potential of a 4870 pulling 80 watts, or just barely needing a fan, and cheap as well, having GDDR5 layout and cheap cooling

There are still plenty of ifs and buts as far as LRB is concerned, the one thing i do know is that Intel are not building the thing for the hell of it. It will have a market.
I do see what you are saying about the ATI situation JDJ and it would be useful to get more performance for less wattage as this would open up the upgrade market to a better level of GPU. I'm thinking the off the shelf units that come with a low powered PSU, so yes it would end up being a no brainer as to which camp to go for. But at the high end of things i don't see people giving it that much thought another 100 watts on the PSU when buying isn't yet a major consideration I'm thinking. Of course they should get more performance before the cards get to the limit of TDP but do they go for more SP's or run what they have at a higher clock ?

Mactronix