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AMD's RX 3080 has been rumoured for quite some time, a GPU name which is designed to 1-up Nvidia's RTX 20XX series in a literal sense, copying the tactics of the company's CPU division when they released their Ryzen-based X370 platform to compete with Intel's Z270 offerings.
The idea is simple, you see two products on a shelf and you look at the numbers. X370 must be better than Z270; the number is bigger, right? It's a simple marketing tactic, and it makes sense for AMD to reuse it within the graphics card market. AMD's naming schemes have moved from RX 580 to RX Vega 64 to Radeon VII; it's not like AMD has a defined branding scheme to follow within the GPU market anymore, so why not piggyback on Nvidia? Nvidia even went to the effort of changing GTX to RTX on the high-end, simply begging to be confused with AMD's established RX graphics lineup.
[...] Now, it looks like Nvidia wants to stop AMD's games, with recent trademark applications showing that Nvidia claims ownership of the numbers 3080, 4080 and 5080, at least within the world of PC graphics. This move appears to be Nvidia's attempt to stop Radeon calling their next graphics card the RX 3080, a name which would inevitably cause confusion when Nvidia releases their RTX/GTX 30XX series, which should include a model called the RTX 3080.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 26 2019, @02:59PM (2 children)
All that is required, is a "standard". Each of the companies, within a given industry, should just agree that one series of numbers will be set aside for one company, and another series belongs to someone else, etc.
I rather like nVidia's present numbering scheme. They are nice and sequential, and they impart some information - they are actually useful. Giving a new name, and some random made-up number to each product in turn has always irritated me. There was a time when I needed a video card quickly, so I bought the card without doing any research. The packaging suggested that this card was "next generation" after a card that I already owned, and that it was faster, by some small factor. Got the thing home, and it turned out to be a major regression. Utter piece of crap.
No, I don't think anyone should be permitted to trademark a number, but I think that all the witless marketing SOB's should respect each other's numbering/naming schemes. If AMD tries to horn in on nVidia's scheme, it only indicates to me that AMD has an inferior product, that needs a boost from nVidia's reputation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:19PM (1 child)
nVidia did it to AMD first:
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 26 2019, @03:32PM
Yes, of course - there aren't any "good guys" here. What's good for the goose, is good for the duck - or whatever.