why is everyone suddenly assuming the discrete graphics business will be dead in the near future?

[ElFenix]

is it the 'end of PC gaming' that everyone has been predicting for years?

is it the wild speculation that amd somehow isn't buying ati for their graphics expertise?

does anyone really think that the transistors and bandwidth will be available for a graphics processor to be introduced into the x86 pipeline, or even as a socketed separate chip?

for the life of me i can't figure it out. did i miss something?

 

[akshayt]

can't comment here. could be true.

 

[GreenMonkey]

I don't get it either. People seem to think ATI is going to drop out of the graphics market. Hello, AMD needs to make money from their acquisition, not lose it. ATI still needs to sell graphics cards.

 

[BFG10K]

I personally think this is marketing rubbish spread by CPU manufacturers.

 

[Gstanfor]

Dont' panic too much just yet. You'll have around two years of ATi stuff yet. After that, not even AMD/ATi know.

Text

FiringSquad: When was this deal first proposed and who approached who first?

Jon Carvill: Talks began late last year, and we approached ATI.

Chris Evenden: Can I elaborate on that? I wouldn?t want you to think that we?d just sleep with anyone (everyone laughs). In terms of going over the timeline, well the ATI board was in the middle of a major strategic review of where the company was going and how to get there. It?s actually occurred over the last 12 months actually. And our overarching goals were to remain number one or number two in all of our technology markets, so the board was looking at ways to maintain those goals.

So the board looked at it, and we could see that we had a clear runway up to two years out and then after that we were looking at ways we could keep growing and growing, and so the board looked at all the options, and we were actually looking at AMD as one of those options and it seemed to be the right one, and then next thing you know they approached us so it worked out perfectly.

 

[nitromullet]

I'm not so sure I understand this either... All of a sudden a chip with 3x the transistors, on a larger process, that runs hotter at a third of the MHz of the average cpu is going to get added to the same silicon? It doesn't make any sense even if they tried to integrate the exact technologies we have today on one chip, and that doesn't even take into consideration the physics processor....

I can more readily understand the the HTX idea where the gpu is socketed which an extremely fast interconnect to the cpu, but I still would consider that "discrete" provided that the gpu was removable/upgradeable. I have questions about RAM with this approach though, would it be "TurboCache" for everyone?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it won't happen (too many have eaten their words in this industry), I'm just saying that I can't really grasp (even on a very high level) how it could work.

 

[Sc4freak]

Even the game developers are predicting gloom & doom in regards to PC gaming.

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: Sc4freak
Even the game developers are predicting gloom & doom in regards to PC gaming.

Link?

I see no significant slow down in PC gaming thus far. Considering how long consoles are around before they get overhauled, and the annoyance of using them with keyboards/mice for shooters, I really doubt our market will be dissipating anytime soon. If anything, I bet it'll get stronger in the near future since consoles nowadays are practically PCs. And with them only getting more expensive, less and less people will be interested in spending $800 on a computer and then another $600 on a console. People would rather spend $1000 on a good computer and skip the console.

 

[tuteja1986]

I don't think AMD will Kill ATI High end GPU as ATI had already invested Millions on R600 core. They need to make money on that.

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986
I don't think AMD will Kill ATI High end GPU as ATI had already invested Millions on R600 core. They need to make money on that.

Read the posts above yours, they're not going to kill R600, at the very least. ATi has a runway of about 2 years before anything unexpected happens.

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: Aflac

Originally posted by: tuteja1986
I don't think AMD will Kill ATI High end GPU as ATI had already invested Millions on R600 core. They need to make money on that.

Read the posts above yours, they're not going to kill R600, at the very least. ATi has a runway of about 2 years before anything unexpected happens.

well thats what i am saying

 

[LittleNemoNES]

I give PC gaming a couple more years...

Consoles will prob take off -- specifically the 360 -- and I dont even like xbox 360.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: gersson
I give PC gaming a couple more years...

Consoles will prob take off -- specifically the 360 -- and I dont even like xbox 360.

Firts person gaming and RTS will never really leave the PC.

I may eat my words on that someday, but not in this generation of consoles.

Nat

 

[jelifah]

I'd add RPG to your list as well, although those don't exactly get produced very often anyway.

As for High End GPU's following by the wayside I think 'those people' are just spouting off. In reality I see the GPU world having MASSIVE upticks. My prediction is in the next 3-5 years you'll see the GPU moved to the core. Considering Quad core will be here at the end of the year, and 8 cores by 2008, you'll have a lot of room to drop in a GPU Chip. In fact ATi should go buy the Physics company as well, unless it's so obvious how to build a physics core that they don't need them.

 

[Wreckage]

I think AMD will exit the high end video card market eventually as I don't think there is enough money in it.

However that won't be for several years as ATI has already spent money making the R600 and there would only be money to make form releasing it now.

I don't know if AMD will want to dedicate R&D towards the R700 though.

We won't know for sure for several years.

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Originally posted by: gersson
I give PC gaming a couple more years...

Consoles will prob take off -- specifically the 360 -- and I dont even like xbox 360.

Firts person gaming and RTS will never really leave the PC.

I may eat my words on that someday, but not in this generation of consoles.

Nat

Is your reasoning due to the keyboard and mouse setup on the PC? If so, what if one or all the consoles came out with a small keypad, like the size of 10 key along with a mouse?

On a different note, I do think PC gaming will die in time. If this link is true, the game sales are already down year over year since 1999.

 

[nitromullet]

Firts person gaming and RTS will never really leave the PC.

I'd add RPG to your list as well, although those don't exactly get produced very often anyway.

Don't forget about MMORPG's... As long as a game like WoW can thrive as well as it is right now on the PC platform, you won't see them go anywhere. Why would a company like Blizzard want to help MS by forcing you to get Xbox Live to play their MMO, when they can charge you $15/mo themselves? Collectively, I have probably paid Blizzard just as much money to play WoW as I have on all the oither titles I've bought this past year combined. By the same token, I've also played more WoW than any other title.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: microAmp

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Originally posted by: gersson
I give PC gaming a couple more years...

Consoles will prob take off -- specifically the 360 -- and I dont even like xbox 360.

Firts person gaming and RTS will never really leave the PC.

I may eat my words on that someday, but not in this generation of consoles.

Nat

Is your reasoning due to the keyboard and mouse setup on the PC? If so, what if one or all the consoles came out with a small keypad, like the size of 10 key along with a mouse?

On a different note, I do think PC gaming will die in time. If this link is true, the game sales are already down year over year since 1999.

If they come out with a keypad in a mouse, they will basically be a PC hooked up to your TV, simple as that. Maybe its more of a migration of the PC than a killing of an industry.

I also totally agree with nitromullet, Blizzard and NCsoft make way too much money and have way to many dedicated gamers to go under any time soon.

 

[TheRyuu]

Graphics is big buisness. Wouldn't AMD want to use ATI to make $$$?

 

[akugami]

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Graphics is big buisness. Wouldn't AMD want to use ATI to make $$$?

That would seem logical but everyone thinks AMD will kill off ATI's high end GPU business once the sale has been aproved.

 

[atom]

Originally posted by: akugami

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Graphics is big buisness. Wouldn't AMD want to use ATI to make $$$?

That would seem logical but everyone thinks AMD will kill off ATI's high end GPU business once the sale has been aproved.

I don't think it's so much that people think it will be killed off immediately. Personally I worry because if AMD as an entire company takes a turn for the worse, which division will see budget cuts first? The graphics division most likely.

 

[blckgrffn]

Originally posted by: atom

Originally posted by: akugami

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Graphics is big buisness. Wouldn't AMD want to use ATI to make $$$?

That would seem logical but everyone thinks AMD will kill off ATI's high end GPU business once the sale has been aproved.

I don't think it's so much that people think it will be killed off immediately. Personally I worry because if AMD as an entire company takes a turn for the worse, which division will see budget cuts first? The graphics division most likely.

We know what happens when AMD is trouble...

They run into the red

 

[tuteja1986]

Originally posted by: jelifah
I'd add RPG to your list as well, although those don't exactly get produced very often anyway.

As for High End GPU's following by the wayside I think 'those people' are just spouting off. In reality I see the GPU world having MASSIVE upticks. My prediction is in the next 3-5 years you'll see the GPU moved to the core. Considering Quad core will be here at the end of the year, and 8 cores by 2008, you'll have a lot of room to drop in a GPU Chip. In fact ATi should go buy the Physics company as well, unless it's so obvious how to build a physics core that they don't need them.

That explains why all the best RPG are on console

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: microAmp

Originally posted by: blckgrffn

Originally posted by: gersson
I give PC gaming a couple more years...

Consoles will prob take off -- specifically the 360 -- and I dont even like xbox 360.

Firts person gaming and RTS will never really leave the PC.

I may eat my words on that someday, but not in this generation of consoles.

Nat

Is your reasoning due to the keyboard and mouse setup on the PC? If so, what if one or all the consoles came out with a small keypad, like the size of 10 key along with a mouse?

On a different note, I do think PC gaming will die in time. If this link is true, the game sales are already down year over year since 1999.

1999 huh? wasn't that the summer that the voodoo3 and the tnt2 engaged in some pretty fierce competition that drove prices for top end graphics cards into the middle $100s? i seem to remember buying a voodoo3 back then for pretty cheap.

lets see... quake3 came out then, UT came out, i think that starcraft had been released in late 1998...


actually, didn't intel first come up with integrated graphics in the i810 around that point? suddenly computers stopped coming with even a low end 3d card and started coming with absolutely craptacular graphics... iirc $1000 PCs became popular that year too...