RussianSensation
Elite Member
- Sep 5, 2003
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A very tiny segment of AMD's or Intel's clients.
That may be true but in marketing, a LOT has to do with perception. You know the reason Ferrari participates in Formula 1 or Audi in LeMans? Being inadequate for gamers means these same users tell all of their friends and parents that Intel makes "better chips". For the average Joes, Intel has the perception of making better CPUs, and in the last 5 years, it was pretty much true, exacerbating the image problem for AMD.
XP+, A64 and X2 were all great gaming CPUs. Phenom I/II were not. So history has shown us that CPUs that excel in gaming, also tend to do well in common office tasks and generally have superior performance / watt and IPC. If we examine Pentium 4 and Pentium D, when Intel didn't focus on IPC, performance / watt, performance per core, then we have a situation where a CPU that didn't follow those criteria also didn't do as well in the marketplace.
So contrary to your view that IPC, performance / watt and performance per core doesn't matter, all 3 AMD generations that excelled at these metrics sold better than Phenom I/II did, while when Intel didn't follow those 3 metrics, their own CPUs were losing market share.
Let me guess, you have never been to Best Buy and have never observed people going for laptops ... right? The vast majority of these people couldn't tell the difference between a keyboard and a mouse and you think they care for 'performance', 'mobility' or other silly things like that? Just between you and me, don't tell anyone: they care about green pieces of paper with dead presidents on them, specifically the lack of these when shopping for laptops. Some are also looking for 'cool' when they buy products, specifically Apple 'cool'.
Apple has shown that many users are willing to pay for the experience. They don't necessarily care about specs on paper as long as the product delivers - Intel CPUs do deliver.
Notice why Apple carries Intel processors? (1) Better performance / watt (2) Better efficiency --> better battery life (3) Faster performance for most tasks a typical user cares about (4) Ability to meet manufacturing demand (but another reason why Intel has more manufacturing capacity is because there is more demand for its products).
Most people would agree that it's much easier to market a great product (i.e., Intel CPUs) than to have great marketing for a mediocre product (i.e., AMD's Phenom I/II). As a side note Centrino was a brilliant marketing move by Intel because when the consumer got the product, it was superior to AMD's offerings. AMD couldn't do anything of the sort because to claim that their CPU was superior in performance / watt or battery life would have simply been a misrepresentation of the truth.
Notice how the Fusion is taking off for AMD, because it really is the better gaming platform than HD3000. Great product doesn't require revolutionary marketing because it almost sells itself.
How do you explain Apple then? They never made Macs even close to performance to HP/Dell PCs/laptops yet their sales are going up and up and up while everyone else sinks.
What are you talking about? Apple really came into its own when they switched to using Core 2 Duo/ Core i3/i5/i7 and Sandy Bridge processors. The company's focus is on user experience, which has A LOT to do with mobility / portability and that is partially related to excellent battery life of their products (esp. laptops). Steve Jobs ditched PowerPC chips for Intel since Intel offered far superior performance / watt. You are telling me no one cares about performance / watt, IPC and power efficiency? I got news for you -- manufacturers and designers who strive to create a killer mobile device/laptops/tablet care because it's a lot easier to sell "10 hour battery life notebook" with a fast processor than to slap a 2 lbs of protruding battery to a laptop and try to sell that as a premium product. Apple didn't choose AMD because AMD's current architecture doesn't meet any of the criteria that Apple wants in order to design a successful product.
Another sign that Apple does care about efficiency and performance / watt is illustrated by them abandoning NV for AMD this generation for GPUs. Lower efficiency implies either slower performance or more heat, which are undesirable compromises. Are you are still going to deny "no one cares about performance / watt" even after Intel adopted this as their key design strategy for implementing new features into their CPUs? :sneaky:
Could it be that the majority of consumer don't know/care about performance if a computing product offers good speed already? Apple is the perfect example where computer speed is irrelevant as long as the machine can do what most people need (read: they don't care about enthusiasts). And even a 4 year old Phenom II or Core 2 Duo or Quad can do that. So why do these people need a super duper Bulldozer again?
If your logic was true, no one would even bother upgrading to faster chips. Laptops would only add features, better aesthetics and slimmer form factors. According to you, Intel could have easily produced Core 2 Duo since 2006 and not done a single thing to increase its performance / watt. Yes, they did exactly that...oh wait.
Oh gosh, someone get on the batphone and call AMD's new CEO and warn them of their mistakes. I mean, AMD focusing on the professional and server market instead of the continually dwindling 'enthusiast' market ... why do they do that?!![]()
Except that more cores alone isn't sufficient to win the server market share. You need an extremely power efficient processor. Throwing more cores won't solve the problem. AMD threw a 12-core Magny Cours against a 6-core Xeon and it didn't do squat for them. But you can go ahead and deny that IPC, Performance / watt, Performance per core don't matter.
You can be sure that when Bulldozer launches, its power efficiency will be scrutinized by many people in the server and consumer markets because it directly impacts operational costs and every day usability for mobile devices.
Critical to whom? You? Part of a minuscule market segment?
Pretty much to anyone who understands where the future of computing is heading - mobile, tablet, smartphone space where (1) performance / watt (2) IPC (3) performance per core is critical. I think only you are being in denial.
Are you insinuating that if Bulldozer was simply an 8 core Phenom II, AMD would be back on track? We know it wouldn't be enough, therefore, successes in the 3 areas I mentioned are critical to win back performance.
Just a silly question: what if AMD doesn't care about recapturing its 'glory'.
You obviously haven't met any engineers who design CPUs then. They are very passionate and want their firm to succeed.
What if all they want to make processors that their clients like and want to buy? What if AMD doesn't give a rat's ass about some 'enthusiasts' on some random interwebs forum? You are deluding yourself if you think that the 'enthusiast' market is all that. It's nothing more than a tiny drop in the bucket for either Intel or AMD.
I never said that enthusiast market is the only one that matters. But somehow you keep missing the point of what is necessary for a modern processor to be successful - Excellent power efficiency, great performance / watt, strong IPC and more cores. If you only focus on more cores, you will fail miserably.
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