Dell's Misleading Graphics Card Buying Advice 381
Barence writes "Dell's website includes a guide to graphics cards for PC novices which contains a dangerous chunk of misinformation. The monitor on the left, labelled as a PC that uses a 'standard graphics card,' is displaying a Windows desktop that's washed out and blurry. The seemingly identical Dell TFT on the right, powered by a 'high-end graphics card,' is showing the same desktop – but this time it's much sharper and more vivid. They're both outputting at the same resolution."
The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Insightful)
... using words like "misleading" and "unfair." It's fraud, plain and simple.
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Interesting)
They may have changed it now, but I had a good laugh at the AT&T uVerse bandwidth recommendations last time a family member was shopping. They'd recommend their very top tier plan if you like to watch HD movies and listen to music. I think Netflix recommends 5Mbps for HD. There was some bizarre strata of recommended services and plans for the rest, all of which were so decoupled from reality as to be worthless.
You know regular people everywhere actually use those kinds of recommendations when selecting packages, so it's pretty shady. And of course what they didn't mention anywhere were the upcoming data caps.
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There is another problem here which may explain why companies do this; if they recommend you a service for HD movies and a 3 hour movie has a single hickup during playback, they're likely to get sued. Therefore anything which requires real-time performance (something the internet cannot guarentee), they'll just tell you to get the most expensive service. That way, when they get sued, they atleast can't be blamed for knowingly recommending an under-specced service, however reasonable a less expensive package
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Insightful)
My God,
Three posts in and now its the governments fault? You need to get a serious grip on reality.
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Insightful)
We elected the politicians, we put them in office, we empowered them to look out for Corporations...
We may have elected them, but before that they were selected by those very same corporations.
When every candidate is a corporate tool, you can't blame the electorate for picking a corporate tool.
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One of my friends lived in Japan for over 15 years, is married to a Japanese woman and has two kids born in Japan. The chances of him getting Japanese citizenship are ~0.
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:4, Informative)
"Might have". The phrase you want is "might have".
It's true though, not everybody has a vote. I'm one of them. Where I live you can only vote if you were born here.
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Yeah, what a lazy asshole! I mean, it only takes 6-7 years [reason.com] to become an American citizen (in the best case scenario).
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p52QJi-Ydo [youtube.com]
He should have put peanut butter on the load catcher and the boosts to the desktop wallpaper would have been much cheaper and easier.
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Interesting)
... using words like "misleading" and "unfair." It's fraud, plain and simple.
Of course you are right. However almost all marketing involves implying things that are not true.
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:4, Interesting)
The other problem is that many customers don't even know they are being had. Modern stuff especially electronics are so complicated that the average person just doesn't have the time to figure it all out and buy rationally. They usually become dependent on store recommendations or someone they know, if they know someone.
This is part of the reasons why companies make there offerings confusing and difficult to compare. It's been called a "confusopoly" to make sure people can't understand why a competitors products may be better. Notice how there are so many "customized" versions of smartphones? Nonsensical models numbers for a ton of computer parts, etc.
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:4, Informative)
You do know that there are three types of dehydration and water alone will not help two of them, right? Dehydration, despite the name, does not mean 'lack of water'. Dehydration is the word for homeostasis imbalance, which is when your body does not have enough salt water.
The most common type of dehydration is actually hypovolemia, which is not having enough sodium. So when people are dehydrated, they almost always need electrolytes (It's what plants crave!) and water, not just water alone. Drinking water alone can, in fact, make such problems worse.
The type of dehydration where people are just 'out of water', and thus can be solved by just adding water, is actually pretty rare for people to have. And it's usually a sign of an actual medical condition (As opposed to sweating out salt that needs replacing, which is perfectly normal.), so just drinking water is hardly a 'solution' there. You really need to see a doctor if you find yourself 'lacking water' for some inexplicably reason.
I love how idiots are running around laughing 'Ha ha, the EFSA is so stupid, of course water stops dehydration, herp derp.'. Uh, no, it doesn't. If you're actually getting dehydrated in the actual medical sense (As opposed to using to hyperbolically mean 'thirsty'.), no, you shouldn't drink fucking water, it can screw you up even more. Drink some Gaterade or something like that.
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Oh, I probably should mention: It's nearly impossible for you to have lose too much water (and no salt) to become dehydrated without something medically wrong with you, but you can easily gain too much salt, and hence not have enough water.
So it is possible to have not enough water, and too much salt, without a underlying medical condition...if, and only if, you've simply been eating salt. Like half a cup of salt. Do not do that. (Duh. There's a reason your body says 'Ugh' to that idea.)
Or, as the most c
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What, are you stupid?
Yes, the salt in water (And everything else) is normally enough for people. To maintain their salt balance. No one said people had to run around drinking Gatorade to maintain a balance normally.
And when someone sweats too much losing salt and water, then drinks water and thus imbalances themselves (Which is, by far, the most common form of dehydration.), the solution is to not drink more fucking water, you idiot.
That is so stupid I cannot even comprehend what you are saying. It's lik
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:4, Informative)
With moderate (~5-10% water loss, diagnosis varies by age; most commonly due to diarrheal illness in children) or severe (~15% fluid loss, usually near-fatal and due to bleeding) dehydration, potomanias may develop with pure water rehydration, but central pontine myelinolysis, refeeding syndrome, or Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome can occur if electrolytes/glucose are replenished too quickly. That's the reason anyone who's moderately dehydrated should be managed by a doctor.
BTW, I'm not sure what dictionary you're using. Dehydration is "dryness resulting from the removal of water" and hypovolemia is the intravascular depletion of fluids. "Not having enough sodium" is called hyponatremia. "Homeostasis imbalance" could refer to just about anything in medicine, as people develop symptoms of disease when the disease process can no longer be compensated for. "Dehydration" in everyday layperson use corresponds to mild dehydration (verified by studies), and isn't hyperbole at all.
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Most people in the US consume a lot more salt than they need, fools who try to consume no salt notwithstanding. Those people, finding themselves thirsty after a couple of hours of heavy exertion, are far better off drinking water than waiting two more hours until they can hike back to a store with proper electrolytes.
People who've planned long periods of heavy exercise can easily drink plain water safely, rather than consuming some expensive electrolyte replacement. They bring along that rare secret substan
RTFA (Score:5, Informative)
Basically, they did say: Water doesn't prevent dehydration. They said: You can't claim bottled water is better at preventing dehydration than tap water, and you're claim implies that.
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Here's an idea: Maybe one of them uses a VGA connector and the other uses HDMI/DVI.
Analog vs. digital, see?
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It's an AD- they ALWAYS lie (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I ALWAYS expect advertisements to lie. Every claim that is not quantified and expressed in numbers is definitely a lie. Claims that are expressed in numbers are probably a lie. Only specs that are very easy to verify and actually define fitness for purpose can be relied on- like RAM size or dimensions. Claims that are hard to verify like quality or reliability or performance or health benefits will be lies. Salesmen who have vested interest will ALWAYS lie to you. You'll never get honest advice from people who stand to profit from your decision. Even independent sources are often biased one way or the other and often won't give advice that is best for you and your situation.
This doesn't just hold true for tech. This is true for everything you purchase from washing machines and pencils to computers and cars. I still don't understand how some people don't realize this and just walk into a shop and ask someone there to help with their purchase.
--Coder
Re:It's an AD- they ALWAYS lie (Score:5, Insightful)
So yes, it's not surprising that Dell did this, but now that they've been caught, they should be accused and punished, so that next time they'll maybe think twice. That's how we train people, and that's how we can train corporations to behave better in society.
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Dell's defence is that at some point in time less expensive video cards with crappy RAMDACs blighted consumers and they will find plenty of unemployed former Matrox executives to testify on their behalf.
Seriously, I think this is a no-brainer for a truth in advertising slap on the wrist, but if we go down this path, where do we find enough cells to house the audiophile industry? We'll be building tent farms after rounding up just the low-oxygen HDMI crowd plying low-oxygen consumers.
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Interesting)
... using words like "misleading" and "unfair." It's fraud, plain and simple.
Apart from that test below the image saying: "Image for illustrative purposes only". Legally that probably gets them off the hook on the fraud charges.
Also under our retarded british legal system you have probably now libelled them and they can sue you for millions of pounds in lost revenue.
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The article is much too kind ... (Score:4, Interesting)
They've been doing that since long before the Monster crap. I worked there many years ago in high school. They'd purposely adjust the lower-priced TVs so that the color was off or the image was blurry, or sometimes they'd even futz with the vertical hold settings to introduce a slow roll (this was long before non-CRT tvs were available), and meanwhile they'd have the higher priced ones set perfectly to get people to pay more.
Standard? (Score:5, Insightful)
There is no such thing as a "standard" graphics card
Re:Standard? (Score:5, Insightful)
Optiplex is in Dell's business section, so people here are expected to have some idea what's going on (or hire somebody who does).
Unless, ofcourse, the business in question is one of the millions of mom & pop shops that need a basic PC to help with the bookkeeping.
There's a difference between "buyer beware" and outright lying to your customers.
Re:Standard? (Score:4, Informative)
I doubt that. All the five Optiplex workstations we had at my old work had different hardware despite officially being identical Optiplex models. It made supporting them hell. Optiplex is the cheap crap of business hardware, and what hardware they actually contains depends on what was available cheapest by Dell when throwing the machine together.
I can barely read this article, must get new video (Score:2)
Analog vs digital, maybe (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe Dell is comparing the VGA port of onboard graphics vs. DVI/HDMI of a discrete card. I do notice a difference between VGA and DVI on a 17" monitor.
Re:Analog vs digital, maybe (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Analog vs digital, maybe (Score:5, Interesting)
1920x1080 over an SVGA port with a low quality cable looks absolutely horrible,
The problem is almost always caused by the sync on the monitor being slightly out of phase with the clock on the graphics card. Back in ye olde days of TFT monitors, before DVI (I had one--I was an early adopter), the auto adjustment was not especially good and you had to tweak the phase slightly using the on-screen controls to get a pin-sharp image. With even really cheap monitors these days, the analog sync is exceptionally good compared to what it was. Almost all crappiness can be fixed by pressing the auto-adjust button.
I regularly use a TFT monitor driven with an analog cable at 1920x1200, and it's one of those modern, thin super cheap looking VGA cables. It looks great.
BTW, VGA is pretty forgiving on short cables. The frequencies aren't that high and any even moderately passable co-ax will do fine, and cheap modern coax is manufacturered to an astonishingly high spec.
And yes, I am a pixel nazi, like the visual equivalent of golden ears. I work in image processing, so I am very sensitive to things like ringing, JPEG artefacts, mismatched resolutions, phase errors, dithering, etc.
Re:Analog vs digital, maybe (Score:5, Funny)
I should mention that the VGA cable that was supplied with the monitor is the thickest one I have handled and I have seen a few.
I normally don't like to do this, but wow... that's what she said!
Re:Analog vs digital, maybe (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, but that difference is about an order of magnitude more subtle than shown on Dell's site.
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And even the cheapest on-board graphics come with a DVI port these days.
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Re:Analog vs digital, maybe (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Analog vs digital, maybe (Score:5, Funny)
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Maybe Dell is comparing the VGA port of onboard graphics vs. DVI/HDMI of a discrete card. I do notice a difference between VGA and DVI on a 17" monitor.
I agree there is a discernible difference between analog and dvi output quality, though on an advertisement image that size and quality both would be indistinguishable at native resolutions for the display.
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I have two 22" LCDs right here and I can switch them back and forth and can't tell any difference in where they are connected. They have different color temperatures even, so any difference ought to be even more obvious. The quality of your RAMDAC is way more important than anything else unless you have a crazy long cable.
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On a 17" monitor? Unless the AD/DA converters on your video card and the monitor are totally shoddy, I highly doubt it. Running 1680x1050 out of an Intel onboard card via VGA into a Samsung 223BW right now, and there is absolutely no difference between that and DVI or HDMI.
Sure, if the monitor you're using has crappy VGA inputs or you're using a crappy cable, yes, you'll have problems - problems which are nonexistent with a digital connection (there you'll just have no signal at all)... but it's not correct
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Yea, I can use 1920x1440@85Hz on my CRT monitor and it is not blurry. Also, this resolution requires much higher quality cable (because the pixel clock frequency is very high) than 1920x1080@60Hz
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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Actually, WDDM 1.0 (Vista) drivers require the graphics card support DX9. WDDM 1.1 drivers require the graphics card support DX10. Fortunately, Win7 still can use XP display drivers (Win8 won't able to and will fallback to Microsoft Basic Display Adapter).
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Maybe. So what would have been preferable? I've gotten by with onboard graphics for years, doing no more than video processing and photography, and as a console gamer, video cards are just something I don't think about. I'm assuming that the sell is that discrete video cards offer better features for intense gaming, and that integrated graphics will eventually disappoint when the user tries to play AAA game title. Dell could just provide performance metrics, but numbers really are meaningless to most consum
Non-native resolution can be blurry (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe Dell is comparing the VGA port of onboard graphics vs. DVI/HDMI of a discrete card. I do notice a difference between VGA and DVI on a 17" monitor.
If the monitor is a flat panel and its native resolution is not VGA, or an exact multiple of VGA, then the image can appear blurry. Every play an old fixed resolution 640x480 game on a modern flat panel?
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Besides, the aspect ratio would be slightly different if that were the case, but in this case it is not.
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I've used VGA on a 17" for years on an aging graphics card, and it never looked as bad as the Dell picture.
If may be a bit more fuzzy, but I could still see individual pixels and there's really no reason why the colors would be that flat.
Don't Dell TFT's have contrast/brightness settings?
Re:Analog vs digital, maybe (Score:5, Insightful)
I've used VGA on a 17" for years on an aging graphics card, and it never looked as bad as the Dell picture.
If may be a bit more fuzzy, but I could still see individual pixels and there's really no reason why the colors would be that flat.
Don't Dell TFT's have contrast/brightness settings?
Of course they do. This image has been knocked up in photoshop and they even tell you that on the image. The bit saying "images shown are for demonstrative purposes only" literally translates into "we knocked this shit up in photoshop" when you translate it from legalese marketing speak into plain english.
They all have Display Port (Score:2)
I'd have more sympathy for them and your comment if their monitors didn't come with Display Port and every model of Optiplex bar one seems to come with displayport as well for their integrated graphics adapters.
Money does not need to be spent for some mythical increase in contrast ratio (which is what they are showing on the website, and contrast ratio is one thing which does not improve going from VGA to DVI/HDMI/DP). There's only a barely noticeable increase in sharpness in many cases.
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Most likely because you didn't need it that much. As I use a CRT monitor, probably the first thing I would do after finding that limit would be to google for a solution.
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Wow! Cheating in advertising! Something new? (Score:5, Funny)
Why don't they put two naked chicks fondling the expensive card monitor behind it . . .?
And Roseanne Barr behind the cheapo one . . . ?
Then I would know which one to buy!
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Why don't they put two naked chicks fondling the expensive card monitor behind it . . .?
You're getting it all wrong.
Re:Wow! Cheating in advertising! Something new? (Score:5, Informative)
The big difference is that in the UK and EU there's an excellent chance that this is illegal. Strange as it may seem, unlike the US we actually require adverts to be somewhat true - and not just by tacking on a timestretched disclaimer sped up to a garble at the end. For example, the Budweiser "Fresh Beer Tastes Better" ad campaign was ultimately sunk because fresh beer does not, in fact, taste better. Although the ASA eventually cleared the advert on the basis that Bud tastes so bad it actually becomes worse as it ages, the damage was done.
I would urge as many of you that summon up the enthusiasm to send a polite email to the Advertising Standards Authority [asa.org.uk]. Since this portion of the Dell website is aimed at UK customers, they must abide by UK laws.
Re:Wow! Cheating in advertising! Something new? (Score:5, Informative)
The ASA are actually one of the most capable regulatory bodies within the UK. I've been continually impressed by them demanding peer reviewed evidence from manufacturers to support their claims, and by the decent balance their provide when people complain about adverts that go against their morals/religion.
A few years ago I read that the average number of complaints to the ASA that lead to the advert people pulled was 1.3 . In other words they take every complaint on their merit rather than from public pressure. So if you think an advert violates one of the standards, there is a good chance you can get it pulled.
The badscience forum provides an excellent Activisim section [badscience.net] that can help when constructing these complaints.
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Although the ASA eventually cleared the advert on the basis that Bud tastes so bad it actually becomes worse as it ages.
That implies that Bud tastes of something... Clearly false! NB: I've actually had some rather nice beers in the US (although they do tend to be from their mother's womb untimely ripp'd).
Back on topic, before USAians start talking about freedom of speech and censorship (personally, I couldn't care less if the adverts are censored as long as the bits in between them aren't) its worth noting that the ASA is an independent body, not an arm of Government, and the sanctions are usually limited to forcing the o
Sharp pictures (Score:2)
Spend more money (Score:5, Insightful)
Dell’s page says that its picture is for “demonstrative purposes only”
Dell should rephrase it and clearly state that this is for "promotional purposes only" instead.
Well... (Score:2)
So complain to the FTC, or to competitors who sell lower-end graphics chips. This is what truth in advertising is for.
I can't tell (Score:5, Funny)
the images look the same on my low end graphics card. I guess I should upgrade.
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Yeah.
Reminds me of the Sony TV adds ("colour like no other" i think it was) which looked pretty colourful on my 15 year old CRT at the time.
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Right? And what about all those 3D TV adverts? Those 3D TV's look pretty 2D to me on my old CRT.
Re:I can't tell (Score:5, Funny)
This is an OptiPlex (Score:2, Informative)
This is an OptiPlex, intended primarily for business-type customers and not available on Dell's "Home" section. The likelihood of a novice user stumbling to this is low.
Not saying it's fair of them, but still--and their "help me choose" pages are rarely representative of the actual choices, anyway (this being an exception, except it's misleading).
Re:This is an OptiPlex (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not just misleading, it's actually lying. The pictures are accompanied by the phrase "Images shown are for demonstrative purposes only". But they're not demonstrative of anything like the difference between a high-end and low-end graphics card.
The fact that it's for business users does not in any way excuse Dell for flat-out lying to customers.
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I have no idea what they mean by "financial
It's ok! (Score:2)
Images shown are for demonstrative purposes only.
Minecraft (Score:4, Interesting)
Not a suprise (Score:2)
Image in article is not the real one (Score:5, Funny)
Digging a little deeper. (Score:5, Interesting)
From the look of the two monitors on the 'example' page, it looks like they're showing 27 or 30 inch monitors. If that's true, then the comparison of the 'low end' Radeon 3450 at a max of 1920x1200 to a 3470 or higher with a max resolution of 2560x1600 (the native resolution of a 30 inch monitor) will look something close to the example photos.
Not labeling the examples with the types of cards used, resolutions, sizes, etc is close to unconscionable for a business computer comparison / assist site.
The funny thing is that even if that's true, then the lowest end baseline integrated intel graphics chip would match the high end in display resolution, and therefore, sharpness on any monitor Dell sells.
It's the idea that counts. (Score:2)
It's advertising, and because we know better about monitors, it's clearly not for us. But think of, say, laundry detergent commercials. The latest always makes your clothes whiter and removes more stains than the "leading brand". Well, the commercial has been the same for 50 years. And so have the detergents, more or less...
All that matters is the warning at the bottom. Think of cigarettes. They kill you, but as long as they told you so.
Dear Friends! (Score:5, Funny)
Dell super video is much good. Much much gooder than standard picture. Definition is very high! Don't buy cheap standard video!
Buy Dell video, I rating A++++++++++! Very happy very sharp picture!
Marketing needs to be simplified ... (Score:2)
Most people care about the results, not the specifications. Indeed, most people don't understand the background information required to understand specifications. So the marketeers have to simplify things. Which is awfully hard to do when you're talking about a static image on a website, which would make low end video appear on par with high end video. So they simplify things.
Do I agree with that simplification? Not really. Do I understand that simplification? Absolutely. After all, even though it i
Lol (Score:2, Insightful)
And the sad part is, I remember when Dell didn't have to resort to cheap tricks to sell PCs. Speccing in non-standard and substandard parts, plus rolling over for every sad business brain-fart has destroyed that company. Such a pity, at one time their Just-In-Time business model was seen as a something of a wonder.
Try a new tactic. Go back to doing what made you successful in the first place. Put on a black turtleneck (if you must), and inform your customers that while their money means a lot to you, you si
Re:Lol (Score:5, Insightful)
If that laptop doesn't have at least 8 GBs of RAM and a 1 TB 7200 RPM HD or 256 GB SSD, with a separate video card, it cannot be sold. Your company depends on repeat business, correct?
I don't disagree with your point, but I think your "minimum" specs are a little high. 1 TB 7200 rpm 2.5" HDDs don't even exist yet in the 9.5mm format that will actually fit inside most laptops. And if it has discrete graphics, then I'm not buying it. I value battery runtime over flashy graphics, and I doubt I'm the only one. And given that even the i945 integrated graphics in my five year old laptop can do flashy graphics (compiz) at 1920x1080 just fine, I doubt any modern chip couldn't. Unless you play games or run CAD software, discrete graphics are overkill.
HAHAHA (Score:2)
It even blurs the stickers on the screen!
xD
Advertisiing Standards don't seem to work (Score:5, Insightful)
I know that in Europe we have fairly strong advertising standards regulation and in theory every ad is supposed to be "legal, decent honest and truthful". I see the odd case of outrageous ads being challenged but for the most part we get exactly the same litany of gullible customers being sold products they don't need: €100 hdmi cables, ultimate broadband for Facebook browsing etc.
I am not sure that any amount of regulation can stop it. I have become quite resigned to the whole business and I accept it as a kind of ignorance tax. While I can be smug about the fact that I am knowledgeable enough about tech products to avoid paying this ignorance tax I am quite sure that in other areas where I am less knowledgeable I am probably duped into paying more than I should.
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As I posted above [slashdot.org] if you complain to the ASA there is a good chance that your complaint will be heard and actually take effect. No need to resign ourselves to our lying corporate overlords.
The Asa also recently increased their remit for what advertising they will regulate.
From March 1st 2011, the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the CAP Code) has applied in full to marketing messages online, including the rules relating to misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children. Journalistic and editorial content and material related to causes and ideas - except those that are direct solicitations of donations for fund-raising - are excluded from the remit. Previously, our remit online was limited to paid-for ads (such as pop-ups and banner ads) and sales promotions wherever they appeared.
Unfortunately since it doesn't cover "Journalistic and editorial content", they are unable to get involved where a journalist has been clearly paid to write a glowing yet inaccurate endorsement of a product.
Truth in Advertising... (Score:2)
Jumbo Shrimp
Military Intelligence
and Friendly Fire
Words that have no business being said next to one another for 800 Alex!
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't have a problem with this (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean, how else would you quickly and efficiently explain 3D acceleration to someone who has no idea what it is? Let's same I have a game and I want to run it at 30 frames per second. On a low-end card, I have to turn the details down and decrease the resolution to get the same speed - in other words, make it "blurrier." On the high-end card, I crank everything up and it looks nicer. Dell didn't want to get into the whole give and take of speed / detail / resolution, that's not who this guide is for. Blurrier is a good enough representation of those technicalities.
If there's anything wrong with this, it's that they used a desktop instead of a game screenshot. I supposed that potentially could cause someone to upgrade who had no legitimate need for a nicer graphics card. But with Aero and whatever desktop nonsense there is now, it's not that misleading.
And there you go. The first time, and probably the last time, that I've stood up for Dell.
Submitted to Consumerist (Score:3)
I submitted the following to Consumerist. I looked for somewhere to tell Dell, "thought you'd like to know, I've submitted the following to Consumerist" but couldn't find any place to submit it. Whatever happened to old-fashioned contact pages? It looks like all the many ways to contact them involve signing in to Dell, Facebook, Twitter, or Google+. Bah.
=== submitted to Consumerist ===
Dell is engaging in faulty advertising. The image in the link is misleading. The different graphics cards would show a Windows desktop the same. There would be other differences between the cards, but that's not one of them. Here are links to Dell, Reddit, and Slashdot.
Dell:
http://content.dell.com/uk/en/business/d/help-me-choose/hmc-video-card-vostro-dt.aspx?ref=CFG
Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/mle4f/is_this_image_on_the_dell_website_complete_bcks/
PC Pro:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2011/11/23/dells-unhelpful-graphics-card-buying-advice/
Slashdot:
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/11/24/022247/dells-misleading-graphics-card-buying-advice
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Not exactly as accurate as knowing the difference between aspect ratios, but close enough
This video is in this shape, but the screen is in another shape so if I make it fill the entire screen it will get distorted. Easy enough to explain
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Most people atleast realise that they are watching distorted TV (helps that my home setup consists of a 25inch CRT 4:3 and a 32 inch LCD 16:9 side by side, fed from the same source so its very easy to show the distortion side by side)
Some will still insist on distorting the image since they "paid for a 32 inch TV, so will use all 32 inches"
Re:Meh. (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this really worth any kind of discussion?
The people who would be fooled by this, would not have the capacity to adjust their monitor settings in Windows, let alone possess the skill necessary to Photoshop an image's brightness and contrast.
So you're saying it's okay to defraud people if they're ignorant?
Here's a tip: everyone's ignorant about something. In fact, everyone's ignorant about most things. You know enough to spot the fraud in the Dell ad, great, good for you. But I guarantee you that there are people working very hard to part you from your money who will do their best to find the gaps in your knowledge -- and they will find those gaps, because you have just as many of them as everyone else does.
Normally, when (not if, when) that happens, people will be sympathetic. In your case, they'll point and laugh.
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Tests done by Anandtech and other people indicate an underwhelming performance on these CPUs so I was a little confused as to why they would resort to such a cheap and fraudulent marketing trick, but I have now figured out what this is all about. (...) Microsoft used to charge their server software on a per-CPU basis or per-chip basis but they are already transitioning into a per-core license model starting with their SQL Server Enterprise 2012. So, by doubling the core count instead of just calling it hyperthreading, they can generate twice the license income for software producers.
So your conclusion is that AMD did this to increase the total cost of their platform, making their chips less attractive to buy? You're rambling without making any sense.
Re: (Score:2)