Tom's Hardware Guide: Financial Analysts Say Intel Killed the Discrete Graphics Card

[Puppies04]

Ok first off I fail to see what IB does for 95% of computer uses that SB doesn't, sure it is faster but for web browsing etc HD3000 is more than enough.

Secondly how anyone can point the finger at intel is beyond belief, they are playing catchup in the integrated GPU game not leading from the front. If you want to "blame" someone go write a snotty article about AMD.

"There is a very small market of people who seek out high-performance graphics cards, mostly comprised of hardcore gamers," the report reads. "The improved graphics provided by the Ivy Bridge chips will likely satisfy the needs of the average consumer."

As for this rubbish....yes "There is a very small market of people who seek out high-performance graphics cards"

Unfortunalty for the guy who wrote this article he clearly doesn't have the brain capacity to realise that those people are not these people "the average consumer"

Makes about as much sense as this....


There are only a small market of people that like coconut flavoured coffee, the improved flavour of bob's strawberry flavour coffee will likely satisfy most consumers.

Rant over.

 

[Silverforce11]

So lets get this straight, ~5% of pc users are hardcore gamers and these will always be the ones that get good discrete GPUs.

As long as that percentage doesn't suddenly fall, discrete GPUs will still be doing as good as they have been and are doing and will probably grow as the third world improve their living conditions and wealth.

 

[Borealis7]

this article is funny because Llano and Trinity have/will have much better IGPs than Intel.

if anything, AMD is going to kill the dGPU, which is the only department in which AMD actually has a profit, so i dont think so.

 

[itsjustmejus]

One item almost completely missed in all of this thread is GPUs being used for advanced parallel computing. This research area is fast becoming a part of mainstream computing. I think both of the major vendors know this. HP even has a some systems to hold large number of GPUs. These can be used for movie rendering, or advanced scientific research. Microsoft is working to allow the Windows kernal to use the GPUs for compute tasks, and a resource that Visual Studio Programmers can use. I do not know if this will be close to gaming in demand, but certainly could be a new source of revenue for GPU vendors.

 

[ShintaiDK]

One item almost completely missed in all of this thread is GPUs being used for advanced parallel computing. This research area is fast becoming a part of mainstream computing. I think both of the major vendors know this. HP even has a some systems to hold large number of GPUs. These can be used for movie rendering, or advanced scientific research. Microsoft is working to allow the Windows kernal to use the GPUs for compute tasks, and a resource that Visual Studio Programmers can use. I do not know if this will be close to gaming in demand, but certainly could be a new source of revenue for GPU vendors.

GPGPU is basicly useless outside of the HPC area.

We had CUDA for ages. Whats is the result? We have had DirectCompute (only used for transcoding it seems.) for quite some times. Result? We got OpenCL now. Result?

Its not gonna go anywhere on the desktop.

 

[sandorski]

this article is funny because Llano and Trinity have/will have much better IGPs than Intel.

if anything, AMD is going to kill the dGPU, which is the only department in which AMD actually has a profit, so i dont think so.

Given the Market share difference, AMD can't have been the one to kill(assuming it has been killed...which I think is poppycock) discrete Graphics Cards.

 

[ShintaiDK]

AMD sits in a bad situation in this matter. They only do ti to follow Intel. AMD is canibalizing their own discrete cards and now close to sell you an IGP for free as a valueadded service. Intel is the only winner here, since they dont have a discrete marketshare to lose like nVidia and AMD. And it does hurt on the former 2.

 

[sandorski]

AMD sits in a bad situation in this matter. They only do ti to follow Intel. AMD is canibalizing their own discrete cards and now close to sell you an IGP for free as a valueadded service. Intel is the only winner here, since they dont have a discrete marketshare to lose like nVidia and AMD. And it does hurt on the former 2.

The analyst is wrong. The Discrete Market is not dead.

 

[ShintaiDK]

The analyst is wrong. The Discrete Market is not dead.

Its a declining market. I wouldnt be surprised if discrete cards are dead 10 years down the road.

 

[iCyborg]

AMD sits in a bad situation in this matter. They only do ti to follow Intel. AMD is canibalizing their own discrete cards and now close to sell you an IGP for free as a valueadded service. Intel is the only winner here, since they dont have a discrete marketshare to lose like nVidia and AMD. And it does hurt on the former 2.

nVidia is in a bad situation, AMD is just repackaging their lower end, while Intel is winning.

 

[sandorski]

Its a declining market. I wouldnt be surprised if discrete cards are dead 10 years down the road.

Declining, sure. Dead in 10 years? Possibly. That said, AMD has the most to gain given their clear advantage with IGPU.

 

[ShintaiDK]

nVidia is in a bad situation, AMD is just repackaging their lower end, while Intel is winning.

The biggest loser is indeed nVidia. But AMD is basicly having to give away for (close to) free in a valueadded attempt in what they charged for before.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Declining, sure. Dead in 10 years? Possibly. That said, AMD has the most to gain given their clear advantage with IGPU.

Its not exactly working out for them right now.

 

[sandorski]

Its not exactly working out for them right now.

Sure it is.

 

[iCyborg]

The biggest loser is indeed nVidia. But AMD is basicly having to give away for (close to) free in a valueadded attempt in what they charged for before.

I'm not so sure about this "giving away" part. Brazos/Ontario for sure have much better margins than just about anything in AMD's lineup, and A8 3850 when it came out was like $10 cheaper than the comparable Athlon 2 + 5570 which is slightly better GPU. And they do get some savings from no need for PCB, fans, packaging etc. for graphics separately.

 

[itsjustmejus]

GPGPU is basicly useless outside of the HPC area.

We had CUDA for ages. Whats is the result? We have had DirectCompute (only used for transcoding it seems.) for quite some times. Result? We got OpenCL now. Result?

Its not gonna go anywhere on the desktop.

Today, as you say, not a large need for GPGPU. But, audio and video editing could certainly use the GPGPU. Imagine photoshop effects rendered on a NVidia 690. I think that would have some interest. I think if new areas of use do not happen, intergrated graphics maybe will become only choice. I think, a lot is up to Microsoft, and if they use GPUs more.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Its not exactly working out for them right now.

Llano has sold very well and everyone is waiting for Trinity. If Trinity has GCN cores for the IGP it will be a big win for AMD.

 

[blastingcap]

IMHO, the rise of embedded GPUs is probably good thing. It raises the GPU floor if everybody gets a powerful GPU even if they don't want one, so maybe game devs will raise their graphics accordingly. This is particularly true once you hit Haswell's top-end part, which should offer something like HD 4850 level performance if all goes well and they don't hit memory bandwidth problems despite Crystalwell, etc.

Unfortunately next-gen consoles will offer scarcely more than that, apparently, if rumors are correct. So we might end up with lots of games optimized for ~HD 6770 ceiling, even if the floor becomes a HD 4850.

Even if you don't need an embedded GPU, there are possible ways to utilize it anyway, such as hardware-accelerated physics.

 

[truckerCLOCK]

I think the numbers are gonna always be scewed. How many people bought SB and IB processors from Intel? Lets say 100...ok so how many of those 100 people actually use the GPU vs a discrete card?

 

[blastingcap]

I think the numbers are gonna always be scewed. How many people bought SB and IB processors from Intel? Lets say 100...ok so how many of those 100 people actually use the GPU vs a discrete card?

More than you might think, considering that most PC owners aren't hardcore gamers.

 

[sandorski]

More than you might think, considering that most PC owners aren't hardcore gamers.

Indeed. It's most likely >50, possibly as high as 80.

 

[sontin]

nVidia is in a bad situation, AMD is just repackaging their lower end, while Intel is winning.

Why is nVidia in a worst situation than AMD?
AMD is giving away their GPU tech to the market. Nobody cares about iGPU. If you think that the market is looking for the fastest iGPU you should compare the price of AMD's APUs and Intel's SB/IB cpus.

 

[happysmiles]

Why is nVidia in a worst situation than AMD?
AMD is giving away their GPU tech to the market. Nobody cares about iGPU. If you think that the market is looking for the fastest iGPU you should compare the price of AMD's APUs and Intel's SB/IB cpus.

That's why nvidia went into the smartphone business, its growing fast, has a much bigger potential market (angry birds HD x 3000!) and contracts with manufacturers to use Tegra probably makes them as much if not more money than their discrete graphics.

 

[truckerCLOCK]

Indeed. It's most likely >50, possibly as high as 80.

Yes you are probably right but to the bean counters they sold 100 cpu's with GPUs.

 

[truckerCLOCK]

Indeed. It's most likely >50, possibly as high as 80.

Yes you are probably right but to the bean counters they sold 100 cpu's with GPUs.