Intel to use AMD iGPU (Not sure if rumor or confirme)

[zinfamous]

One of the key "issues" with AMD previously (/one of the semi-myths keeping customers away) has been software and updates. This shows, quite demonstratively, that this is in no way an issue any longer. AMD has delivered a nearly staggering number of driver updates this year, and with ReLive they're suddenly competitive with Nvidia in terms of features. Not on par, but not far away either. Which could very well pave the way to bigger sales than before. This is part of why AMD never came close to 50% market share even in generations where they had clearly superior GPU architectures. And last I checked, investors do like sales growth.

yeah, but I don't think investors--the wall street types that are looking at company fundamentals and not something like driver packages which really represent a small function of only some of the company's products--translate this kind of update as actual revenue or fundamentals. I get that it could possibly mean more people turn to their products, but this doesn't seem like the kind of news that creditors, investors, banks, whatever, pay attention to when they are actually looking at the hard release of physical hardware and AMD's debt load. And, quite honestly--I am sure that like many users, they look at release numbers/performance when it comes to their analysis of value in AMD products compared to their competitors. in this case--nVidia.

I doubt those that drive the stock price (they are simply buying into "tech," and AMD will or will not be some part of that portfolio, based on a generic set of charts that won't take into performance gains via drivers every subsequent month).

Now, if some year down the road, people start buying more AMD cards because they are seeing that drivers are improving performance--or being more competitive--this will translate to sales. Still, investors will be looking at sales numbers, and not monthly news about a driver update that boosts performance 1% at a time.

This new package is definitely different and does represent AMD fulfilling year-old projections, but I think the various rating agencies upgrading AMD target pricing over the last several days, and the intel rumor + Dec 13 announcement is the real culprit. ....but AMD stock also has a history of being run up going into the weekend because of short-sellers, or something like that. That seems to be largely in the past, however, as the short % on their volume has largely been cleared out from where it remained over the last several years (something like 30% of shares were short options, I think? lol)

 

[zinfamous]

The usual suspects dogging on AMD all these years are sitting now in disbelief, spewing their usual anti-AMD agenda on SeekingAlpha, AT and HardOCP, etc., while the rest of the world has been paying close attention to AMD and hasn't given a second thought about the irrelevant Vega, while has been making $ hand over fist picking up AMD at $2-$6 over time. The party is just getting started as the large funds are now plowing right into AMD stock. As of October 31, 2016, the funds increased their ownership in AMD by almost 12% and it's only increasing right now. They are going long.
.

TBF, it's really only that Hibben guy on SA that is virulently anti-AMD. His "analyses" are impossible to read because his ....articles...read like an AT VC&G fanboy rant . Every single time. You can tell that his command of the numbers is only ever influenced by some deep-seeded hatred. I don't get it--he does make some necessary points and reasons to remain skeptical of fundamentals, but his language is never professional. ...but I don't know if SA considers itself professional. If they do, then they need to take a hard look at what that guy is contributing.

 

[RussianSensation]

TBF, it's really only that Hibben guy on SA that is virulently anti-AMD. His "analyses" are impossible to read because his ....articles...read like an AT VC&G fanboy rant . Every single time. You can tell that his command of the numbers is only ever influenced by some deep-seeded hatred. I don't get it--he does make some necessary points and reasons to remain skeptical of fundamentals, but his language is never professional. ...but I don't know if SA considers itself professional. If they do, then they need to take a hard look at what that guy is contributing.

That guy is clueless.

October 22, 2016 he posted this nonsense.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4014007-amd-reality-sets

Since October 24th, the stock is up 58%.

The he followed up with even more nonsense.

"The first version of Vega, Vega 10, is reported to have specifications that put it ahead of Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) current best consumer graphics card, the Titan X. Vega 10 therefore represents a threat to Nvidia's current dominance of high performance (gaming-oriented) PC graphics. Nvidia's counter to Vega will most likely come in the form of its next generation Volta GPUs. Nvidia may counter AMD by moving up the release of its next generation Volta GPUs."
http://seekingalpha.com/article/4026995-can-nvidia-counter-amd-vega-threat

You'd have to be either delusional, uninformed or have inside sources at NV to think that NV will counter 2017 Vega with 2017 Volta when NV has roughly a 2-year-cadence for new generations/architectures. NV hasn't even released a consumer GP102 as 1080Ti/2080Ti yet but he is suggesting that NV will have a GTX1070/1080/GP102 Volta replacements by mid-2017? NV has Volta for 2018 and to this date that roadmap hasn't changed. NV invested $3-4B into Pascal to have it replaced by Volta in mid-2017. They can milk Pascal for at least another 12 months with refreshes and/or price drops.

Hopefully, if Intel licenses AMD's GPU IP, we get to finally see FreeSync from Intel.

 

[Valantar]

yeah, but I don't think investors--the wall street types that are looking at company fundamentals and not something like driver packages which really represent a small function of only some of the company's products--translate this kind of update as actual revenue or fundamentals. I get that it could possibly mean more people turn to their products, but this doesn't seem like the kind of news that creditors, investors, banks, whatever, pay attention to when they are actually looking at the hard release of physical hardware and AMD's debt load. And, quite honestly--I am sure that like many users, they look at release numbers/performance when it comes to their analysis of value in AMD products compared to their competitors. in this case--nVidia.

I doubt those that drive the stock price (they are simply buying into "tech," and AMD will or will not be some part of that portfolio, based on a generic set of charts that won't take into performance gains via drivers every subsequent month).

Now, if some year down the road, people start buying more AMD cards because they are seeing that drivers are improving performance--or being more competitive--this will translate to sales. Still, investors will be looking at sales numbers, and not monthly news about a driver update that boosts performance 1% at a time.

This new package is definitely different and does represent AMD fulfilling year-old projections, but I think the various rating agencies upgrading AMD target pricing over the last several days, and the intel rumor + Dec 13 announcement is the real culprit. ....but AMD stock also has a history of being run up going into the weekend because of short-sellers, or something like that. That seems to be largely in the past, however, as the short % on their volume has largely been cleared out from where it remained over the last several years (something like 30% of shares were short options, I think? lol)

I have to disagree. Would the launch of a 1080-crushing GPU help? Of course it would. But demonstratively, publicly and clearly correcting one of the biggest and longest-running complaints about your product is exactly the kind of thing that gets investors interested, as it doesn't raise the purchase price today, but is a sign of rising prices to come. Which is what they mostly want (after they've bought the stock).

 

[whm1974]

In any case it's a good thing that AMD is improving the GPU drivers and making them more open source. If they can keep this up for the next few years, I just might switch over from Nvidia to AMD.

 

[zinfamous]

I have to disagree. Would the launch of a 1080-crushing GPU help? Of course it would. But demonstratively, publicly and clearly correcting one of the biggest and longest-running complaints about your product is exactly the kind of thing that gets investors interested, as it doesn't raise the purchase price today, but is a sign of rising prices to come. Which is what they mostly want (after they've bought the stock).

I do think it's a positive for investors, and something like this driver update representing, at best, a fraction of a percentage in gains. But nearly 9% in one day and 30% gains over 3 days? I don't think so. Merrill Lynch issuing a 2-tier upgrade for the first time in 4 (5?) years is the real culprit. There has been a lot of good news and good rumors for AMD this year and over the last couple of weeks that speak to physical revenue that can be put into books now and as real projections over the next several years.

Driver improvements and software refreshes are great things, but one can only speculate on how this sort of thing drives market share and revenue, based on customer response over some indeterminate amount of time. AMD's lack of competitiveness against Intel and nVid has been their thorn the last several years but, probably more than that, their massive debt burden further killing their falling revenue is what has really kept investors away and their stock value abysmal.

Polaris truly was a great release for AMD, despite what critics want to believe, but their 300% and more gains so far this year aren't because of Polaris. Not even close. The China deal, Google, and, more importantly, debt restructuring that has them cutting their burden in half in only 2QTR time, with cash on-hand now more or less equal to remaining debt (holy crap--balanced!) was a huge, huge, huge deal. Further, I honestly think that the Zen anticipation might be pushing stock more than the actual Polaris release has at this point...but that's just a hunch from an idiot like me.

Now, the other thing going on is that AMD shares are cheap. They have been for much of the year and even now, if you are looking to invest in "VR, Processors, Deep Learning, tech, etc," They are the cheapest avenue to get in, with the most to gain, backed by a history of, at least, some legitimate competence. They aren't some startup with everything to prove. So, I think much of the interest in share price is simply due to blind investors looking to diversify and/or catch a nice, quick ~20% gain.

 

[2is]

I for one seriously doubt this anywhere close to being true. For one, Intel has more then enough resources to improve their own iGPU technology.

Yes they do, but why waste resources on that when there's already a better solution out there from a company that has plenty of experience building GPU's? Intel is better off letting someone like AMD handle the iGPU while they use their own resources improving their mobile SOC's

 

[thesmokingman]

Yes they do, but why waste resources on that when there's already a better solution out there from a company that has plenty of experience building GPU's? Intel is better off letting someone like AMD handle the iGPU while they use their own resources improving their mobile SOC's

That's not the root reason either. You can't produce a GPU today without breaking IP that is already owned. Intel learned that the hard way when Nvidia went after them and won, hence the cross license agreement that is about to expire. Intel is going to need to renew this agreement or face another set of suits. This is going to happen either way so they need protection, either in the form of a renewal with Nvidia or another set of IP patents to protect them. If they sign with AMD, they will be protected from Nvidia. It's not about being able to build a gpu, it's about being protected from IP infringement enough to actually build a gpu. There are other reasons to go with AMD for Intel, a few actually.

 

[Phynaz]

Turns out Kyle may have been way off base...

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/rtg-and-intel-team-up.2494279/