Forge I had the same vision earlier today! Let's form a cult!

ER

Holy Sh1t, I just had a full-on miraculous religous vision....

Nvidia is going to muscle on Creative and Creative is going to kick them like the donkey they are.

3Dfx goes back to IP about that same time.

Creative takes their *Blaster series (highly popular with semi-literate computer sheep) and starts throwing 8 way VSA-300 chip cards in the box.

Nvidia smirks as round 6 of the Nvidia Jihad begins.

Ryu, that explains it -- I run only APC Back-UPS Pro and Smart-UPS, 650 and higher. Guess I'm spoiled, what with the dually boxen... it makes no sense to me to have less backup than that, with the power drain of dual-CPU's, loaded SCSI architecture and big monitors. Plus, I travel a lot -- the system has to be able to shut itself down gracefully while I'm not around.

I checked their website -- thanks for the links. It would appear that APC has changed the product some since I bought my last one: they've reduce the number of powered plugs, even though they now provide extras for surge protection (plus the welcome pigtails for wall-warts -- my UPSes don't have that!).

lenzenm:

It was not a exclusive license from Sensura. In fact, from the press release you can see that most of the audio players left in the market already support Sensura.

"Sensaura is at the forefront of audio research both in the PC and the consumer electronics market. Presently holding technology licensing agreements with vendors such as Yamaha, ESS Technology, ADI, Crystal Cirrus Logic and C-Media, Sensaura's technology licensees control over 80% of the PC audio chip market world-wide."

I didn't even know Sensura had that many supporters. Last I knew Sensura only was supported on Yamaha chips.

Problem is, I think Unreal Tournament is the only game with Sensura support right now. Hopefully NVIDIA using the X-Box and by entering the PC Audio Market will be able to get Sensura support added to virtually every title.

The more I think about this, the less I think NVIDIA can push forward in this field and not have to fight Creative. As it stands it wouldn't surprise me to hear that Creative lost a bid to supply sound for the X-Box. Which might have already put a strain on the relationship.

http://www.apc.com/products/back-ups/

Up until you hit the 650 series, you only get two battery-powered plugs. The 650 series is their first up with three battery-powered plugs.

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BP2...

Even their low end APC Pro 280 only has two battery-powered plugs.

To be fair though, the Office line of UPS typically has at least three battery-powered plugs even on the low end. Why there is such a disparity in price and battery powered plugs between the Home and Office models I don't I will ever quite figure out.

Most of APC's competitors have also gotten away from two plugs. In the environment I work in though, I see *a bunch* of APC 300. I want to say they have some APC 200 and 250 models, now out of production, floating around also. Rather inadequate in the scheme of things. Given how many two-plug models APC makes I am sure that someone, somewhere, would have hooked up a V5 6K and not had room to plug that mofo in.

Ryu, what sorta puny UPSes are you running, that only have two plugs? All mine have four, at least (power, that is... jacks for Cat-5 cables and serial cables don't count, right?)

Heh, heh...

Say it ain't so!

I just recently installed a V5 5500, and I gotta say it's a real kick in the pants (in a good way). I mean, that whole 4x FSAA makes a huge difference on a low-res game, it looks real perdy. I had heard they were thinking of 8x (!) FSAA for the ex-6000... I wanna make my computer look like a N64!

Also, my computer runs as hot as a nuclear explosion now, and I really want to see what some real power (tm) would do.

Screw Creative too. Not because of their sound card stagnation (that's old news), but because they won't ship a friggin extra USB cable for my Nomad II MG in the states! All the decisions in the company are made by evil weasel marketing directors. Cruelly split up the world into three zones (like the Pope) and exploit each one with different products and names, make endless minor revisions on one product and charge exponentially more for each one, and keep sticking the name "blaster" on products that should totally not have it.

Bastards.

Oh, and Nvidia is going to take over the world, and then Derek Perez is going to make us all his personal bitch. I'll bet ya a nickel.

ER

Originally Posted by dim-
Ryu, nicely put, Bravo.

Although the first thoughts in my head when I saw that post was \"Wow, I *thought* that was gonna happen, I am actually thinking along some different lines right now.

Is the \'effective\' loss of 3DFX ( Sorry, I\'m not with the times ) gonna have any negative side affects on the current competition between ATI & Nvidia?

As far as Creative LawSuits INC. goes, yea, to he** with them and every product they have or ever will put out. The business practices they used against Aureal go down in the book of the top 10. Well, the top 10 as I know them.
*sniff*

I wish my MX300 had better win2k support, altho the latest leaked drivers did help tremendously, even helping to a point in the VIA chipset issue from what I hear, haven\'t done any testing.

Originally Posted by ronald
If and when Quantum3D ships their 4 and 8 way VSA-100 solutions, you may just get your wish yet. The alternative to Creative Labs remains the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card. By the way, I haven\'t forgotten your other link.

The Live card rocked back in the day but it's lost it's luster. No quality driver updates and rehashed products being released. We saw this coming because we already watch creative do this for many years before.

And creative I HATE YOUR WINDOWS2000 DRIVERS more then anything!!!!

Ryu:
While I frequently disagree with you (not that that is a bad thing, intelligent discussion of opposing viewpoints is what makes this site superior to so many others), I couldn't agree more with you now. Creative successfully killed their only viable competition via litigation, not a superior product. If they follow their 10+ year track record, they will rest on their laurels: no new products, sloppy driver support, etc. until a new challenger arises to force them back into shape. If nVidia is the one to do it, so be it. So does this mean that Cirrus Logic will no longer be manufacturing the Sound Fusion, previously the only chipset with Sensura support?

Just like 3dfx to ruin a perfectly good opportunity for me to satiate my curiosity.

I have been debating for months exactly what that massive POS would do if only your PC and Monitor were plugged into a UPS (since most ups only come with two plugs, and not having a monitor is about as stupid as not having a video card) and the power went out.

Would you get a BSOD, hard lock, or would your PC suddenly reset and give you a no video card POST error?

I guess the world will never know.

As for Creative, I desperately envy a competitor who will slap their complacent, non-innovative, and litigious asses all over the map.

And hopefully before LiveWare! 6000 and the Super Duper Titanium Platinum Combo SBLive! 5.1 Deluxe with toilet paper dispenser get released.