Hell freezing over...again!!!

Maethor

Member
Aug 18, 2005
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This will piss off alot of people if it is true. I for one always buy the best but if AMD buy out ATI then we are going to have processors in the future that cripple the Nvidias to get people to buy ATI. Hell we already see this happen to a limited degree

I doubt this merger will seriously happen though because this is seriously bordering on monopoly practices.
 
S

SlitheryDee

Originally posted by: Maethor
This will piss off alot of people if it is true. I for one always buy the best but if AMD buy out ATI then we are going to have processors in the future that cripple the Nvidias to get people to buy ATI. Hell we already see this happen to a limited degree

I doubt this merger will seriously happen though because this is seriously bordering on monopoly practices.


I guess we'll know for sure monday, but it's possible that this could be good. AMD will have guaranteed support for Torrenza based GPUs by a major discrete graphics chipset producer for one thing. ATI will (potentially) cease to be a fabless graphics chipset company for another. Integrated graphics for AMD's platforms might also benefit.

Anand mentions a few of these benefits in his latest weblog entry (you'll probably have to wait until the site quits being screwy to read it).
 

Pederv

Golden Member
May 13, 2000
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HHMMM... wonder if these means GPU's with Hypertransport links. Wonder what that would do to graphics performance?
 

raz3000

Banned
Jul 14, 2005
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I don't like this deal. Both markets are fiercely competitive right now, and any mergers will make both less so.
 

TheRyuu

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2005
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Wait, just WAIT A MINUTE. When I think AMD, I think Nvidia, Nforce 4, Nforce 590, etc. NOT ATI......Sure there new chipset is great, but the first chipset that comes to mind is the Nforce series and it was the only good one out for a long time.
 

Furen

Golden Member
Oct 21, 2004
1,567
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The markets are mutually exclusive, though. AMD will not cripple performance with Nvidia chips, it'd be a stupid thing to do. The only thing that may happen is that Nvidia's chipset market may be threatened if AMD decides to start bundling its chips with core-logic like Intel does. Aside from that there shouldn't be any short-term effects on nVidia. Long-term, we may see nVidia chipsets be a bit behind in cutting-edge CPU technology compared to ATI (since ATI's corelogic teams may have access to pre-release hardware earlier) but AMD's hypertransport leaves the field wide open. I am absolutely certain that AMD's graphics arm (if the merger goes through) WILL support torrenza, though, which may actually force nVidia to do the same.
 
Oct 4, 2004
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A lot of people think this spells doom for nVidia's nforce business, but I don't think so.

Intel always had their superior chipsets but they never stopped VIA/SIS/nVidia from offering alternative chipsets.
AMD now has an in-house chipset-provider (ATi and their impressive Xpress 3200/1600) but they would be stupid to cut out nVidia from the picture.

We already know ATi/nVidia video cards perform about the same whether they are installed on their own or the rival company's motherboards so I really doubt AMD/ATi will artificially hamper nVidia's performance: it would be obvious, bad for PR, bad karma.

I haven't read much on Torrenza/4x4 since the initial announcement so can't comment on that. The one thing I'm concerned about is the multi-GPU market: I shudder to imagine a High-end PC-world where Crossfire -> AMD-only & SLI -> Intel-only. I know I will never go for a multi-GPU setup but this still doesn't feel right.

At this point, I don't even know how much sense my post makes. I need time and more news/press releases to let this all sink in and figure out what this means in the long-term.
 
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SlitheryDee

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
A lot of people think this spells doom for nVidia's nforce business, but I don't think so.

Intel always had their superior chipsets but they never stopped VIA/SIS/nVidia from offering alternative chipsets.
AMD now has an in-house chipset-provider (ATi and their impressive Xpress 3200/1600) but they would be stupid to cut out nVidia from the picture.

We already know ATi/nVidia video cards perform about the same whether they are installed on their own or the rival company's motherboards so I really doubt AMD/ATi will artificially hamper nVidia's performance: it would be obvious, bad for PR, bad karma.

I haven't read much on Torrenza/4x4 since the initial announcement so can't comment on that. The one thing I'm concerned about is the multi-GPU market: I shudder to imagine a High-end PC-world where Crossfire -> AMD-only & SLI -> Intel-only. I know I will never go for a multi-GPU setup but this still doesn't feel right.

At this point, I don't even know how much sense my post makes. I need time and more news/press releases to let this all sink in and figure out what this means in the long-term.


From Anand's blog:

Imagine a Socket-AM2 GPU, with incredibly low latency access to a Socket-AM2 CPU. A huge strength of just about any gaming console (see: PS3) is the extremely high bandwidth, low latency interconnect that exists between the CPU and GPU.

From the DailyTech Torrenza article:

AMD representatives said that because of the archicture, Torrenza allows very low latency communication between chipset, main processor and co-processors. According to both Cray and AMD, applications can be written in a way where all the variouis processing architectures are recognized and are fully usable. Torrenza-aware applications are on the way said Cray, but the company did admit that developing them was very much "rocket-science".

Seems like the two could be related, but we'll have to wait and see.
 

Kromis

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2006
5,214
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I'll say what I said in another thread about this...but I'll rephrase it...

"The more, the merrier." Whatever benefits us, I'm for it.
 

cubby1223

Lifer
May 24, 2004
13,518
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Originally posted by: wizboy11
Wait, just WAIT A MINUTE. When I think AMD, I think Nvidia, Nforce 4, Nforce 590, etc. NOT ATI......Sure there new chipset is great, but the first chipset that comes to mind is the Nforce series and it was the only good one out for a long time.
Ye of short term memory - forget not that VIA was once synonamous with AMD.


Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
A lot of people think this spells doom for nVidia's nforce business, but I don't think so.

Intel always had their superior chipsets but they never stopped VIA/SIS/nVidia from offering alternative chipsets.
AMD now has an in-house chipset-provider (ATi and their impressive Xpress 3200/1600) but they would be stupid to cut out nVidia from the picture.

We already know ATi/nVidia video cards perform about the same whether they are installed on their own or the rival company's motherboards so I really doubt AMD/ATi will artificially hamper nVidia's performance: it would be obvious, bad for PR, bad karma.

I haven't read much on Torrenza/4x4 since the initial announcement so can't comment on that. The one thing I'm concerned about is the multi-GPU market: I shudder to imagine a High-end PC-world where Crossfire -> AMD-only & SLI -> Intel-only. I know I will never go for a multi-GPU setup but this still doesn't feel right.

At this point, I don't even know how much sense my post makes. I need time and more news/press releases to let this all sink in and figure out what this means in the long-term.
You are on the right track. Up until now, the gaming / enthousiast market has been dominated by AMD. With Conroe, the tides will be changing, and we might even see a 50/50 split of enthousiasts with intel / AMD based systems. nVidia will likely take over near all of the enthousiasts on intel's side, based partially on name recognition & also intel's history against overclockable systems, nVidia will likely cater more to enthousiasts. And nVidia will still keep half of the AMD enthousiasts.

So even if AMD merged with ATi, I can easily see nVidia keeping 75% of their targetted market for desktop chipsets.


And an AMD/ATi merged company could not cripple nVidia in their video card hardware designs. This is not Microsoft or intel we're talking about with deep pockets and diversified product lines that can blow off anti-competitive lawsuits...
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
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To quote myself for the zillionth time, this is horrible news.
 

AMDrulZ

Member
Jul 9, 2005
199
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I think AMD is buying ATI because intel has the chipset supply problem. So if AMD buys ATI intel won't get those chipsets.. That mean's intel will have to supply all of the chipsets for the entry level netburst systems after the conroe luanch... Intel striked back at AMD with C2D so AMD will strike back by denying them chipset support... Plus AMD will have some of the best chipsets for there platform, and some of the best GPU's on the market... I think AMD has found away to stay profitable while they ride out the conroe storm until K8L is out... GO AMD
 

Maethor

Member
Aug 18, 2005
49
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If they deny chipset support Intel will immediantly file a antitrust lawsuit against AMD something that AMD can not afford to have brough against them. Whats even worse is that would be the first valid lawsuit Intel has been able to bring against AMD so I doubt AMD would be willing to completly deny chipset support but in future releases they will gear support more towards the ATI side than the Nvidia side. My guess is that AMD wants to design something similar to what consoles are using now for their future chips.
 

Vegitto

Diamond Member
May 3, 2005
5,234
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Well, this brings along multiple possibilities, if it's true:

Torrenza. AMD wants to force both ATi and nVidia to design graphics cores for their Torrenza platform. Of course, this means lower latency and higher bandwidth, and will offer supreme performance. This would make AMD gaming king, once again, which is, of course, very desirable.

Chipsets. Intel is doing a GREAT job making their own chipsets. They are equal to or better than third parties' chipsets, and AMD knows this. By reeling in ATi, they can have their own chipsets.

Other, unknown reasons. Maybe the anti-Hyperthreading/Mitosis thing. If they can get two cores to be recognized as one, maybe they could do it to ATi's Crossfire, too.

Maybe it's all of the above, I don't know. We'll see :).
 

bennylong

Platinum Member
Apr 20, 2006
2,493
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I just want these damn GPU to keep down in price! The price of CPU, Memory, HD, etc all dropped while the price of a GPU has gone up to $600 for a brand new GPU and your standard new GPU runs $300 to $400.

When will they have a GPU price war like the CPU price war going on??? Intel should buy Nvidia so we can see a GPU and CPU price war.

$300 CPU and $200 GPU!
 

jimbob200521

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2005
4,108
29
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I hope they don't merge. Next thing you know, Intel & Nvidia will be merging!

Seriously, though. I don't think it would be a good thing for AMD & ATI to merge. Like Maethor said above, that seems like it would be getting too close to a monopoly.
 

Furen

Golden Member
Oct 21, 2004
1,567
0
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Originally posted by: jimbob200521
I hope they don't merge. Next thing you know, Intel & Nvidia will be merging!

Seriously, though. I don't think it would be a good thing for AMD & ATI to merge. Like Maethor said above, that seems like it would be getting too close to a monopoly.

I doubt that would happen since Intel is already doing graphics research in-house. Neither AMD nor Intel would be monopolies, though, they'd just provide the most important parts of each PC, and Intel already does this with its IGPs.
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
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Originally posted by: jimbob200521
I hope they don't merge. Next thing you know, Intel & Nvidia will be merging!

Seriously, though. I don't think it would be a good thing for AMD & ATI to merge. Like Maethor said above, that seems like it would be getting too close to a monopoly.

Yeah, I find it a little absorbed myself for a microprocessor company to merge with a video company. Considering they are really the only competition in town for Intel and NVIDIA. So lets hope in AMDs and ATi's sake they actually innovate something together that will dazzle us. As I said before I think the GPU market was going in the wrong direction. Almost like how Intel was in the GHz race, even though the only one they were racing against were themselves, the GPU's and their cards were becoming bigger and more expansive instead of smaller, more efficient, and smarter.
 

MDme

Senior member
Aug 27, 2004
297
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Why did AMD do this:

1) HTX - GPUs (Torrenza)
2) Memory controller technology (ATI's GPUs have ability to support more than 1 kind of memory - for example GDDR3/4)
3) Chipset

I think AMD should be smart and allow ATI chipsets to support both SLI and CF. I mean, it will be better from the current situation we have where CF doesn't work on nForce and SLI not working on Xpress. IMHO that will make the graphics card competition better. AMD will not cripple nVidia GPUs on Xpress simply because they need the enthusiast market. Intel on the other hand would only have one choice for GPUs: nVidia. So AMD will have a more open and flexible platform esp if #1 above happens. Heck even nVidia might do HTX G80s.
 

Dravic

Senior member
May 18, 2000
892
0
76
Originally posted by: MDme
Why did AMD do this:

1) HTX - GPUs (Torrenza)
2) Memory controller technology (ATI's GPUs have ability to support more than 1 kind of memory - for example GDDR3/4)
3) Chipset


well said..

and to anyone who has ever thought about being able to upgrade you GPU by just dropping in a new chip, this could be it.