AMD FX 8-Core Processor Black Edition promo vid.

[Vesku]

Woah there FrozenTundra1-6, Intel does have the best IPC x86 cpu on the market and they do have the best fabrication facilities. Does that mean AMD should further help Intel by reminding people of that in their own marketing, heck no. In fact, I think bringing back the FX branding was one of their better decisions. Remind people that the 80Lbs AMD sometimes wins a round against the 800Lbs Intel. That's assuming BD at least beats SB when running embarrassingly multi-threaded applications. The Fusion and Vision marketing is less a problem of overreaching claims and more about not creating a lasting impression.

 

[jvroig]

Yea, although personally I have been revising my personal expectations of performance downward for quite some time now.

I just expect it to be better than Deneb & Thuban in performance, power consumption, and thermals. I have stopped wondering if it would beat Intel's offerings.

As long as it ends up significantly better than Thuban in the areas mentioned above, I personally won't consider it a failure, and look forward to better iterations of it. I won't necessarily buy it though, as that would still depend on the competition. But at least they won't be failures in my book.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

So you admit that intel has a superior architecture. Whatever the reason, it is immaterial. Better is better. End of Story. And AMDs architecture is more like 5 years old than 2.

And if AMD was willing to admit that they were just competeting in the low end on price, I could understand that. But they try to market everything they do as the next great advance. "The future is Fusion". Maybe it is, but they will have to make a chip with both better CPU performance and better graphics than the one they have out now.

And Bulldozer was supposed to be way faster than Sandy Bridge, but we have yet to see it, much less tell if it is faster. So all I am saying is AMD talks a good game, but I have yet to see them back it up in the CPU area.

So anyway, whatever it is we are arguing about, you are right. Dont let the facts confuse you.

Having a superior architecture does not equal having a faster CPU. So now you're proposing we argue that a single-core Celeron G440 (Sandy Bridge) is faster than a Phenom II X4?

Also, who said Bulldozer was supposed to be way faster than Sandy Bridge? Your behind?

And "the Future is Fusion" is what it says. AMD is betting on their APUs to make up a very significant portion of the market. Don't know why you have this notion that you need to be the fastest to be the best. You only need to be the fastest for the target demographic at a target price point. Success is calculated by how much influence and sales a product had on the market.

 

[Idontcare]

Having a superior architecture does not equal having a faster CPU. So now you're proposing we argue that a single-core Celeron G440 (Sandy Bridge) is faster than a Phenom II X4?

Also, who said Bulldozer was supposed to be way faster than Sandy Bridge? Your behind?

And "the Future is Fusion" is what it says. AMD is betting on their APUs to make up a very significant portion of the market. Don't know why you have this notion that you need to be the fastest to be the best. You only need to be the fastest for the target demographic at a target price point. Success is calculated by how much influence and sales a product had on the market.

Its true, history is replete with examples of technically inferior products trumping their technically superior rivals.

Heck, one need look no farther than x86 itself and what it did to the world of big-iron hardware these past 20 yrs.

The DEC Alpha was bar-none a technically superior product in its time, but the company still managed to land itself in bankruptcy.

Cray didn't exactly take over the world of computing either, but they held the technologically superior design on multiple occasions.

 

[podspi]

I just expect it to be better than Deneb & Thuban in performance, power consumption, and thermals. I have stopped wondering if it would beat Intel's offerings.

As long as it ends up significantly better than Thuban in the areas mentioned above, I personally won't consider it a failure, and look forward to better iterations of it. I won't necessarily buy it though, as that would still depend on the competition. But at least they won't be failures in my book.

I am hoping the FX-6xxx is better than a hypothetical 32nm Thuban. Although, there are many dimensions of better

 

[ed29a]

And Bulldozer was supposed to be way faster than Sandy Bridge

[Citation needed]

 

[busydude]

I am hoping the FX-6xxx is better than a hypothetical 32nm Thuban. Although, there are many dimensions of better

If 6xxx does not beat Thuban.. AMD BD team should collectively resign and never ever touch a computer that is based on x86 processor.

 

[soccerballtux]

Yes, exactly. Consistency in message. When has AMD ever had a consistent message?

when have they ever had a TV ad? Ever? I've never seen one. There's gobs of people who still say "well I've never had a problem with Intel" and the general fear of "what if it doesn't work because it's not Intel?"
This is what kills AMD imo...

Who says the message has to be over TV? I hardly ever watch TV.

You already know that AMD is a viable alternative to Intel. You are not their target advertising market.

 

[PreferLinux]

AMD AMPED!

What does that mean? Why will it make me want AMD? And it makes it sound like an audio product.

Ah well, Internet nerds are definitely better at this marketing stuff than the losers working at AMD. You guys should apply for a job at AMD. Toss in a performance guarantee to sweeten the deal, like in 2 years your marketing push will increase volume shipments by 20%.

BTW, is it possible to find out how much AMD spends on marketing?

Yes, they are a public company. So find their Income Statement (you may have to find an AMD stakeholder – I don't really know), and see what it (or the notes to it) says for advertising.

 

[AtenRa]

And the the fact that a quad core AMD chip of their best architecture can barely match a dual core I2300 was the point of what I was saying. AMD's architecture is so far behind Intels that it takes four cores to match 2 cores from intel.
And do you seriously think it is fair to compare a Celeron to a triple core AMD processor?? Why dont you compare a Celeron to a Sempron??

AMD Phenom II X4 was introduced in January of 2009
Intel Core i3 2xxx was introduced in January of 2011

AMD Phenom II is manufactured in 45nm
Intel Core i3 2300 is manufactured in 32nm

Depending on how you see it, I can reverse it and say that AMD’s 2 year old CPU can compete with Intel’s latest.

Yes AMD haven’t released a new CPU design in the high end segment yet (BD will be here soon) but don’t compare an old design with an older manufacturing process against the latest of Intel.

Do that with SB vs BD

 

[Ben90]

can you make it a pie chart, they are easier to follow

This may be posted somewhere else. I got slightly lost on the forum. My bad.

 

[Ben90]

My bad double post.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Woah there FrozenTundra1-6, Intel does have the best IPC x86 cpu on the market and they do have the best fabrication facilities. Does that mean AMD should further help Intel by reminding people of that in their own marketing, heck no. In fact, I think bringing back the FX branding was one of their better decisions. Remind people that the 80Lbs AMD sometimes wins a round against the 800Lbs Intel. That's assuming BD at least beats SB when running embarrassingly multi-threaded applications. The Fusion and Vision marketing is less a problem of overreaching claims and more about not creating a lasting impression.

Well Vesku, you seem to be a reasonable person, so I will answer this post. You are right in that AMD should downplay their weaknesses. I am not a marketing person, but maybe they could somehow come up with a campaign that emphasizes value, where they are at least competitive in the low end.

I guess what I really feel is that AMD should come out with a product that lives up to its marketing. Did phenom I, no, slow and had bugs. Did Fusion? Maybe in the mobile and low power segments, but certainly not in the desktop in my opinion. And we have been hearing about Bulldozer forever it seems like, but still no chip or even performance figures.

And bringing back the FX branding will be a good move if the chip beats Sandy Bridge, which personally I doubt except in certain very specific highly threaded apps. Otherwise, it will just be a reminder of when AMD did make a superior product (note past tense).

 

[Vesku]

I could see implying great performance for dollar but they'd have to be careful to not reinforce the perception that AMD = generic. With AMD's marketing the way it is I really wouldn't want to trust them to walk that line. I don't watch much TV nowadays, does Ford put an advertising focus on their economy cars?

 

[frozentundra123456]

How about "AMD --- Just good enough"???

Settle down people, just a joke, sort of anyway.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

How about "AMD --- Just good enough"???

Settle down people, just a joke, sort of anyway.

Do you have anything else to do in this thread that's not constant trolling?

 

[drizek]

AMD : Because you won't have to buy a new heatsink!

Fact is, AMD just doesn't have the balls to do what Apple did: advertise their inferior product as being superior to what "everyone else uses".


"The next time you settle on a CPU purchase, settle for AMD!"

Apple: Think Different

This is from the company that can't even figure out how to make a mouse with a scroll wheel. Worked pretty well for them. Their computers provided them with a couple of tangible advantages and they rolled with it, always advertising photoshop performance and obscure aspects of CPU architecture.

AMDs problem is that their operation is basically amateur hour, and they suck, horribly, at executing.

"AMD : Never living up to your expectations"

Apple sets the bar low, exceeds it, and they do it very very well. AMD needs some killer apps for Fusion, not this half assed Badaboom stuff. AMD should have released Llano before Sandy Bridge came out. THey should have had Quicksnyc first, but they didn't. Now they have a couple of "fusion" chips that are basically worthless other than for playing Quake 3. Advertising can only get you so far, marketing is about having a message that works with your product releases. All AMD has is some CG girls and obsolete roadmaps. There is no coherent message whatsoever, and they don't really have anything to sell other than cheap, "good enough", CPUs.

 

[bryanW1995]

Hey now we're getting somewhere. But you realize, somewhere there is a marketing team with "writers block" reading this thread, going, YES! Let's use that!

BTW, there are a lot of tie-in opportunities with that slogan, I mean a boat load.

How about: "AMD, we don't suck as badly these days" ?

Speaking of Bulldozer, the longer it's vaporware, the more impressive it has to be at launch, that's just the nature of delayed products. So really, anything will probably be a letdown.

This has always been the case. When was the last time a high tech product with this many delays "wowed" the market? I can think of many recent examples there the late product was weaker/slower than expected, and not a single instance of something being faster/better than expected. Personally, every time a new cpu/gpu/OS/cell phone/etc etc comes out late I expect it to bomb, and BD is so late that I'll be shocked if it doesn't bomb even worse than many of us expect.

 

[taltamir]

AMD : Because you won't have to buy a new heatsink!

Fact is, AMD just doesn't have the balls to do what Apple did: advertise their inferior product as being superior to what "everyone else uses".

They need to hire steve jobs to do their marketing...
Reality distortion field indeed.

 

[Idontcare]

How about "AMD --- Just good enough"???

Can't, pretty sure Via would sue them for trademark infringement.

 

[ElFenix]

And if AMD was willing to admit that they were just competeting in the low end on price, I could understand that. But they try to market everything they do as the next great advance. "The future is Fusion". Maybe it is, but they will have to make a chip with both better CPU performance and better graphics than the one they have out now.

it's marketing. why do you, as a knowledgeable end-user, give a f about what marketing says?

 

[frozentundra123456]

Do you have anything else to do in this thread that's not constant trolling?

Dont you have anything to do but insult people???


If you two don;t stop, you are both getting a vacation.
Markfw900
Anandtech Moderator