Ok, who here thinks that sofware bundles with video cards are useless?

[Muerto]

One thing I wish more video card manufacturers would stop doing is including software bundles with their products. All they do is increase the overall cost. And usually they're just demos and other useless things. If I want a game I'll go buy it off the shelf!

This especially pisses me off with cards like the GF2 where I'm already paying $300 anyway. I think the Creative Labs Annihilator 2 is a great card for that reason, it costs about $50 less than most other GF2's. This is what a video card package should come with:

1 video card
1 well written user's manual
1 CD with drivers
Any other accessories (adapters, cables, etc.) and anything else required to run the card.

That's it, nothing more nothing less. What do you guys think? Thanks.

 

[beat mania]

just buy oem

 

[Mday]

yep.

when was the last time you saw a well written user's manual ?

still looking

 

[Czar]

Abit allways writes good and big manuals, but they are useless anyhow, you dont need a manual, you need a driver cd, a card and some cords. Thats it.

Its allways nice to get some tech demos to, for show of.

 

[beat mania]

Umm, if you don't have anything that's not a demo or pack in game that can remotely show off the power of your new video card, maybe you shouldn't spend the money on it. Just a thought.

 

[LXi]

I like software bundles, it always makes the choice easy if two products are priced similarly and one has bundle the other doesnt. Free games, saves me hassle going out buy them seperately and end up paying even more. Smart companies knows how to bundle without adding extra cost, most of the time video cards with bundles are not more expensive than the others.

 

[peemo]

Best idea would be to give the buyer credit for three (or so) full length games which could be ordered free from participating game producers. This way you could choose what you want. I never look at demos & movies cause they justhave the potential to fOck up your machine and don't offer a real idea of the final product.

 

[Sunner]

LXi, what if the one that had a bundle didnt, and got $50 cheaper?
Wouldnt that be even better?

 

[LXi]

Usually video cards come with 2 or 3 games. Which exceeds the $50 value. Still in my mind, a better buy. Unless the video card that's $50 cheaper performed better or has extra features.

Edit: Also, it depends if I like the bundled games or not, if the games they offer sucks, I would go with the one w/o bundle and save $50. But usually they bundle good games.

 

[Sunner]

Understandable if you like the games, though Ive never gotten a good game in a bundle as far as I can remember.
The last few years Ive had the following cards:
Asus V3000(Riva128), Creative Voodoo2 12 MB, Asus V3400(TNT 16 MB) Voodoo3-3K AGP, Creative TNT2-Ultra 32 MB, Creative Annihilator Pro.
And I think the time spent with all the games I got is like 10 hours total.
But its a matter of perference I guess.

 

[LXi]

Well you're buying from manufacturers that dont offer game bundles. Asus rarely offers a game bundle, Creative NEVER EVER offered a game bundle. One of the main reason why I dont like Creative's video cards, cause they never come in with extra features, bundles, or speed advantage whatsoever over the others. The bundle of the V3 3000 is very nice, NFS3(my favorite), UT(my favorite), and Descent3(good game). See, if I purchased V3, it would've saved me at least $80 from buying NFS3 and UT seperately, cause I bought TNT2u(bundled with Kingpin and SpeedBusters, both OK games).

 

[oldfart]

Agree with LXi. Once in awhile, you actually get a good bundle. The V3 3000 was great. I paid $130 for the card, got a $30 rebate and UT, NFS for free. My V3 is the best value I've ever had in a video card.

 

[Marty]

Another vote for the V3's bundle. NFS3, Unreal, and UT.

marty

 

[sd]

I say reduce the cost of the vid card at the expense of the software bundle.

 

[Horsepower]

I say useless, and the drivers are outdated, too.

 

[Splortch]

I don't think that bundles are necessarily useless. My STB Riva 128 4 meg pci came with Motoracer, i76, and fifa soccer 97 or something. Motoracer is a very cool game and i76 was okay at the time. I played fifa once, didn't like it. I still listen to the Motoracer soundtrack! My Creative Labs TNT2 Ultra 32 meg came with nothing extra, just a driver cd and a manual. The truth is that it is very little extra cost to include demos or even bundles with a video card, although it does jack up the price somewhat. If you don't want the software, buy oem.

 

[bluemax]

I recently purchased the V3-3000 because the game bundle made a good card a totally sweet deal. I was *SO* bummed when I learned they stopped giving away that game bundle!! :|
I was able to return the card, but I'll keep my eyes open since there's now a $30 rebate too! If I can find one in an older box that still has the games, I'll be rockin' and rollin'!

 

[Tripleshot]

Maxtor bundles some good video editing software with some of it's hdd's.I have a nice copy of adobe photo shop.And sometimes these retail bundles are on sale at the same or lower than OEM/non bundled products.

You just need to remain vigilent and think frugal.

 

[SteelyKen]

With the prices of these new cards, it oughta be REQUIRED to include a game bundle.

 

[Wizkid]

I think software bundles are useless. I don't like having to pay extra money for games/software that I will never use. However, I think it is a good idea to give a few demos with the card so that people who don't have any games have something to play

They could even put those game demos on the driver CD (how much room do driver take????) and then there would be no extra cost

 

[DataFly]

One of the main reason why I dont like Creative's video cards, cause they never come in with extra features, bundles, or speed advantage whatsoever over the others.

I'm not sure what you're talking about because my CL Annihilator Pro came with the full version of NFS:HS, the OEM version of Evolva: Scout, and various demo CDs. NFS:HS is what made me buy this over the Prophet.

 

[LXi]

Datafly: Ok, I didnt know the CLAP had a bundle. NFS:HS is my favorite game, but I already bought it.

 

[randomlinh]

Bundles are useless unless you like the game. That's just it. If you don't like it, find the OEM and save some bucks. OR, if you have a friend that may like the games, off load it to him to make up that $50 (assuming he'd take all the games).

 

[Sunner]

Actually all three of my Creative cards came with bundles, the V2 had some soccer game and G-Police, the TNT2 had rollcage and some other game, and its already been stated what the CLAP came with.
As for Asus, I got incomming in both of them.
I guess UT would count as a pretty decent game since alot of people like it, I however didnt even bother to send my "check" in, got my hands on it before that through a friend, and I hated it, so I never bothered.