You’re shopping around in the local retail electronics store, looking around for the latest and the greatest in parts for your new computer. As soon as you get to the aisle, you are bombarded with flashy names and complex prefixes that you have no idea what they are – they sound sweet. That’s the type of experience that these manufacturers want you to have. Whether it’d be naming schemes with Intel and AMD or graphics card prefixes with nVidia and ATI, it’s one sure way to confuse you, the consumers.

Let’s take a look at Intel. With all the buzz on Intel’s new Core architecture, one glaring label caught my eye. Intel decided to change its model naming scheme for the second time in less than three years. With its new core architecture, the microprocessor giant decided that its naming scheme wasn’t good enough. In Intel’s most recent naming scheme, thermal design point (TDP), type or processor, processor clock speed, FSB, and many other factors are considered into a five character alphanumeric branding scheme. The names consist of a letter followed by four numbers. The letter represents its thermal design point. A “T” represents a high TDP of around 25W to 49W, while a “L” represents a low TDP of around 15W to 24W. The following digit denotes the brand of processor. A “1″ currently represents a Core Solo, or single core processor while a “2″ currently represents a Core Duo, or a dual core processor. The following three digits are rated performance. The higher the number, the higher the rated performance of the chip.

Before that, Intel used a plain three-digit naming scheme on its Pentium-D/EE, latter Pentium 4, Celeron D, and Celeron-M processors. The first digit represents the brand of the processor. Pentium 4 uses a “5xx”, or “6xx”. Dual core processors Pentium-D and Pentium-Extreme Edition (EE) use the “8xx” and “9xx” naming scheme. All Celeron-D processors use the “3xx” digits. The Pentium-M in the Centrino uses “7xx”. The last two digits of these names, which have “x” on them, denote rated performance within the processor family. A Pentium 4 550 will therefore be rated faster than a Pentium 4 540.

And even earlier, Intel was a pioneer on the “gigahertz system” – simply advertising by clock speed. Even today, many people actively look for the clock speed and conclude on the performance that way. That is partially true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Back in the days of the gigahertz race, it was all about who can clock faster. Intel’s marketing team knew that its competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) cannot keep up gigahertz for gigahertz with Intel’s massive onslaught of clock speed. At face, it looked as if Intel was ahead. This method backfired, as the 4.0Ghz clock speed barrier stalled Intel’s processors.

Talking about naming schemes, AMD isn’t much better. Most of us are familiar with the xxxx+ naming scheme that is generally construed as the megahertz equivalent to Intel’s line of processors. Officially, AMD’s naming scheme is meant to be the equivalent level of performance to that of the AMD Thunderbird processors.  Who knew that? Not the average consumer – they saw 1400+ and saw it as a performance equivalent to the Pentium III 1.4 Ghz processor.

Think the processor naming scheme slightly confusing? ATI and nVidia has it much harder for the mainstream graphics card market. The numbers aren’t confusing – it’s the prefixes that are out of this world. In total, ATI has nine prefixes and nVidia has six prefixes. What more, there are three overlaps. Which one’s better, an ATI Radeon X800 GTO or an ATI Radeon X800 SE? How about the ATI Radeon X800 Pro? No one can tell at first glance.

My Take:
And this is where the computer market is right now. Consumers are met with a barrage of confusing naming games that are used not as a pure indicator of value and performance but rather as a tactic for sales. As aforementioned, Intel has changed their nomenclature twice in the past four years. AMD’s naming scheme is somewhat misleading. And the slough of prefixes by both ATI and nVidia are sure to make the consumers dizzy-eyed.

From a marketing perspective, it’s necessary to do this. Consumers don’t want the same old thing that’s been on the market for a long time – they want the new, sleek technology. There has to be an incentive to go with the new. Nothing attracts customers like big numbers and fancy prefixes. The name “Intel Pentium Extreme Edition” works for itself. The notion is that there would be an “extreme” performance by dishing out several hundred dollars for the best available product. Likewise, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ is sure to attract customers as they see that as a very speedy processor. I’m not saying that that’s untrue – the 4800+ is a very fast CPU. However, in most cases, its speeds are at least comparable to an Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego. AMD’s marketing team reasoned that the consumers would see the 4800+ (as in 4.8Ghz) and see Intel’s 3.8Ghz. The choice is easy, then.

With graphics cards, there seem to be no rules on how many prefixes can be made up. For ATI, the generally accepted performance order (from best to worst) is: XTX, XT PE, XT, XL, GTO, GT, Pro, Vanilla, SE. For nVidia, it’s Ultra, GTX, GT, Vanilla, SE/XT, then LE. Are mainstream consumers expected to remember all that? Sure hope not. To add to the confusion, an ATI Radeon X800 XT is a high-end card. An nVidia GeForce 6800 XT is a mid to low-end card, meant to denote a “crippled” version of a GF6800. And four years ago, there were only three designations for ATI (Pro, Vanilla, SE) and two for nVidia (Ultra, Vanilla). Boy, do I miss those days.

But does this matter to the average consumer? A general rule to keep in mind is this: you get what you pay for. The more you pay, the more you get. Swamped by a hieroglyphic of computer nomenclature, the manufacturers have successfully created a ramped confusion among consumers. In the end, though, remember that it’s all about the sales.

Like what you read?

If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below: