The real reasons Microsoft and Sony chose AMD for consoles [F]

[sushiwarrior]

Lol, nVidia is not interested in killing AMD. They're going their way. Would they want to smash them they would sell their lineup for half the price.

AMD got a "buy" rating from the Bank of America. I think they want to sell their stock. Makes no sense because 75% of their business comes from the x86 market which declined again.

And if anyone think that the console business will save them, good luck AMD. You will need it.

Irregardless of how good their products are, AMD has a more diverse capability than any other CPU or GPU company.

They've got x86 and ARM (nobody else does that), they've got SoC and standard CPU's, they have integrated and discrete GPU's, they have x86 processors covering ultra low power all the way through to medium-high end, they have the ability to create semi-custom SoC's, they have powered 5 out of the last 6 consoles...

They have the capability to power every single device besides a phone essentially. Tablet, laptop, desktop, server, console, all-in-one, gaming machine, etc. Intel comes closest, but they have no discrete GPU products.

It's a lot of fronts to cover, I'd think it's kind of splitting their resources too broadly, but they aren't exactly tied into x86 the same way Intel is.

 

[sontin]

Don't forget:
They have products nobody want. They are in every market only on the second place. They need to pay $20 in this and $200 in Q1 to GF. They have no presence in the mobile world. They have no presence in the HPC world. They have no presence in the server market anymore. They losing market share to Intel in nearly every segment. They lost the 28nm battle with nVidia. They have no money for R&D.

There is a interview with Huang on Youtube which he said if you have nothing to lose you can do whatever you want.
It's clear that AMD would be dead without the console wins. So we should wait and see what they actually get for the SoC instead of praising them like nothing else.


This is trolling. This is your only warning. No more, stay on topic.
Markfw900
Anandtech Moderator

 

[Vesku]

I notice that once the "Nvidia didn't want to be in the consoles" is successfully countered showing they didn't even have a serious solution to offer that sometimes this "none of this matters because AMD has terrible marketshare and financials" creeps in.

Perhaps when Nvidia is producing it's own console/home system with 64 bit ARM and Maxwell (technology that would never be ready for this years console launch) I will think back to this revolving argument and chuckle.

 

[NTMBK]

Yeah. I think a 30% revenue decline Y-Y is not bad at all when you won the console designs. :awe:

Way to go derailing the argument :thumbsup: We all know that AMD is seriously struggling with the "big core" line. It has nothing to do with the fact that they won the console designs with solid engineering, and that these wins will provide them with a constant revenue stream for years to come for very little R&D effort in the future. The only possible reason that you keep bringing this irrelevant statistic up is because you are deliberately trying to get a rise out of people. (This sort of behaviour is commonly referred to as "trolling", I believe.)

 

[parvadomus]

Lol, nVidia is not interested in killing AMD. They're going their way. Would they want to smash them they would sell their lineup for half the price.

They cant kill anything. When your products are on par, there's not too much you can do. If they sell your lineup for half the price, AMD would do the same. Its that simple, the only thing you kill is both companies income.
And what 28nm war did they win? The one where they had to make a 550mm2 die to barely kill a 360mm2 die on compute (where all their largest income is at, the professional and HPC market).

 

[sushiwarrior]

Don't forget:
They have products nobody want. They are in every market only on the second place. They need to pay $20 in this and $200 in Q1 to GF. They have no presence in the mobile world. They have no presence in the HPC world. They have no presence in the server market anymore. They losing market share to Intel in nearly every segment. They lost the 28nm battle with nVidia. They have no money for R&D.

There is a interview with Huang on Youtube which he said if you have nothing to lose you can do whatever you want.
It's clear that AMD would be dead without the console wins. So we should wait and see what they actually get for the SoC instead of praising them like nothing else.

Precisely why I said "regardless of how good their products are", yet of course you have to start flamebaiting and trolling.

As I will state again. Irregardless of the performance/quality/sales figures of any of their products, they cover more platforms than anyone else.

 

[NTMBK]

AMD is up 10% today

Don't read too much into one-day stock market fluctuations. There is a decent rally happening over the last few months, though.

 

[NTMBK]

Don't forget:
They have products nobody want.

Not in the console market, which is what this thread is about.

They are in every market only on the second place.

Not in the console market, which is what this thread is about.

They need to pay $20 in this and $200 in Q1 to GF.

The console wins will help alleviate their WSA issues.

They have no presence in the mobile world.

This thread isn't about the mobile world.

They have no presence in the HPC world.

This thread isn't about the HPC world.

They have no presence in the server market anymore.

This thread isn't about the server market.

They losing market share to Intel in nearly every segment.

Not in the console market, which is what this thread is about.

They lost the 28nm battle with nVidia.

Not in the console market, which is what this thread is about.

They have no money for R&D.

The console wins are completed, and now the only required R&D is for die-shrinks.

You seem to want to talk about anything but the original topic.

 

[Hitman928]

If a single product that gives you a 20% increase in total shipments isn't high volume, then what is?

 

[Namira Fang]

Not in the console market, which is what this thread is about.



Not in the console market, which is what this thread is about.



The console wins will help alleviate their WSA issues.



This thread isn't about the mobile world.



This thread isn't about the HPC world.



This thread isn't about the server market.



Not in the console market, which is what this thread is about.



Not in the console market, which is what this thread is about.



The console wins are completed, and now the only required R&D is for die-shrinks.

You seem to want to talk about anything but the original topic.

Lol.. One of the best responses to a post I have ever read on a message board.

 

[Rvenger]

Don't read too much into one-day stock market fluctuations. There is a decent rally happening over the last few months, though.

They rose almost 12% now because of this...

Vivek Arya of Bank of America Merrill Lynch lifted Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to "Buy" from "Underperform" and increased its price target to $6 from $2.50.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advanced-micro-devices-analyst-upgrades-164819298.html


AMD is gonna prove Sonty wrong. lol

 

[bgt]

Lol.. One of the best responses to a post I have ever read on a message board.

So true:thumbsup:

 

[bgt]

They rose almost 12% now because of this...
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advanced-micro-devices-analyst-upgrades-164819298.html

Thats good news:biggrin:

 

[piesquared]

How many consoles have been sold in China historically? None? I guess allowing console sales would affect volume in a major way.

 

[Hitman928]

They rose almost 12% now because of this...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/advanced-micro-devices-analyst-upgrades-164819298.html

That is certainly not the only reason for their rise today, but a strong part of it. The market as a whole (even globally) has been very uplifted based on the fed's (Bernanke this morning for the U.S.) dovish comments as well as some hopeful economic news. AMD made a big jump today because of a lot of factors outside of their sphere. Granted, they probably still would have went up from the upgrade, just not as dramatically.

AMD is gonna prove Sonty wrong. lol

Hopefully they will, they have a very deep hole that they are trying to dig out of though and they still haven't really given a clear vision for their future (personally, I think Read is still trying to figure it out himself).

 

[cytg111]

Lol.. One of the best responses to a post I have ever read on a message board.

+1

 

[SiliconWars]

I think Rory Read knows what he's doing. He acted quickly when the industry took a severe turn (a full quarter faster than Intel did) and the measures were drastic. Short term "gains" were sacrificed for a long term goal - he immediately accepted that AMD couldn't maintain $1.5bn in quarterly sales and scythed the expenses down to numbers more befitting a $1bn quarterly sales company. That was a fast move, completed in ~1 year.

Long term vision is sadly lacking in too many tech companies, even with it being such a fast changing industry. AMD are still in a weak position but they are in a position to grow now, and that is a much better position to be in than what they were previously - trying to hold on to what they had while slowly dying to a 1000 small cuts.

 

[Hitman928]

I think Rory Read knows what he's doing. He acted quickly when the industry took a severe turn (a full quarter faster than Intel did) and the measures were drastic. Short term "gains" were sacrificed for a long term goal - he immediately accepted that AMD couldn't maintain $1.5bn in quarterly sales and scythed the expenses down to numbers more befitting a $1bn quarterly sales company. That was a fast move, completed in ~1 year.

Long term vision is sadly lacking in too many tech companies, even with it being such a fast changing industry. AMD are still in a weak position but they are in a position to grow now, and that is a much better position to be in than what they were previously - trying to hold on to what they had while slowly dying to a 1000 small cuts.

O, I agree. I think so far, Read has done a fine job, but long term AMD seems to be sending mixed signals (x84 vs ARM, are they competing at the high-end or not, more custom orders but no real indication of where they're looking to get them). Personally, I think Read already has an idea of where he wants AMD to go, but doesn't quite know how to get there without getting stock holders upset. I could totally be wrong about that but we'll see. I do have a lot more hope with Read at the helm than the last 3 CEO's (even if one was an interim and Dirk really didn't all that bad of a job all things considered).

 

[rgallant]

Console are not a high profile, high volume market. They are selling around 20 Millions per year. The same amount like Tegra 3 last year and less than 1/3 of nVidia's GPU business.

http://www.techspot.com/news/53197-china-could-lift-13-year-ban-on-console-gaming.html
-if that happens that might be good for a few 100k more

 

[galego]

Lol.. One of the best responses to a post I have ever read on a message board.

I'm impressed as well. I will take it as model for some future posts

 

[galego]

An excellent summary of why AMD won the contracts for the next consoles:

AMD won this business because they have the advanced IP, know-how, experience and commitment to make this happen. They have leading edge IP in CPU, GPU, memory, video, audio, and I/O. They also designed the first quad core, X86 SOC, and it’s not a giant leap to take this to eight cores. Finally, AMD built an entire product division to support the effort that others weren’t prepared to commit. It was a clear-cut win.

Now that is why Sony and Microsoft both chose AMD.

 

[PPB]

Regarding the WSA argument, is it already proved that the console SoC's manufacturing is going to be rolled into GF and not into TSMC? Not wanna sound pessimistic but is GF really able to take in that demand of 28mn products at this point? (I asume that the real silicon is already being manufactured, if they plan to launch at the end of 2013)

I woulda tought that, since AMD is going the lego-style silicon design philosophy with jaguar to be the most fab-agnostic as you can be so you can easily switch between manufacturers when needed, TSMC was taking the order for the very first wave of console's SoCs and eventually, to alleviate the WSA burden, GF would take the baton at some point and AMD would settle with them till this next gen becomes EOL.

 

[Rvenger]

An excellent summary of why AMD won the contracts for the next consoles:

AMD has been providing solutions for consoles for years. Don't know why this is a surprise.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I think Rory Read knows what he's doing. He acted quickly when the industry took a severe turn (a full quarter faster than Intel did) and the measures were drastic. Short term "gains" were sacrificed for a long term goal - he immediately accepted that AMD couldn't maintain $1.5bn in quarterly sales and scythed the expenses down to numbers more befitting a $1bn quarterly sales company. That was a fast move, completed in ~1 year.

Long term vision is sadly lacking in too many tech companies, even with it being such a fast changing industry. AMD are still in a weak position but they are in a position to grow now, and that is a much better position to be in than what they were previously - trying to hold on to what they had while slowly dying to a 1000 small cuts.

It could have been faster and less painful, but abandoning the head-to-head CPU performance race with Intel is the best decision AMD made thus far.

 

[beginner99]

It could have been faster and less painful, but abandoning the head-to-head CPU performance race with Intel is the best decision AMD made thus far.

Like they made that decision by themselves...it was made for them. If you cpu is slower while having almost double the transistor count (iGPU in i5/i7 does not count) and gulps more than double the power well, there is not much else you can say besides you lost the race.