Looks like AMD finally made a profit!

[Bill_Bright]

I'd hate to see Intel or Nvidia having market dominance in their fields.

I don't mind one company having market dominance as long as the smaller companies can still influence the market and most importantly, keep nipping at the heels of the big guys, forcing them to keep looking over their shoulders.

The driving force behind Intel is their dreadful fear AMD will leapfrog over them again. The smackdown AMD gave Intel years ago was a humiliating embarrassment that took Intel nearly 10 years to recover from. And it was all because Intel felt so high and mighty, they just sat on their laurels, pedestals, and thumbs and watched dumbfounded as AMD zoomed on by producing, not just better, but much better processors.

So not until the Core 2 Duos did Intel finally leapfrog back with a processor that was more powerful, consumed less energy and produced less heat. It was then Intel vowed to keep pushing the technology envelop farther and not let AMD embarrass them again. And that is good for consumers.

At the same time, AMD has changed their business model and will NOT attempt to compete head to head against Intel. Their pockets are not deep enough. But they promised to pick their fights carefully and keep prodding Intel along - they are doing a pretty good job of that.

Yes, prices are going up but they would go up much more and faster if there were no AMD. But "prices going up" is a bit deceiving. Yeah, they are going way up for the top tier processors. But for $100 or $200, you get a whole lot more processor for your money today than you did yesterday. And that will be true tomorrow and for years to come as long as competition exists.

Lawsuit is fart against a hurricane

A good fart feels good. Some of these suits were more like several nasty stings from angry African bees. Intel had huge revenues but their actual profit last year after paying overhead and R&D was just under $12 billion. Getting stuck paying $1.45 billion fine/settlement to the EU for their monopolistic tactics hurt the company - and not just the >10% loss, but their stocks took hits too. Still, Intel is not in any danger of going bankrupt or needing to sell off any of their 6 corporate jets any time soon.

AMD, the kid, has finally put his shoes on...

Probably more true than most realize. AMD didn't become a major player in the processor industry until the IBM PC came along. IBM insisted there be a second source manufacturer for the x86 processor, so Intel adopted and partnered with AMD. If not for that "technology exchange" licensing agreement, AMD would never have earned the revenue to develop its own "clone" processor. So in effect, the child schooled the parent, big time. And that was nothing but great for consumers!

 

[Octopuss]

People said the same after Bulldozer launch and yet it was still selling pretty well. And it's still selling pretty well. No matter how inferior your product is, if you know how to market it, you'll be selling it. Be it presentation itself or the pricing scheme.

I'm not sure AMD is good at marketing

 

[yogurt_21]

I'm not sure AMD is good at marketing

for decades that was true. They simply let consumers think they were intel or that all cpus were the same. But ever since they got into consoles marketing has increased and people know who they are. I have a feeling this trend will continue. After what general consumer would know about ibm cell processors without the playstation and xbox?

 

[Bill_Bright]

Plus, marketing takes money - a lot of money. People seeking alternatives will find AMD. Plus many just don't care - they are only looking for a computer that will let them do what they want to do and they could care less the brand name of the parts inside. And if looking for budget computers, they surely will find AMD. That does not mean inferior or poor quality - just less expensive.

 

[RejZoR]

Plus, marketing takes money - a lot of money. People seeking alternatives will find AMD. Plus many just don't care - they are only looking for a computer that will let them do what they want to do and they could care less the brand name of the parts inside. And if looking for budget computers, they surely will find AMD. That does not mean inferior or poor quality - just less expensive.

Which is why they simply targeted the most profitable price range this time around. They aren't targeting names or brands, they simply target what people buy the most.

 

[newtekie1]

I hope they come up with some thing before Intel screw us even more on PCI-e lanes lol.

Is 36 lanes not enough on the 1151? Is there really a need for more?

 

[laszlo]

finally they start to "excavate" themselves from the hole

 

[yogurt_21]

Is 36 lanes not enough on the 1151? Is there really a need for more?

90 definitely need 90. 32 for dual gpu, another 8 for other cards (raid, sound), another 40 for kicks, and 10 for your mom, just cause.

 

[erocker]

Now if they can get their stock back up over $11 a share, buying all that stock with Phenom 1 hype will finally pay off! Woo hoooo!! meh...

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I am not faithful to any company. Being faithful to companies that's out to make money sounds stupid. Might as well hand my bank accounts over if so.

...

WTH! Didnt you know thats exactly what we do, I piece of hardware at a time! We put the real faith in companies with the hope that our hardware that we bought with our hard earned cash, works right out of the box.

Now if they can get their stock back up over $11 a share, buying all that stock with Phenom 1 hype will finally pay off! Woo hoooo!! meh...

The recent announcements still leaves people skeptical, shares jumped a mere 50 cents. On the other hand, the positive earnings left even more people either stumped or down right suprised into speechlessness!

 

[erocker]

If Zen works out, I can see their stock doubling. They could have a series of great GPU's and it wouldn't have near the effect of a competitive CPU.

 

[Octopuss]

Being faithful to companies that's out to make money sounds stupid.

Are you delusional, a hippie, or just don't understand how the world works?
I'm just trying to figure out your though process behind that sentence.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Are you delusional, a hippie, or just don't understand how the world works?
I'm just trying to figure out your though process behind that sentence.

I think what he's trying to say, because I've seen others mention it, is that it's senseless to be loyal to an entity that doesn't have any loyalty to you, which btw, is all companies. None of them will return the loyalty. They exist to make money. Some people feel like they "belong" to a special club because they support a company...almost as if they feel they will be rewarded as a member of the family.

 

[alucasa]

I think what he's trying to say, because I've seen others mention it, is that it's senseless to be loyal to an entity that doesn't have any loyalty to you, which btw, is all companies. None of them will return the loyalty. They exist to make money. Some people feel like they "belong" to a special club because they support a company...almost as if they feel they will be rewarded as a member of the family.

Yeah, that is what I wanted to say. I will swing over to AMD at any time if their CPU is good enough. I am kinda stuck on the green camp due to needing CUDA though.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Yeah, but how do you become loyal? New products does not do it for me. After sales service does. Gigabyte, for example, RMA'd a 4 year old motherboard for me that had leaky capacitors - a full year after the 3 year warranty expired. That made me a loyal Gigabyte customer.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

If Zen works out, I can see their stock doubling. They could have a series of great GPU's and it wouldn't have near the effect of a competitive CPU.

Might get be odds flipping a coin. With all the so call lesson learned in the past, you'd think AMD has a grip on all this, and is heading for the promised land. Doubful, I think AMD is crossing fingers, standing over a bedpan.

Yeah, but how do you become loyal? New products does not do it for me. After sales service does. Gigabyte, for example, RMA'd a 4 year old motherboard for me that had leaky capacitors - a full year after the 3 year warranty expired. That made me a loyal Gigabyte customer.

Loyalty only goes so far, in most cases, depends how deep your budget is.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Wow, 6 TFLOPS on Project Scorpio means in between 980 Ti and Titan X performance. It also means if they sell enough of them, we may see an end to games being dumbed down on PC to look like the lesser capable consoles.

I'm skeptical they can sell enough of them to make that happen, but MS and Sony usually take a loss initially just to capture as large a segment of the gaming audience as they can. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Word is Sony are only putting 4.2 TFLOPS into PS Neo, but that's still enough to level out the platforms enough to remove the risk of graphics sabotage on PC titles for parity. Hell, my current GPU (7970), is only capable of 3.8 TFLOPS.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Loyalty only goes so far, in most cases, depends how deep your budget is.

True. I am not going to buy Gigabyte's top-of-the-line, but I have been using Gigabyte boards in almost all our builds since they treated me right in after sell support.

 

[Assimilator]

for decades that was true. They simply let consumers think they were intel or that all cpus were the same. But ever since they got into consoles marketing has increased and people know who they are. I have a feeling this trend will continue. After what general consumer would know about ibm cell processors without the playstation and xbox?

Wat.

The vast majority of console owners neither know nor care about the innards of their game playing devices. Because that's the whole purpose of a console. Having their APUs in every console has helped AMD in terms of marketshare (which may turn out to be a good thing in the long run with DX12 and async) but certainly not in terms of brand awareness or profitability.

Is 36 lanes not enough on the 1151? Is there really a need for more?

Personally I feel that Intel has gone overboard with lanes in the Z170 PCH. In the worst-case scenario - Kaby Lake PCH retains 26 lanes but upgrades to USB 3.1/10Gbps/whatever it's called - 12 of the 26 lanes would be used (instead of 6/26 in Z170), which would still leave 14 free PCIe 3.0 lanes, which is more than enough for 3 PCIe storage devices/SATA storage devices and a pair of network controllers. I'm pretty sure there aren't many motherboards that use all of Z170's lanes, even with extra controllers and whatnot.

90 definitely need 90. 32 for dual gpu, another 8 for other cards (raid, sound), another 40 for kicks, and 10 for your mom, just cause.

Only 10?

 

[AsRock]

Yeah, but how do you become loyal? New products does not do it for me. After sales service does. Gigabyte, for example, RMA'd a 4 year old motherboard for me that had leaky capacitors - a full year after the 3 year warranty expired. That made me a loyal Gigabyte customer.

Yeahshould be a reason for it, how ever i had a Steelseries mouse which failed with in a year and they replaced it which all so failed within in a year and was way passed it's warranty, on about the 3rd year i decided to ask them for a part for the mouse and they ask me to send the old one back to them and they sent me a Sensei Wireless. How ever i am not loyal to them, hell no they did what they should do and i respect that as most would not ( Yes talking about your Razar ).

Now who got my Loyalty is XFX, well mainly the guy who pops on here. But there is loyalty and there is stupidity. Not going buy some thing from XFX just because it's XFX although there is a better chance due to it. I buy a video card it needs to last years so a warranty is very important to me but i do feel like i would get no BS from XFX like i have done with others (yes speaking to you ASUS, MSI and Giga).

 

[Bill_Bright]

For sure, if the caps on the replacement Gigabyte board started leaking (or bulging), or I started to have more and more Gigabyte failures, I would, with haste, move to another brand in our builds. But we've done many builds here over the last few years and just cannot find fault with Gigabyte motherboards, or their service. So I will remain loyal to them until they show me reason not to be. But make no mistake, screw me over and it will take a very long time to win me back - right or wrong.

I guess that is where I stand with Intel. I prefer Intel processors and Intel has not done me dirty (though neither has AMD). Yes, Intels cost more, but when you factor in the cost of the motherboard, RAM, case, graphics card, Windows, mouse, keyboard, power supply, drives, and monitor(s), and spread that out of the life of the computer, then factor in the savings in energy and room air conditioning with the more efficient Intel CPU, the higher initial costs of the Intel CPU becomes a wash.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Damn, it looks like MS plan on making Xbox KB/M friendly very soon (months vs years).

http://www.pcgamesn.com/halo-wars-2/xbox-one-keyboard-and-mouse-support

 

[AsRock]

Damn, it looks like MS plan on making Xbox KB/M friendly very soon (months vs years).

http://www.pcgamesn.com/halo-wars-2/xbox-one-keyboard-and-mouse-support

Had to happen sooner or later, which kinda worries me as that was one of the main reasons a PC and console were different.

 

[JATownes]

Had to happen sooner or later, which kinda worries me as that was one of the main reasons a PC and console were different.

I agree it was inevitable...but why worry? I think the next couple of rounds of consoles are going to be great for PC gaming. With KB/mouse support, game developers will be coding for it from the beginning and it will hopefully eliminate ports with buggy control schemes. I also believe getting away from the "walled garden" approach in relation to console hardware is a great idea, and hopefully will lead to less "exclusive" titles.

I'm actually excited for the changes, as I would love for us to be approaching an era of true multi-platform gaming, and that hopefully will turn in to profits for AMD. We all need AMD to keep pressure on NV and Intel to continue pushing the boundaries.

JAT

 

[rtwjunkie]

Had to happen sooner or later, which kinda worries me as that was one of the main reasons a PC and console were different.

I believe, since I believe at my core that MS hates PC gaming, that is is part of a broader, multi-year push by MS to marginalize PC gaming and make it disappear eventually. Too many hints and traces of evidence over the last 15 years to think otherwise.