Timothy Miller wrote:
Although pricing will be decided based on hard reality, I am curious about opinions on that. Now that the retail board will be cheap, what do you think is reasonable, based on the chip and board prices of competing products?
Well, unfortunately, based on that alone not a lot. I'll only comment on board prices, not chip, since I simply wouldn't know about the latter.
A Radeon 7000 with 32MB DDR, DVI and TV-Out sells for EUR32 (currently ~ USD42) retail in the Netherlands at the moment:
http://www2.alternate.nl/html/nodes_info/j7gu11.html
If I wanted 64MB (I do) and did not mind trading in the DVI for it (I don't) there's a Radeon 7000 with 64MB and TV-Out for EUR35 ~ USD46:
http://www2.alternate.nl/html/nodes_info/j8gv51.html
Had I wanted 128MB (I do not, really) I could grab a Radeon 9200SE with 128MB DDR and TV-Out for EUR47 ~ USD61:
http://www2.alternate.nl/html/nodes_info/j9gv53.html
Same with DVI (I don't want it) for EUR49 ~ USD64:
http://www2.alternate.nl/html/nodes_info/j9gv52.html
All those are passively cooled and AFAIA supported well (7000) or fairly well (9200) by open source drivers. Given the driver issues, I wouldn't consider nVidia competition, but if you want to include people who would, prices are very comparable for nVidia products, which it's to say you are looking at rougly USD40 to USD65, with an integrated TV-Out.
Of these the Radeon 7000 / 64MB / TV-OUt for EUR35 ~ USD46 would be my choice. Compared to it, the only feature I want extra is composite for the TV-Out instead of just s-video and better picture quality then I expect it will have, comparable to Matrox. At that same store, a Matrox G550 with 32MB, bulk, for EUR89 ~ USD116:
http://www2.alternate.nl/html/nodes_info/j7gm09.html
As far as I'm aware you just need to have a cable for it to have TV-Out. A retail version that comes with the cable included for EUR119 ~ USD155:
http://www2.alternate.nl/html/nodes_info/j7gm14.html
I would not consider these. They are much too expensive compared to the ATI products listed earlier. My 64MB favourite is an ASUS, which is not the absolute worst of brands and ATI boards don't generally have crappy picture quality, so it may not be all that bad.
So, I've settled on the EUR35 ATI board with 64MB and without DVI and now I compare to you. For me, the DVI is not an advantage. In fact, as expressed earlier, I find it to be a disadvantage since I need an adapter. You are competing based on:
1) Picture quality.
Very important. If it's really good, I'll pay for it. Let's double the price to EUR70 ~ USD92.
2) TV-Out
Important. I do not use it often, but that's partly due to the fact that my current one is not supported under Linux (and functions poorly). A well supported one, with nice picture quality (I hook it up to a very small little TV, so I don't need anything stellar) I'll pay EUR20 ~ USD25 for.
Ah, heck:
3) 128MB
Not important, but it doesn't get in the way either for me, even if I want to map it all so let's add EUR5 ~ USD 8 for a board price of EUR75 ~ USD100.
4) Documentation.
To me, very important. Add EUR25 for a nice round EUR100 ~ USD130
USD130 sounds realistic? More than that, and I'd have to think it over.
Add in the EUR20 for the TV-Out for a total price I'd be willing to pay of EUR120 ~ USD157.
And for the FPGA project/prototype board, how much extra are you willing to pay, given the fact that lower volumes and higher chip count will increase the cost?
Me, not much. If it were a simple matter of ASIC versus FPGA, I might consider EUR150 ~ USD200 since I do see the fun of it but it won't be. The FPGA version will also run slower and/or hotter and for me that will very quickly mean that I'll be willing to pay exactly EUR0 (~ USD1) extra.
Rene. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
