AMD's Graphics going under?

[Super XP]

Is AMD insane? What's with the bloody board of directors, if this news is true, why on earth would you try to disintegrate the department that's running efficient and making the company profit?

Link:
AMD’s layoffs target engineering
Board incompetence dooms the company
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/12/amds-layoffs-target-engineering/

 

[Phusius]

semi accurate... lol

 

[trickson]

Is AMD insane? What's with the bloody board of directors, if this news is true, why on earth would you try to disintegrate the department that's running efficient and making the company profit?

Link:
AMD’s layoffs target engineering
Board incompetence dooms the company
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/12/amds-layoffs-target-engineering/

It wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[Aquinus]

No wonder AMD is only 2.74 USD a share.

 

[trickson]

No wonder AMD is only 2.74 USD a share.

I think it is because AMD has lost it edge it once had and is sliding into some kind of weird Over Clocking PR game and NOT giving Intel a real run for it's money.
AMD should be using every thing they have to retake the lead not just jack up the CPU speed and put out the lames ass shit Over clocking crap they have been doing. All there PR is backfiring on them!

 

[erocker]

It's been a gradual downward spiral for AMD since around 2007. It's a real shame how management can really screw things up like this. Time will tell what happens of course, but this is indeed bad news. On the bright side AMD's stock can't really get much lower, perhaps it's time to buy... If you like to gamble.

 

[Aquinus]

It's been a gradual downward spiral for AMD since around 2007. It's a real shame how management can really screw things up like this. Time will tell what happens of course, but this is indeed bad news. On the bright side AMD's stock can't really get much lower, perhaps it's time to buy... If you like to gamble.

I've been debating it. It's a huge gamble though. It may be worth throwing at least a little money in to see what happens. Maybe enough where if you succeed you have enough to pay yourself back and buy you and your buddies a round at the bar.

 

[happita]

The graphics division isn't really what's been putting them in the shitter these past few years. Lots of reasons why they aren't doing so good, not just because of their dwindling CPU division.

 

[Xzibit]

Is AMD insane? What's with the bloody board of directors, if this news is true, why on earth would you try to disintegrate the department that's running efficient and making the company profit?

Link:
AMD’s layoffs target engineering
Board incompetence dooms the company
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/10/12/amds-layoffs-target-engineering/

Thats simple.

AMD is stuggling not because their Graphic department isnt selling but because they fumbled the CPU role-out Lliano. They couldnt co-ordinate product roll out properly and they were siting on inventory for months on end.

The graphic division has been gaining market share on Nvidia 2 quarters in a row. It be silly for them to sell something thats doing well to prop-up the CPU division.

I expect next quater conference call for AMD to alert there investors that there is a possibility of a sale much like Nvidia had to do last year. Qualcomm and Microsoft might be the obvious buyers with the capital to spare to ride the current enviroment out and bring it back once global markets show stability.

If the current enviroment persist you can expect Nvidia soon to follow. There operational cost has been a concern for investors for over a year and they havent been able to grow into those cost which keep growing. Bad timing is also against them with there ARM investment and the company they are trying to immulate with ARM base cpus Applied Micro has seen 1yr of contraction. Another area AMD invested in by buying SeaMicro early this year.

 

[BlackOmega]

This is just getting stupid. I don't like to agree with Charlie, but he's been semi-accurate a lot of times.

What AMD REALLY needs to focus on is their graphics, pretty much the only thing that's been keeping it afloat.
They need to get their drivers in order and really start putting out some nvidia crushing products.

Sad to see what's become of them.

 

[Kreij]

In my humble opinion, the thing that is hurting AMD the most if their lack of any consumer based marketing.
The average Joe does not know who they are, or what they make.

 

[trickson]

In my humble opinion, the thing that is hurting AMD the most if their lack of any consumer based marketing.
The average Joe does not know who they are, or what they make.

I agree. But this is because they are focused on over clocking records not real performance and REAL marketing. You can not have a product and not advertise it! It is just not going to do well. They needed to step up there adds and have FAILED miserably at it! Intel is always in some computer commercial! No one knows because they do not tell any one about there product!
Being a house hold name is getting your product on the Idiot box that MILLIONS watch EVERY DAY!

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

In my humble opinion, the thing that is hurting AMD the most if their lack of any consumer based marketing.
The average Joe does not know who they are, or what they make.

I agree here. They need more advertising.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

My gaming chronology goes like this...

Three years on a Ti 4200 w/ AMD CPU
Four years on an X800XT w/ Intel CPU
Three years on an X1950Pro w/ Intel CPU
Last two years on a GTS 250 w/ Intel CPU

I'm prefacing my post with this to clarify I've given ATI/AMD plenty chance. As you can see, 10 of my 12 years of gaming have been spent using either one of their processors or GPUs.

The way I see it, drivers have ALWAYS been their underlying Achilles heel. Even in their Athlon hey day. When Intel went on their full bore Halfnium die shrink plan with well executed details, AMD tried to beat them to it. By the time they ironed out Phenom's bugs, it was too late. It already had gotten so much bad press it hurt them badly.

Bulldozer really SHOULD have been marketed as a workstation CPU, with another more game oriented design along side it that can handle lesser threading more efficiently.

Graphics wise though, their hardware engineers should be praised. I don't know if AMD writes their graphics drivers, installers, control panel, etc in house, or sources it out, but it's clear it can be done much better.

When you see a crack team of non profit, volunteer enthusiasts from sites like Guru3D, Rage3D, and XtremeSystems get together to collaborate via an extensive ongoing process to offer such tools like RadeonPro because CCC never ever improves, it's clear AMD are crippling even their best dept with poor software support.

 

[Phusius]

i like boobs

 

[FordGT90Concept]

It's been a gradual downward spiral for AMD since around 2007. It's a real shame how management can really screw things up like this. Time will tell what happens of course, but this is indeed bad news. On the bright side AMD's stock can't really get much lower, perhaps it's time to buy... If you like to gamble.

2006*

1. AMD bought out ATI. They didn't have the resources for it and still don't. Instead of buying out ATI, they should have put that money into making a better product or a mass marketing campaign.

2. Intel released Core 2 Duo which trounced not only everything AMD had available, but everything they planned on releasing too (specifically Phenom/Phenom II).

 

[Phusius]

I wish I had some money to buy AMD stock, if all three next gen consoles are using AMD as rumored...

 

[mediasorcerer]

I hope they come back up, we as consumers, whether you like amd or not, DESPERATELY NEED the competition of amd in the market, or otherwise intel and nvidia will gouge us worse than they already do, and they are both prudes too, amd is not.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I wish I had some money to buy AMD stock, if all three next gen consoles are using AMD as rumored...

GPUs, not CPUs, and they barely sell them for more than cost. Before the buyout, AMD's processor division was about 20x larger than ATI. No matter how well the graphics division does, it will never be enough to keep the processor division afloat.

 

[newtekie1]

Where AMD's processor division seems to shine is the lower end market. Just today I was at my local best buy picking out a desktop computer for a client, and in the under $400 range there were 6 AMDs available and one Intel. And the cheapest AMD was a dual-core machine for $150! I shit you not, an entire working tower with a dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, and DVD-RW for $150. The cheapest Intel was $379... Yeah, the Intel was more powerful for sure, but the AMD machine is perfect for a office system, I don't know why anyone buying for that purpose would ever spend the money on the Intel.

People want to talk about AMD not competing at the top level, well there isn't a lot of money at the top level so why chase it? The money is in the lower and middle levels, and that is where AMD is focusing, and they actually aren't that bad.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

...whether you like amd or not, DESPERATELY NEED the competition of amd in the market, or otherwise intel and nvidia will gouge us worse than they already do...

So true, and it's not just pricing. I really don't like this voltage lock down Nvidia is implementing, then scaring most of their GPU vendors into adhering to it or losing their warranty support. Lock downs are for hardened criminals, not gamers.

 

[NC37]

To be fair, the driver problem was ATI's not AMD's. AMD just inherited it and didn't do anything to fix it.

nVidia has been through a mess in PR as well but they've stayed up there. Part in fact due to their preconceived notion of performance and quality. But I've been wondering for years how long till it catches up. Some of their business moves have been beyond the moronic level that AMD has done.

Ultimately AMD does need a new overlord to reorganize. But lets be realistic. They can't just drop everything and change course easily. If they stopped now their CPU division would be out of action for awhile getting new designs ready. This isn't a, stop, redo, then fight Intel toe to toe next week situation. Without them in the picture, then what, Intel just gets bigger with no competition till ARM RISC designs catch up in performance.

M$ has courted with AMD before, but I don't think M$ is in a buying mood with Flopper 8 launching. They are still more software focused rather than hardware. It would put them in control over the GPU of choice for all the next gen consoles, which won't bode well for the industry.

So who else has a wad of cash stockpiled and works closely with AMD and AMD has supported in the past...uh huh, yeah thats right, I'm thinkin it. But why would they buy AMD when they have Intel as a partner? Because the relationship with Intel hasn't been all lovey lovey and because APUs are wonderful designs for gadgets or appliance computers. Plus if they owned AMD, they could eventually move to a complete closed system like they want. All hardware, software, and design done in house.

 

[v12dock]

IBM just buy AMD already

 

[xenocide]

Where AMD's processor division seems to shine is the lower end market. Just today I was at my local best buy picking out a desktop computer for a client, and in the under $400 range there were 6 AMDs available and one Intel. And the cheapest AMD was a dual-core machine for $150! I shit you not, an entire working tower with a dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, and DVD-RW for $150. The cheapest Intel was $379... Yeah, the Intel was more powerful for sure, but the AMD machine is perfect for a office system, I don't know why anyone buying for that purpose would ever spend the money on the Intel.

People want to talk about AMD not competing at the top level, well there isn't a lot of money at the top level so why chase it? The money is in the lower and middle levels, and that is where AMD is focusing, and they actually aren't that bad.

Is catering only to the bottom level working out for them? Unfortunately not as well as you would think. In order to make good profit on selling with slim profit margins, they have to be able to move massive quantities of CPU's, and they just aren't.

 

[Aquinus]

The problem is a lot of companies go with Intel because Intel will make an agreement with them saying "We'll give you our processors at a reduced rate, however, you must only offer Intel CPUs". There is a reason why you don't see a Dell with an AMD processor anymore. It's a damn shame and it's things like that which are going to kill AMD.