The bad news? I was correct about making your case feeling like a mini-volcano inside.

Really? Huge.. Have a look here:

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php?s=

Look at the first 10 teams or so. The majority if points at the moment are being generated by nVidia graphics cards. A 9800GX2 is good for about 10,000 points per day folding on both cores. A GTX275 is worth about 8,000 points per day.

That first 10 teams are doing about 30 MILLION points per day. If only half of that is coming from graphics cards, that’s a crap load of cards…

I am quite serious when I say, if galaxy build this card and sell it at a decent price, folders will flock to it. Especially when you consider it’s pretty much impossible to buy anything better then a GTX260 at the moment. Anywhere that has stock of a higher card only has it because they’re charging so much nobody is willing to pay.

http://folding.stanford.edu/

I think AMD will price-match 480/470 with 5890/5870. The 5850 will sit in some weird limbo because as the best value it can; until G104 is released. Then the two will spar. That would be AMD drinking nVIDIA’s milkshake, as it were. Come 28nm though at the end of this year or beginning of the next, both will likely be equals again; competitive in each segment.

As for CPUs, I actually have faith in AMDs plans. I think the setup, which is Llano (Fusion) versus dual-core Sandy Bridge and Zambezi (’4/8-core’ Bulldozer) above and below quad-core SB, will certainly spur Intel to get Haswell together on the GPU front. It’s too late for Ivy Bridge as we already know that will be essentially a quad-core Intel CPU against a Bulldozer with 2nd-gen Fusion for the mid-range and 6-8 (or what AMD would call 12-16) at the higher-end. Did I mention a half-Llano ‘Bobcat’ for laptops on 28nm in 2011? Yes, there will be competition in CPUs.

Concerning SSDs, there’s not a lot to be happy about at the moment, for which I agree, but the ~$100 boot drives (32/40GB) are a good start. Given the upcoming NAND shrinks from not only Intel, but the other suppliers, not-to-mention the new controllers like Sandforce, I think a year from now there will be not only good value on the low-end, but in-turn speed improvement and price-wars on the higher-end; bringing the tech as a whole one step closer to the mainstream. I Don’t expect true acceptance until the next-gen after that, but still, improvement and competition which is the point.

In short: Yes, 2010 kind of sucks from a consumer value and competition standpoint. But 2011 will bring good value and innovation as companies dabble in 32nm and smaller (28/25nm) process tech and products become good-enough versus their set counterparts, ie a mid-range gfx card and a low-end cpu playing a new dx11 game on a cheap 1920×1200(1080) monitor versus it’s dx9 brethern at 720p on XBOX360/PS3. End of 2011 into 2012 should bring some awesome things as well as companies create products that will eventually be transitioned to 22nm.

your an idiot