Thank god they are years and generations away from each other. After 386 and EGA... in reality everything with CPUs and GPUs is confusing, and you have to do some good homework, now we have Google.

It's like Renault coming up with a new model called Renault Mondeo or the Volkswagen group with the Lamborghini F50.
Can't believe these manufacturers couldn't find different numbers to name their products.
What's next? Ati coming up with the JForce FXUltraXT2080TiOC?

Miphee wrote on 2020-09-10, 10:07:

It's so childish and adds to the confusion, couldn't they come up with unique model names and numbers?

well there are only so many numbers for cool names, I'm glad tbh... otherwise it ends like intel and you get product names like "Intel 11th Gen Core Tiger Lake i3-1115G4" that literally don't tell you anything ^^

At least the digits at the beginning of intel's models tells you what generation they are. GPU model numbers are just pulled out of a hat.

one of my favorite GPU names of recent times has to be Radeon VII
so simple yet so much in it ^^ VII for Vega 2 and VII for 7nm at the same time.

You think those are confusing... go back and take a look at the Zoltrix and Gallant sound card names.... different cards with the same model number.... grrrrrrr

I haven't seen too many SB boxes, but did creative actually tell you which card you would get if you bought an "AWE32" for example? ^^

Thanks guys, I guess I could have fit this in the Collecting rants topic.
I just saw a Radeon X5700 and immediately thought about the FX5700 that I hated, especially the "optimized" drivers for 3DMark.
Sometimes it's detrimental to use another manufacturer's product name and the FX series is a good example.
Manufacturers should stop using numbers and start getting creative with new hardware naming.

Those models are years apart. Apart from it fudging an eBay search it's a non-issue.

imi wrote on 2020-09-10, 16:00:

I haven't seen too many SB boxes, but did creative actually tell you which card you would get if you bought an "AWE32" for example? ^^

I don't think so. I bought an AWE32 at Best Buy back then which turned out to be a CT3990 but I don't think that was marked on the box anywhere. I certainly didn't see it anyway.
I remember comparing it to a cheaper AWE32 (it might have just been a "Sound Blaster 32") trying to figure out what the difference was. I couldn't figure it out so I bought the more expensive one anyway because surely it "must" be better somehow.
Now I think the only difference was that ADPCM feature that nobody ever used. I did use it a little bit but not enough to justify paying for it.

I still have my old box from a Sound Blaster Pro (CT1330A). I don't think the card's model number is on that box either.

NVidia and ATI both had the same problem and for better or worse ended up using the same solution. ATI was first with the scheme and NVidia copied it not long after. Thankfully they started at totally different places in the "generation number" but they've wrapped around and overlapped.
I wonder if NVidia will start reusing their own numbers, like is there going to be a Geforce 4200 next year?

The number system wants to make sense but it's not exactly been a big success. I'm not sure how it is today, but last time I shopped for a video card, I quickly became aware that only a fool walks blindly into a store and tries to figure out what to buy based on the model numbers.
You still have to spend hours doing research in order to make the decision intelligently, so they might as well just call them any random string of letters and numbers.
They could just literally give the cards names, like "Dexter" and "Biff" and "Lando" along with a cool picture of the character on the box. Put some silkscreen artwork on the card to match. Hell, why not. Next THG thread "Wut card 4 fFortnite - Chewbacca or Bumblebee?" "Both cards suck get Rambo Ultra dude."

random string? ...oh you mean something like... idk... "ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Evo V2 Advanced" ? ^^

(yes, that is a real GPU name)

The "random string" methodology seems to work just fine in pharma for drug trade names.
'Radeon Zycoprexitol'? 'Geforce Avilynozepam'?

At least they are generations apart, and the model number tells exactly what card it is. It could be worse - the card name would be "3D Blaster Annihilator" or "Viper Monster Stealth Velocity Prophet 3000" and then you try to figure out what the model actully is.

Maybe we'll get a system where they're just called Geforce 80, 60 etc and the generation is implicit, just like with cars, Apple computers or a lot of other products.

pixel_workbench wrote on 2020-09-11, 16:40:

At least they are generations apart, and the model number tells exactly what card it is. It could be worse - the card name would be "3D Blaster Annihilator" or "Viper Monster Stealth Velocity Prophet 3000" and then you try to figure out what the model actully is.

Good point actually, things weren't necessarily better.

Reusing typenumbers is common even within the same manufacturer.
Ever tried to gather any information on the intel i80860 RISC CPU?
Most of your hits will relate to the intel i860 P4 Xeon Rambus chipset.

Not video cards, but the Dell PowerEdge 2100/6100/6200 are completely different machines to the PowerEdge C2100/C6100/C6200

It's mostly a problem with eBay searches like someone said.

Dell also produced the Dimension 5150 which I assume is some sort of homage

ETA: There is also the Compaq LTE 5150

These names are years apart. In some cases even over 15 years apart!
If one don't have too many typos, one is bound to get the right cards anyway, so it's really not much of an issue (if at all).
I mean if one can't see the difference between Radeon X5700 and GeForce FX5700, over half the name is different 🤣

In The Netherlands we have a proverb for something like this: Van een mug een olifant maken which roughly means to try to turn a mosquito into an elephant (meaning making a problem bigger than it really is).

However, what is confusing in manufactured cards (which is not mentioned in the OP, but perhaps should have) is the cards that are from the same family and have the same or very similar model numbers, but are vastly different in performance like the different iterations of GF4MX and GF2MX (just to name a few), of which there were versions with 64bit and with 128bit memory bus, but also with either SDRAM or DDR. Making a budget or castrated card and naming it as if it's a midrange or topline card. That would be really deserving of a rant 🤣

yeah ugh, ATI and Nvidia trying to cash in on tseng's famous big numbers