War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
In the world of the PC, you'd have to be both blind and deaf to miss last week's riveting drama that became known instantly as the "NVIDIA and Intel Battle". In nearly back to back swings, both Intel and NVIDIA executives landed metaphorical punches to the gut of one another in attempt to show analysts, stock holders and, we assume they still matter, PC users, why their companies are going to be the technology leaders for the future computing. There were days of bickering between NVIDIA and Intel and though we'll hold our opinions on the particulars of this battle for another day, there was one surprising omission from the debate:
AMD.
Yes the company is having financial difficulties that many have used as bait for a potential takeover or buy out, but I am going to spend this time to discuss why I think both Intel and NVIDIA are overlooking a still-competitive opponent which could turn out to be a drastic mistake.
Re: War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
Ryan, thank you so much for the well thought out and informative article. Thanks even more so for remaining unbiased throughout your reviews/articles.
I always try to do so myself, but normaly end up offending both parties more than if I had actualy taken a side. *sigh*
Personaly (though personaly I find myself pessimistic) I don't think AMD/ATI's chances of surviving the next few years are too good. I hope they do, but don't spend too much time on it.
Also, lately I find myself supporting AMD/ATI, while still remaining unbiased in my opinions, I want them to make some sort of breakthrough and grab hold of some more market share.
I remain unbiased, yet supportive of one side with thoughts like this:
"IF AMD DIES WE (consumers) ALL LOOSE!! EVEN IF IT IS ONLY MARGINAL, COMPETITION IS STILL COMPETITION, BUT WITHOUT AMD IN THE PICTURE INTEL AND (for the time being) NVIDIA WILL HAVE FREE REIGN OVER THE MARKET!!! What that means is that they will be free to set their own prices from that time forward, AND they no longer have any incentive to develop newer, better, products."
When companies fight, it is left to the consumer to reap the benefits.
Re: War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
I owned both ATI and nVidia stock long ago when nvidia went public.
Sold nvidia long ago and wish I hadn't.
Since the merger went through, I know own AMD stock.
It is in my best interest that AMD does well and it's killing me that they don't have exactly what I want yet and I need a replacment for my Athlon 64 754 socket system.
As nice as Intel's offerings are, I can't buy Intel because I'm shooting myself in the foot and couldn't complain about my earnings.
I'm holding out for either a good ATX sized 780G/SB700 (Not micro-atx) or when they finally decide to pop out some ATX 790FX/SB700 boards.
Re: War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
After some searching I realized a couple things.
No Firewire although not a huge deal breaker.
Also, no extra USB cables appear to come with it so that's an added expense that puts this motherboard on the pricey side.
Also it is possible that newegg is simply charging too much.
I noticed that about them in recent times...
Another thought, the MSI K9A2 Platinum seems like a good choice seeing it comes with a lot for the money.
Would be nice to have an updated version with the SB700.
I like the added benefit of better cooling.
Re: War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan
In the world of the PC, you'd have to be both blind and deaf to miss last week's riveting drama that became known instantly as the "NVIDIA and Intel Battle". In nearly back to back swings, both Intel and NVIDIA executives landed metaphorical punches to the gut of one another in attempt to show analysts, stock holders and, we assume they still matter, PC users, why their companies are going to be the technology leaders for the future computing. There were days of bickering between NVIDIA and Intel and though we'll hold our opinions on the particulars of this battle for another day, there was one surprising omission from the debate:
AMD.
Yes the company is having financial difficulties that many have used as bait for a potential takeover or buy out, but I am going to spend this time to discuss why I think both Intel and NVIDIA are overlooking a still-competitive opponent which could turn out to be a drastic mistake.
Very interesting article, found it on digg.com. Infact i found it so interesting i had to register and voice my opinion.
Let me start by saying that i agree with you 100% and i belive AMD is far from out the company has been around for a very long time and if it wasnt for its recent success with the athalon they would still be in the underground making competitive processors without getting intel too mad. Which seems is what they have done. With alot of public scrutiny and alot of mistakes (mistakes that they used to make in the past as well just no one noticed) they have the image that they are in really bad shape, but i disagree, i think what you wrote makes perfect sense.
The only thing that i think you failed to mention is that NVIDIA seems to be going in a new direction teaming up with VIA on the processor front to create cheap and competitive CPU/GPU combo's that outperform intel descreete graphics. We will see what unfolds but im a firm believer that despite their stock price and ongoing public embarrassments AMD is poised for a hard comeback.
Re: War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
I thought AMD took the lead recently with their HD3870 X2 graphics cards? In the article he says NVidia has the lead but that's not what I've seen in product reviews. Or did NVidia recently release something new?
Re: War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
Also not to post three thousand times, but I also thought AMD recently took the lead in the integrated graphics department as well with it's 780G Northbridge? It was co-engineered with ATI and from what I've heard it's the fastest IGP on the market, even though it only allows poor performance from the modern DirectX 10 games.
At least it will run them, though. But mostly it's being touted as a chipset for media PC's or users concerned with High Definition playback and etcetera on their PC.
Re: War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drubie87
Also not to post three thousand times, but I also thought AMD recently took the lead in the integrated graphics department as well with it's 780G Northbridge? It was co-engineered with ATI and from what I've heard it's the fastest IGP on the market, even though it only allows poor performance from the modern DirectX 10 games.
At least it will run them, though. But mostly it's being touted as a chipset for media PC's or users concerned with High Definition playback and etcetera on their PC.
Though I would say the ati3800x2 is a good videocard, the nv9800x2 beats it in all areas, even the 8800ultra beats it in some areas.
There's an new post on anandtech benchmarking the ati780G vs nv8200. It seems the nvidia solution beats it in just about all tests. For both power efficiency and fps, but not by much.
99% of the people and maybe 80% of gamers, who buy computers will be fine with a computer spec'ed with phenom 9500/3870 and intel/nvidia equivalent, and they will feel and perform pretty much the same. It's when you move up beyond that to the top maybe 1% that AMD has no competition. What AMD/ATI has is "different" and hopefully that "different" will someday become "better" resulting in the competition trying to do the same and then it will be, for a while, "best".
Right now, AMD/ATI has great products, they just don't have the best products, and some people want the best, no matter if they need it or not. That's what makes us enthusiasts right?
AMD I'm rooting for you, behind my Intel/Nvidia bits.
__________________
What do I use my 1.5TB of space for? Well it isn't really 1.5TB it's more like 1.3TB, and that's much less space than 1.5TB.
Re: War for Visual Computing: Why AMD Could Have the Best Chance
Quote:
Originally Posted by lucegunz
Very interesting article, found it on digg.com. Infact i found it so interesting i had to register and voice my opinion.
Let me start by saying that i agree with you 100% and i belive AMD is far from out the company has been around for a very long time and if it wasnt for its recent success with the athalon they would still be in the underground making competitive processors without getting intel too mad. Which seems is what they have done. With alot of public scrutiny and alot of mistakes (mistakes that they used to make in the past as well just no one noticed) they have the image that they are in really bad shape, but i disagree, i think what you wrote makes perfect sense.
The only thing that i think you failed to mention is that NVIDIA seems to be going in a new direction teaming up with VIA on the processor front to create cheap and competitive CPU/GPU combo's that outperform intel descreete graphics. We will see what unfolds but im a firm believer that despite their stock price and ongoing public embarrassments AMD is poised for a hard comeback.
Thanks for the comments and welcome to the forums! As for the NVIDIA issue - that is something I also agree with but am saving my NVIDIA and Intel discussion for a separate piece.
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