AMD to keep ATI brand, may create more integrated chips
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Aug 8th 2006 at 9:55PM }
After some initial rumblings that indicated otherwise, AMD has reaffirmed their desire to attach the ATI brand to several of their forthcoming product lines. "The ATi name will live on at AMD as our leading consumer brand, and so will the Radeon brand and other ATi product brands," says spokesperson Eric DeRitis. "AMD's executive management knows very well the power and value of branding, and ATi's branding is some of the most valued in the global technology industry. As such, we plan to keep it. Period."The nature of the products to be branded as such have yet to be fully disclosed, but already AMD is hinting at providing more integrated graphics solutions. Indeed, the branding may become especially vital when faced with the widespread (and arguably correct) perception that "integrated graphics" is merely a shorter term for referring to that worthless piece of tech that came with your computer and can barely push two frames per second in the latest Tiger Woods game. According to their marketing manager for Europe, AMD sees integrating graphics acceleration directly into the CPU as the next logical step.
"So, in much the same way as a floating point unit is now integrated into the processor, I would expect to see joint single pieces of silicon for certain specialist markets too." Richard Baker restrains the idea a bit, though, and says that AMD won't "integrate some steaming great big quad-core CrossFire engine into a CPU; that would be crazy. But if you're looking at entry level parts for emerging markets, where a very simple GPU could be integrated, then that could be possible."
The true fallout of the AMD/ATI deal will likely become most evident once the new product lines show up which, if Baker is to be believed, could happen as early as next year.
Read - AMD stays hand over ATI brand axe
Read - AMD hints at integrated graphics and physics acceleration in CPUs
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Grim @ Aug 8th 2006 10:16PM
Integrated graphics are the downfall of PC gaming. I'm glad we won't be buying "AMD graphics cards" because that just sounds stupid.
raging_evil @ Aug 8th 2006 10:20PM
This should be an interesting thing to watch. AMD has been scratching and clawing for the past couple of years to grab a bigger market share with their superior product. But lately it seems that Intel has woken up and got on the ball. Thier new Core 2 Extreme is significantly faster than anything AMD has.
This merger will hopefully lead to cheaper and much better motherboards with great on board graphics. However, most tech heads agree that nVidia and their SLI technology is better than ATI Crossfire. This leaves Intel a huge oppurtunity to create an advantage over AMD with pc gamers. After all, it is the pc gamer who drives the video card market with their obsession to have the latest and greatest.
Anticrawl @ Aug 8th 2006 11:35PM
Well raging_evil that's a common misconception. Your average "tech head" knows that the basic difference between SLI and Crossfire is that SLI will not allow Antialiasing at max with HDR and Softshadows on, while Crossfire can run all three at max even though generally Nvida makes more powerful(as well as entirely less efficient) and cheaper cards. Ontop of that the card that is about to or just hit the market from ATi is the last model that will require Crossfire considering the new R600 cards are coming out immediately after that.
In any case AMD has another uphill battle with Intel now that the Conroe has been released with its price to performance ratio far exceeding anything AMD has to offer. It's sad that they worked so hard to pass Intel and they zipped right back by again. ATi however will seriously close the gap with their new cards this fall.
Anticrawl
Anticrawl @ Aug 9th 2006 12:06AM
On the thought of integrated cards I can see the fall of them soon with the looming launch of Vista. Without dedicated memory on video cards becoming standard and cheaper Microsoft may have a problem getting it's vendors to bundle Vista on it's machines.
Anticrawl
GSI @ Aug 9th 2006 12:41AM
Umm..."integrated graphics" isn't the death of anything, especially PC gaming. People that are serious about PC games will buy graphics cards.
The motherboards with integrated graphics are good for those people that don't care about gaming (well at least the major stuff.) Having motherboards with built-in graphics makes systems cheaper...and being someone that builds systems for people from time-to-time, it makes my job easier as well.
Oh and my opinion?
nVidia >>>>> ATi
indysurfn @ Aug 9th 2006 1:23AM
Let me be the first to speculate......ATI + AMD =Sony before SNES-cd(or should I say would have been SNES-cd).....ATI + AMD=Microsoft before trying to purchase Sega......AIT + AMD = new console player! Think of the stragy plus the precieved decline of PC game security. Think of AMD realizing that they could miss the next console contract, and that they could be the ones reaping the benefits instead of Microsoft or Nintendo! Think of what the brand name ATI brings! The fastest way to grow is enter what is soon to be a 50 billion market. It sounded stupid that a software company would enter the hardware market(microsoft). It doesnt sound so stupid a combined technology leading tandum of CPU's and GPU's would launch a console! To a open minded thinker now does it? Today is 8/9/2006 this is my personal prediction!
Razz_Eurogamer.net @ Aug 9th 2006 5:24AM
Are guys sure you haven't misread the article. As I understand it, AMD is looking to integrate the GPU into future CPUs.
Rather than just tacking some crappy GPU onto the motherboard they want to fully integrate ATi graphics cards into AMD processors.
Forgive if this is short sighted, but to me that sounds rather exciting! :)
mykie @ Aug 9th 2006 10:32AM
#7, that doesn't sound exciting at all...
In fact, that sounds like the Cyrix MediaGX.
Is anyone running a multimedia and gaming powerhouse off a Cyrix/VIA chip these days?
Jeffler @ Aug 9th 2006 11:56AM
indysurfn, they aren't going to release a new dedicated console.
I think you are very close though - watch out for AMDTI (I'm calling them that, shut up) to release a $400 DISCover based machine.
(For those who don't know - DISCover technology, currently used in a few machines nobody ever hears of, is a technology that turns PC gaming into a similar to console gaming - just pop in the disc. The first time it'll do the install wizard - and all other times, it will track down what game it is and run it the second you put the disc in.)
To the AMDTi DISCover Gamestation!