ATI has bad 3rd quarter and predicts lower 4th

[T9D]

From etrade news:

But not all the tech news was good. Graphics design chipmaker ATI (ATYT,Trade) posted lower third-quarter results and reduced its guidance for its fourth quarter. [ID:nN23577054] ATI shares sank 9.2 percent to $11.61.


If ATI is saying now that they predict the fourth quarter isn't going to be so good does that maybe say that they dont really expect to have R520 out the door in any significant quantity if at all?

 

[Munky]

What's with all the ati financial trouble rumors lately? If they didnt sink when they were getting owned in the gf4 days, they sure as hell are not gonna go out of business right now, especially with the release of Xfire and r520 so close. All they gotta do is drop the price of a x800 vanilla below $200, and they will own the midrange market. Only thing they gotta worry about is paper launching stuff, otherwise when the new stuff comes out and is available to buy, ati will be raking in major cash.

 

[Beiruty]

They have $500,000,000 cash in the bank... are they losing money....maybe... but not signifigant.. with each sale of the next Xbox 360 they will make money...Their R&D spending is increasing like 35%. It may the right time to buy their stock.

 

[The Green Bean]

Originally posted by: Beiruty
They have $500,000,000 cash in the bank... are they losing money....maybe... but not signifigant.. with each sale of the next Xbox 360 they will make money...Their R&D spending is increasing like 35%. It may the right time to buy their stock.

QFT

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Beiruty
They have $500,000,000 cash in the bank... are they losing money....maybe... but not signifigant.. with each sale of the next Xbox 360 they will make money...Their R&D spending is increasing like 35%. It may the right time to buy their stock.

I'd wait for it to bottom out first.

For starters they dont have a terribly compelling lineup and wont until the R520 comes out. They lose just about every price point to Nvidia.

Secondly their bread and butter OEM market is being chewed up and spitout by Intel. Nvidia seems to understand this and isnt getting terribly involved with shipping 15 dollar integrated GPUs and are instead concentrating on the core market of stand alone products. You just cant compete with Intel on integrated solutions.

Third they need to get a chipset out that works. I heard their southbridge was a mess on their latest attempt and it is near impossible to find any MB makers using it.

If the R520 is a hit or looks like a hit buy in about 2 weeks before it launches and cashout right after when it tops out.

 

[Muscles]

Well I've owned both nvidia and ati gpu's and i prefer nvidia but in the interest of lower prices from competition I hope ATI can turn things around. If ATI has officially already estimated losses for the 4th quarter I doubt R520 will be released anytime soon.

 

[ZobarStyl]

Originally posted by: Muscles
Well I've owned both nvidia and ati gpu's and i prefer nvidia but in the interest of lower prices from competition I hope ATI can turn things around. If ATI has officially already estimated losses for the 4th quarter I doubt R520 will be released anytime soon.

It has little to do with what GPU most people prefer, as fanboys for either side can hardly carry a company through a dry spell. GenX is right: basically nVidia has got them on the run, considering almost every pricepoint except maybe the PCI-Express x800XL, and of course the ultra-high end belongs to SLi until yesterday with G70. And plus for almost every high-end graphics card sold, an nVidia chipset goes with it (since Athlon64 is the gaming platform of choice and NForce3/4 is the only way to go).

It's obvious for Q4 that they are going post another loss, since R520 is still anyone's guess as to release (and they can't put it out until it's in volume, since G70 killed the paper launch). Crossfire is still 2 months out and already gets creamed (well, unless it's 2x faster than SLI) by G70 at a similar price. That just compounds the fact that few will want to buy their new chipset, since Crossfire is too little too late, and comes with the additional buggy southbridge. The only thing that can pull up ATi's numbers for this generation is to get a 32-pipe monster out in volume soon, and hope that nVidia doesn't have a similar card waiting in the wings.

Don't get me wrong, I hope they pull it out (like you said, competition), but they just haven't had a winner (pricepoint wise) since R300, and it's starting to wear thin on them.

 

[ddogg]

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl

Originally posted by: Muscles
The only thing that can pull up ATi's numbers for this generation is to get a 32-pipe monster out in volume soon, and hope that nVidia doesn't have a similar card waiting in the wings.

Don't get me wrong, I hope they pull it out (like you said, competition), but they just haven't had a winner (pricepoint wise) since R300, and it's starting to wear thin on them.

getting a 32Pipe monster in volume is highly unlikely at this point. this could be the reason as to why the R520 has already been delayed. the card's performance may be impressive but its useless if it cannot make it to the markey(ie. X800XT/PE). Nvidia has definetely learnt from its mistakes and has sent a deadly punch to ATI by shipping their flagship cards in mass volumes at launch.

 

[ddogg]

Originally posted by: munky
What's with all the ati financial trouble rumors lately? If they didnt sink when they were getting owned in the gf4 days, they sure as hell are not gonna go out of business right now, especially with the release of Xfire and r520 so close. All they gotta do is drop the price of a x800 vanilla below $200, and they will own the midrange market. Only thing they gotta worry about is paper launching stuff, otherwise when the new stuff comes out and is available to buy, ati will be raking in major cash.

thats the whole problem here...ATI has had yield problems for about a year now and this trend may follow with its R5xx cards. moving early to 90nm and making a complex chip could be really disastrous to them.

 

[2Xtreme21]

In all honestly, I invested in ATI and it didn't yield very good returns. Sure I made some money, but they pretty much stay constant even when new products are released, for some reason. I think it has to do with the fact that, contrary to popular belief, not many people buy the newest gfx cards in the first 3 weeks or so when they're out. Sure you have the die hards, but it's not enough for profit to skyrocket. As the prices go down the demand goes up, keeping a relatively steady profit curve.