T-Break's interview with AMD's Dr. Gaith Kadir

[5150Joker]

Here's what T-break wrote at the end of their interview:

So basically nVidia will continue to be a strong partner in the chipset market as well as a strong competitor at the same time in the GPU market. AMD?s comments also make me think that ATI might not focus on high-end discreet chipsets anymore but more on integrated solutions and the CE market. GPU on a CPU sure sounds like it?s in the works.

Here's the full interview: http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?id=467


I think I pretty much agree with T-break on this one. A company like AMD won't want to spend enormous amounts of cash researching and developing high end discrete GPUs, they'd rather partner up with nVidia and let them take care of that while their ATi division does the CGPU stuff. Also with consoles like the 360/PS3 gaining steam and taking on more PCesque features (online gaming, hard drive, kb/mouse support [PS3], HDMI outputs [PS3], 1080i/p support) the costs will outstrip the returns for PC gaming and two competitors wouldn't be able to sustain themselves. I think with nVidia the only game in town we might still continue to see high end GPUs (though at a much slower pace I'm sure) for a little while longer.

 

[PingSpike]

I hope that isn't true. It'd mean only one player in the video card market. And that would suck ass.

 

[videogames101]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
I hope that isn't true. It'd mean only one player in the video card market. And that would suck ass.

It won't take long for a company like falcon to get back in the game, don't worry.

 

[CKXP]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
I hope that isn't true. It'd mean only one player in the video card market. And that would suck ass.

cheer up we still got S3...Multichrome FTW!!!

 

[Piuc2020]

If so... I then officially hate AMD and now that their processors are not the best anymore... well they can go to hell.

Long live Intel

 

[Greenman]

Two year product cycles, $1000 cards and crap drivers. This would be a good time to buy nVidia stock.

 

[allies]

Wow that's super lame if true... ATi has been doing amazing versus nvidia, starting with the FX days, and now, nothing? Gah.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: Greenman
Two year product cycles, $1000 cards and crap drivers. This would be a good time to buy nVidia stock.

Longer product cycles might not be all that bad, it would force developers to produce better software that takes advantage of the hardware rather than just give us buggy brute force software that relies on $600+ hardware to power it (FEAR comes to mind). I've already moved on to consoles for some of my gaming--the only thing that makes me want to keep purchasing PC hardware and games is because FPS games blow with console controllers. If Sony does indeed deliver solid kb/mouse support in FPS titles for the PS3 then I'll definitely opt for that and I doubt I'll be upgrading my PC much after that.

 

[sandorski]

It would suck, but at the same time I can understand why they might do that. ATI has been diverging their product lines from PC GPU bigtime for a few years now. They've been very successful doing so and though PC GPU's are still the major part of their business it's likely also the most risky part.

I also have to wonder just how much more headroom there is in the current "video card" format used in PCs. As we know GPU's get insanely hot and cooling them gets more difficult with each new generation, eventually exotic slots/retention is going to be needed to continue using cards. It may finally make sense to move the GPU directly onto the mobo where heavy Heatsinks are not as much an issue.

 

[Schadenfroh]

I for one welcome our new nVidia overlords.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
I hope that isn't true. It'd mean only one player in the video card market. And that would suck ass.

I think the ATI chairman said a while back that this would happen eventually. That only one company would be on top. It has nothing to do with who is better, it's just that there is not enough money in the top end to support 2 companies.

What should worry ATI more is the loss of the Intel chipset business.

http://uk.theinquirer.net/?article=34259
http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/10739
http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/10756

 

[dug777]

I can't see why this should be the case, as long as the high end ATI division makes money it's no burden on the rest of AMD. Couple that with the vast amounts of experience ATI have in the sector, and the extremely successful high end parts they have now, and it would be inane for them to get out of the game.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: dug777
I can't see why this should be the case, as long as the high end ATI division makes money it's no burden on the rest of AMD. Couple that with the vast amounts of experience ATI have in the sector, and the extremely successful high end parts they have now, and it would be inane for them to get out of the game.

I bet AMD will end up using a lot of the high end GPU engineers for CPU projects. They did not buy ATI to just leave it be, they bought it to support future AMD projects.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: dug777
I can't see why this should be the case, as long as the high end ATI division makes money it's no burden on the rest of AMD. Couple that with the vast amounts of experience ATI have in the sector, and the extremely successful high end parts they have now, and it would be inane for them to get out of the game.

I bet AMD will end up using a lot of the high end GPU engineers for CPU projects. They did not buy ATI to just leave it be, they bought it to support future AMD projects.

Well, looking at the kicking intel is giving them i can see why they need all the help they can get...

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: dug777
I can't see why this should be the case, as long as the high end ATI division makes money it's no burden on the rest of AMD. Couple that with the vast amounts of experience ATI have in the sector, and the extremely successful high end parts they have now, and it would be inane for them to get out of the game.

Well ATi has always been bleeding money so I can't imagine them all of the sudden turning huge profits by spending money on R&D for high end GPUs now that they are at AMD. In fact, I think AMD would be reluctant to divert those kinds of resources to GPU development when they could be throwing that money (and engineering power) at more profitable ventures like HDTV chip development, unified notebook platforms, desktop platforms complete with an integrated CGPU etc. Looks to me that Crossfire will be dead within the next year or two along with any high end ATi GPU. I bet a lot of ATi GPU engineers will end up leaving AMD and joining nVidia.

 

[ronnn]

I think T-break is practicing poor journalism. The guy didn't say anything about dropping high end gpus and chipsets. Just T-Break looking for hits ....... really a waste of a read. Still it worked, I read that inane garbage. Ati will drop out of gpu's if the g80 kills the r600. The way both gpus are delayed, hard to know what is going on.

 

[lopri]

For all you drama queens, there is a good news - We will soon start seeing discrete Intel GPUs.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: ronnn
The way both gpus are delayed, hard to know what is going on.

Delayed???? I don't recall a release date for either card. Both companies just released new high end product...I don't see how either card has been delayed.

 

[josh6079]

Kick back, relax, wait and see what happens. We're the consumers, we don't need to be all worried about what will be provided to us in the future...that's their job.

I tend to think that AMD has ATI's chipsets in mind. All of ATI's chipsets haven't been that bad. In fact, their last one, the 3200, was phenominal with it's overclocking capabilities and options. The RD600 sounds like it is going to be one of the best ones ever made. (And wonderful DFI is the only motherboard partner that is going to be reaping the rewards).

 

[ronnn]

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: ronnn
The way both gpus are delayed, hard to know what is going on.

Delayed???? I don't recall a release date for either card. Both companies just released new high end product...I don't see how either card has been delayed.

Didn't the nvidia roadmaps (or something) have the g80 slated for September? Well its not here, instead we have a dual gpu with the same old limitations in iq. Seem like the r600 is also being pushed back, so we have the x1950 - not a huge jump.

 

[5150Joker]

Originally posted by: ronnn

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: ronnn
The way both gpus are delayed, hard to know what is going on.

Delayed???? I don't recall a release date for either card. Both companies just released new high end product...I don't see how either card has been delayed.

Didn't the nvidia roadmaps (or something) have the g80 slated for September? Well its not here, instead we have a dual gpu with the same old limitations in iq. Seem like the r600 is also being pushed back, so we have the x1950 - not a huge jump.

There's no point to introducing either of them right now since Vista is still far away.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
I for one welcome our new nVidia overlords.

:thumbsup:

 

[biostud]

Where does it say tha ATi don't focus on high end GPU's, I could only see that they probably won't compete on highend chipsets with nVidia.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: ronnn

Originally posted by: Wreckage

Originally posted by: ronnn
The way both gpus are delayed, hard to know what is going on.

Delayed???? I don't recall a release date for either card. Both companies just released new high end product...I don't see how either card has been delayed.

Didn't the nvidia roadmaps (or something) have the g80 slated for September? Well its not here, instead we have a dual gpu with the same old limitations in iq. Seem like the r600 is also being pushed back, so we have the x1950 - not a huge jump.

Its still mid september. Im guessing either late spetember or early october. If not then... its delayed because of Vista.

 

[josh6079]

Its still mid september. Im guessing either late spetember or early october. If not then... its delayed because of Vista.

Whatever they do, they better not miss Christmas. Any company would be stupid to skip out on the market's largest cash cow time frame.