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Comment by unicornmama | Hacker News Reader

As a consumer I would prefer it. If all they did was narrow selection it would be a win. An online search for 3080 RTX yields more brand flavors than a toothpaste aisle. Except consumers can understand toothpaste flavors. No idea why we need dozens of otherwise indistinguishable video card variations.

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> Except consumers can understand toothpaste flavors.

Can we? Here's the currently available US flavors / varieties of ONE brand, Colgate:

    Advanced White Charcoal Toothpaste
    Advanced White Toothpaste
    Anti-Tartar + Whitening Toothpaste
    Cavity Protection Toothpaste
    Charcoal Natural Extracts Charcoal Toothpaste
    Colgate Baby Toothpaste 0-2 years
    Colgate Kids Magic Toothpaste 6-9 years
    Colgate Kids Toothpaste 3-5 years
    Cool Stripe Toothpaste
    Deep Clean With Baking Soda Toothpaste
    Elixir Cool Detox Toothpaste
    Elixir Gum Booster Toothpaste
    Elixir White Restore Toothpaste
    Gum Invigorate Detox Toothpaste
    Gum Invigorate Toothpaste
    Max Fresh Cooling Crystals Toothpaste
    Max White & Protect Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Charcoal Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Crystals Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Expert Anti-Stain Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Expert Complete Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Expert Original Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Expert Shine Glossy Mint Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Extra Care Enamel Protect Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Extra Care Sensitive Protect Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Luminous Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White One Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Optic Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Sparkle Diamonds Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Ultimate Catalyst Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Ultimate Renewal Whitening Toothpaste
    Max White Ultra Active Foam Toothpaste
    Max White Ultra Freshness Pearls Toothpaste
    Maximum Cavity Protection 3+ Kids' Toothpaste
    Maximum Cavity Protection Fresh Mint Toothpaste
    Maximum Cavity Protection Toothpaste
    Nature IQ Enamel Repair Toothpaste
    PerioGard Gum Protection + Sensitive Toothpaste
    PerioGard Gum Protection Toothpaste
    Sensitive Instant Relief Enamel Repair
    Sensitive Instant Relief Enamel Repair Toothpaste
    Sensitive Instant Relief Multiprotection
    Sensitive Instant Relief Repair & Prevent
    Sensitive Instant Relief Whitening
    Sensitive Sensifoam Multi Protection Toothpaste
    Sensitive With Sensifoam Toothpaste
    Total Active Fresh Toothpaste
    Total Advanced Clean Gel Toothpaste
    Total Advanced Deep Clean Toothpaste
    Total Advanced Enamel Health Toothpaste
    Total Advanced Gum Care
    Total Advanced Pure Breath Toothpaste
    Total Advanced Sensitive Care
    Total Original Toothpaste
    Total Plaque Protection Toothpaste
    Total Visible Proof Toothpaste
    Total Whitening Toothpaste
    Triple Action Original Mint Toothpaste

I'm an adult male. My dentist has not informed me of any particular concerns. I wouldn't mind my teeth being a bit whiter. Which of these am I supposed to buy? Or am I supposed to buy a product from one of the other brands of the same manufacturer... Elmex, Meridol, several others, each of which has their own outrageously long lineups. Or look at a different manufacturer?

You're obviously supposed to conduct a double-blind longitudinal study over the course of many years, with at least 30 participants in each group, for every single sub-brand you listed.

Also, make sure there's no conflict of interest at any point in the studies.

One of my professors described Toothbrush buying as the absolute most pathological case for the Paradox of Choice: dozens of ostensibly differentiated products, all in basically the same price range, all basically affordable, with no real way as a consumer to discern their efficacy or quality. You'll use the product for the next 6 months to a year, and if you pick the wrong one, your breath will stink, your teeth will fall out, and you'll need expensive surgery.

If your teeth fall out after 6 months of bad toothpaste, perhaps you should stop eating sugar and drinking battery acid :)

On the other hand, if you've been eating sugar and drinking battery acid all along and your teeth haven't fallen out yet, please let me know what kind of toothpaste you've been using.

What were they a professor of? I don't see a paradox of choice here; none of those Colgate products, or anything else sitting on the shelf that's ADA accepted, is going to rot your teeth.

It is, however, a classic result of oligopoly. Oligopolists compete among themselves--and, more importantly, prevent entry from newcomers--by hyper differentiating their products. The "artificial" product differentiation also makes comparison-shopping harder and softens price competition between the oligopolists. It's a really fascinating, kind of counter-intuitive, but well known dynamic.

E.g., Crest offers a slightly differentiated product--"gleaming white plus plus" or whatever--and Colgate responds with "extra pearly white super plus."

Or a newcomer tries to sell "natural something," so the oligopolists introduce "natural stuff" and "pure friendly paste" to prevent customers that like the sound of "natural" from defecting to the newcomer.

Hotels are the classic case. Hilton and Marriott have tons of brands. Take extended stays for example. Marriott has three extended-stay hotel brands. No one thinks extended-stay hotel customers started a letter-writing campaign to Marriot saying, "I really want an extended-stay hotel that's just like Residence Inn, but with a different color combination. That's where you should invest your money. I don't need nicer furniture or lower prices, thank you. Just give me the new color scheme, thanks."

The dynamic is a counterintuitive feature of oligopolies, but it's very well known. But academia is hyper-specialized, so, yeah, everyone sees their own pet theory in everything.

Professional cleaning at home! * by removing surface stains

Restore tooth enamel! * contains flouride which promotes remineralisation

Appear universally on toothpaste ads in the UK

> My dentist has not informed me of any particular concerns

So my dentist did actually explain stuff to me, and generally you want something less abrasive.

Brush more frequently (every meal), but not for long, and using a very soft brush, with the primary goal of raising ph above acidic levels, and increasing gum blood flow.

CTx4, Sensodyne pronamel, something like that.

So if the main distinction I'm looking for is abrasiveness... does that mean that the key differentiator is completely undocumented to customers?

Is it whitening toothpaste? That's abrasive.

I think that was EVGA's point: Nvidia is highly abrasive.

Right, almost nobody ever stops to ask what makes a good toothpaste.

Pretty much.

Although I would recommend specifically Sensodyne 'ProNamel' because it contains BioMin F, which afaik is one of the few ingredients beyond fluoride to show efficacy at remineralizing damaged enamel. It does technically require a prescription in the US, but its easy enough to find grey-market.

edit: Had novamin confused with BioMin.

Toothpaste was a bad example, OP's original point is still good IMO. Sometimes analogies fail, that doesn't mean that the main point isn't valid anymore.

There is a dizzying mix of GPU brands and offerings out there. Some have better cooling than others. It is a giant mixed bag just like the toothpaste example.

It's made funnier by the fact that I've never had a dentist who's cared. I asked a couple and each time got the line that the physical act of brushing matters much more than the type of toothpaste. I vaguely remember one saying "as long as it has fluoride"

I think every toothpaste ad says "4 out of 5 dentists recommend" their brand because 4 out of 5 dentists says "Yeah sure. Okay, use that one. It doesn't matter. Just brush and floss regularly and methodically"

I love this comment. I get what the parent commenter was trying to say, but selecting toothpaste as the shining example of clear and accessible consumer choice is really funny.

Customers also understand fan speed and cooling, which cards can compete on. Less noise, or more overclocking ability. Different additional software which may or may not have any value for you.

Here's the top three search results from the most popular online store in my country:

- MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti VENTUS 3X 12G OC - Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING OC 10G LHR - ASUS GeForce TUF RTX 3080 GAMING

I know TI means beatter - not sure how much better. What the hell is a Ventus? Is it Ventus 3x or just 3x? Also what is being 3x-ed here? I assume OC means overclocked - which only raises more eyebrows. Presumably 12G is better than 10G - I haven't seen any games with graphics memory requirements since games came in box sets and we counted things in megabytes not gigabytes. The ASUS card I guess is memoryless [I kidd], but comes with something called a TUF - I guess that's better than a mere OC? LHR means London Heathrow - I hope the Gigabyte card provides a more enjoyable experience than a trip to LHR. Good to know that the last two cards for gaming, I was afraid I'd buy a $1000+ graphics card that I cannot use for games.

Imagine if Apple + friends would market phones as "ASUS IPHONE 13 Vroom 2x 8GB NRT".

TL;DR I want to buy a card to play Elden Ring at 4k that won't make my computer sound like a 747 about to take-off. I don't want to spend my weekend on Reddit dissertations to decypher some marketers idea of high-tech hieroglyphics just so I can understand what I'm buying.

Like all other parts for custom PC building, you can either arbitrarily pick a pricepoint and a cool-sounding name and slap it together, or you can read benchmark comparisons and have a rough idea what works best for you. Should I buy an Intel CPU or AMD? Which of the dozen models from each brand? Motherboards, power supplies, cases, coolers, this staggering array of choice is everywhere throughout the custom PC space. You also have the option to not deal with it and buy a full PC from an OEM or system integrator, even Dell if you hate both yourself and your money.

PS the 3080 and the 3080 Ti are different GPUs, so that is nothing to do with the AIB manufacturers, that's Nvidia directly. Like an Apple M1 vs M1 Ultrapromax.

ONE source for all Nvidia GPUs is preferable? No thanks.

Hell, if only because the reference cards use those shitty tiny loud blower fans, at least the ones in my price range.

I DGAF about the leds and bullshit but I want quiet fans.

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