Intel rips into NVIDIA’s Ion platform
Posted in: intel, NVIDIA, Today's Chili
Intel and NVIDIA aren’t exactly hiding their differences with each other these days, and it doesn’t look like that’s about to change anytime soon, especially when it comes to NVIDIA’s turf-encroaching Ion platform. According to a document apparently now making the rounds in some circles, Intel not only says that NVIDIA is simply reusing an integrated graphics chipset designed laptops and desktops, which will “in turn leads to higher costs as well as high power consumption,” but that NVIDIA is overstating interest in Ion from OEMs, saying that “as of this writing, no customer has publicly disclosed plans to design Ion-based products.” Intel reportedly further goes on to say that “NVIDIA’s Ion HD playback may not be as good as NVIDIA claims,” and even if Ion is more powerful, “neither gaming nor video transcoding are relevant to netbook and nettop users.” As if that wasn’t enough, Intel closes things out by saying that since it’ll be releasing its own update platform by the end of the year, “the window of opportunity for Ion is very short.” Of course, there’s still no indication that any of this will lead to a hard break between Intel and NVIDIA, although NVIDIA does at least now have VIA to fall back on.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
Intel rips into NVIDIA’s Ion platform originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Let’s get this much out of the way: Shoryuken for shoryuken, the 
Here’s what I mean: With the old pad, on average, I would successfully execute Fei Long’s rising dragon kick (or insert any dragon punch-based maneuver) about 5-7 times out of 10 tries. With the FightPad, it’s like 9 times out of 10. Moves requiring 720-degree motions, like Zangief’s super, come off much easier as well, and exactly when I want it to (when someone’s up in my face—PILEDRIVER). Back, forward, back forward style specials, like with Honda or Blanka, aren’t noticeably easier to perform, though.
The shape and layout of the FightPad kinda reminds me of a Sega Genesis controller, and is for the most part, excellent, though if you have elven hands it might feel a little too big. For me, with medium mitts, it fits perfectly, no matter which way I hold it (I actually turn my right hand palm side down, so I can mash the buttons with my fingers whenever I play fighting games) and there’s some breathing room for gorilla-handed people too.
But there are some things you should know about that would be dealbreakers if beating people didn’t matter above all else. Numero uno, on the Xbox 360, this sucker is wired, which is lame balls for a $40 controller. It also feels very cheaply made, with glossy plastic Mad Catz found and melted down after it fell off a Christmas ornament truck. The rubber coating on the sides and back helps a little bit. Last, the sound quality coming through the headset on this thing is really terrible, like I was stranded on a desert island with a cellphone from 1987—it’s noticeably crappier than it is on the regular Xbox 360 controllers.
Those things said, if you wanna do better 
