AMD no longer competing with Intel, goes Mobile

[bhavv]

Terrible news I hate to think how much those Ivy Bridge CPU's will cost now. O_O

Most likely <£200 for the quad core I5 version without HT.

AMD dont set CPU prices, Intel are currently driving the market. If the I5 2500k was £50 more expensive, I'm pretty sure that AMD would love nothing more than to increase the prices on their CPUs by £50 as well.

Also, you get what you pay for. Good things cost good money (Intel CPUs), crap things cost less (AMD CPUs).

 

[Dicehunter]

No where on that page did AMD say they were going to stop making cpu's, just focusing a little bit more on the mobile market, we will still have CPU's from AMD for our desktops, lots of panic about nothing.

 

[TigerUK]

really hope not, a single cpu market is bad news for everyone. look what happened to mac when they were making their own cpus, before the intel days.

a monopoly is aweful for computing.

though it's crazy to assume this will happen because they own ati dont they? I'm pretty sure there's a big crossover in the performance cpu and performanc gpu market.

 

[bhavv]

Best thing for AMD to do would be to improve upon and focus on Llano, that right there is a very decent budget chip and the integrated graphics + CPU function is very useful.

They've already lost in the high end CPU market, they cant compete and BD was a massive fail.

 

[kitch9]

Best thing for AMD to do would be to improve upon and focus on Llano, that right there is a very decent budget chip and the integrated graphics + CPU function is very useful.

They've already lost in the high end CPU market, they cant compete and BD was a massive fail.

They were never in the high end cpu market..... Why do people think they were?

They've always tried to produce chips that perform in the low to mid end sector, where the money is.

Its the intidiots on the forums who think they should be competing with Intels chips that are twice the price.....

 

[gropingmantis]

if this is true then in few years from now gaming PC's going to be a luxury & gaming on consoles will be the wiser choice for most PC gamers.

Hah and who will be putting the chips in consoles? Oh I think that the rumours were that AMD had that front all sealed up...oh well.

Also the current rumours are that the 720 will have a processor based on the highly successful...Bulldozer...architecture........... ****.

 

[wannabedamned]

They were never in the high end cpu market..... Why do people think they were?

because they were... You seem to be forgetting about the time AMD were on top? When their processors out performed Intels best offerings. Its a back and forth, always has been. To say either one, "never aims to be top dog" is bull.

They both offer budget ranges, they both aim to have the best on the market. Bulldozer is okay for some stuff, But intels offering is better for a wider range of stuff. Thats a mistake on AMDs part, But to say they didnt aim for better and they're all about mid range budget stuff is a load of crap. Just look at the bulldozer pricing for proof of that.

 

[bhavv]

They were never in the high end cpu market..... Why do people think they were?

Here we go then, this was only (almost) 6 years ago:

Doesnt anyone remember what it was like back then?

http://www.behardware.com/articles/571-5/dual-core-athlon-64-x2-4800-and-4400.html

The Athlon X2 4400+ and 4800+ were the most powerful desktop processors back in their day, equal to an I7 3930k right now.

Graph:



I had a 4400+ overclocked to 2600 Mhz. It lasted for 4 years all the way up to my E8400, and tbh it would have lasted even longer if I had waited for X58 rather than getting LGA 775 (pretty lame mistake due to not knowing anything about future CPUs at the time).

 

[Skynet-T800]

I remember back in the day when I bought a Pentium 4 and then a week later saw how much more grunt the Athlon XP's had over it and the pricing was incredible. I wish they were the days again.

 

[Martini1991]

Care to name one game which a bog standard Phenom II X4 can't run?

Even Skyrim only uses 70% max of my CPU, and my GPU always craps waaayyy before the Phenom is even close to its limits, and all this from a £90 CPU which I bought back in june.

This is sad news.

You've only got a mid range set up.
A 6870 Crossfire sees the CPU reach its limits well before the 6870 Crossfire at 1920x1080.

I should be getting a BD set up in the near future, I'd hope this side of Xmas, but it could be 2012, which I'll test with the stuff I already have and compare.

I can't see AMD leaving the desktop space, it'll have been taken out of context.

 

[bhavv]

My first proper gaming PC was an Athlon 1400 and Geforce 3. Pentium 4s could be had at up to 1700 Mhz at the time, but they were slower in just about everything.

I didnt really understand why at the time, I was still a kid oogling at graphs of Athlon CPUs and Geforce 3s, and my dad was about to get me a new PC during my A levels and I demanded an Athlon 1400 Mhz and Geforce 3 and I gotz them

I even waited a month or so longer for the 1400 Mhz athlon to be released, I didnt even want the 1333 Mhz one when the 1400 was already announced lol. 3 years after that I started self building with S939 and the first ever SLI mobo with a pair of Geforce 6800s.

AMD were pretty much rofflestomping all over Intel for so many years since with the Athlon CPUs, then they completely fudged up since Intel released to C2D.

 

[Meetgrinder]

Don't often post on here, but thought I'd chime in.

Intel will continue to have to price what the market can afford for the simple fact that they need to sell CPUs, and a lot of them. If they come out with a processor that is only slightly better than what people have right now, but costs loads more because AMD aren't competing at the high end and they think they can bung prices up, how many people will bother upgrading? If they suddenly bump their prices up 200% what will that do to sales in a recession? They will nosedive. They still have to be careful that they don't become their own worst enemy, because if most people have a pc that is fast enough, and the alternative is only a little bit faster but costs loads of money, they'll stick with what they have rather than upgrade, unless people have more money than sense.

Competition is vital in any market, but for a long while Intel have been top dog. Has anyone who bought a SB 2500k or 2600k seen anything worth upgrading to since, and will the next gen chips offer much of a leap over what we have? I'll be happy with my 2600k for a few years I expect, because my s939 before it lasted me years before I got fed up and treated myself to the upgrade. It's only the hardcore serial upgraders who buy the latest, fastest thing regardless of cost, and the rest of us tend to make do because it does the job just fine. I can't imagine the serial upgraders are a big percentage of the Intel CPU market.

I'm sure AMD will continue to stick around in the low cost integrated cpu/graphics laptop market as Intel are hardly innovating there with the Atom or whatever they are selling these days. In a recession when a person is buying something, do they go for the latest, fastest, most expensive, or what they can afford, when they can afford it?

I only upgraded because the price was too good to pass up on, otherwise I'd still have my x2 4400 belching heat out and keeping my feet warm as I type this. Intel will have to be careful they don't price themselves out of business, so I wouldn't worry too much about wildly escalating prices. Anyone with a SB processor is, in my opinion, well served for a few years. All we can do is watch and wait to see what happens - AMD might have an about turn, come out with something amazing, 'rise from the ashes' - after all, it pretty much did that with the socket 939 processors.

In other words, don't jump off any tall buildings yet shouting "We're screwed!" on the way down, but for sure, AMD shifting their focus isn't good news, at all. AMD were keeping Intel honest, but unless Intel give people a reason to upgrade at a price that's right, they might become their own worst enemy. *shrug* We'll have to wait and see.

Till then my 2600k at 4.5ghz is just fine, thanks.

 

[deusexlumina]

With the utmost respect, anyone saying that this is awesome news is an idiot. Whether or not AMD produce top of the line processors is irrelavent, we need them to complete against intel for all the aforementioned reasons.

Don't get me wrong, intel are clearly fantastic at what they do. However they have already started charging a premium for their "unlocked processors", can you imagine the premium if AMD left the market completely?

IMO the black edition processors by AMD are a godsend to people like us, and keep the enthusiast market alive and well. Not everyone can afford a 2600K build, but they still would like to get into custom building.

If AMD leave, progress will come to a near enough standstill. Over the past 3/4 years we've gone from dual core to 8 core. I dont think we'll see the same progress from now on.

 

[Meetgrinder]

And I've just seen my signature (spec read like an antique). Heh. Might update that now

 

[swinnie]

With the utmost respect, anyone saying that this is awesome news is an idiot. Whether or not AMD produce top of the line processors is irrelavent, we need them to complete against intel for all the aforementioned reasons.

Don't get me wrong, intel are clearly fantastic at what they do. However they have already started charging a premium for their "unlocked processors", can you imagine the premium if AMD left the market completely?

I was only saying to a colleague the other day that AMD are good, in the fact that they inject competition into the market.

Look at how the supply of hard drives as dropped in the last few months, and what it's done to prices. Imagine that with alternative CPU's, Intel will be onto price rises all of the way. I'm pretty sure I got the 2600K cheaper in May than it is now.

IMO the black edition processors by AMD are a godsend to people like us, and keep the enthusiast market alive and well. Not everyone can afford a 2600K build, but they still would like to get into custom building.

I have an HP MicroServer which has a 1.3GHz AMD Dual Core Processor in it, and that runs really nicely. All it does is backups and local development, so it's ideal for low power, low priority equipment. Intel has the edge on performance, which is quite clear with the numerous benchmarks available.

 

[bhavv]

but unless Intel give people a reason to upgrade at a price that's right, they might become their own worst enemy.

This is the thing, Intel are already their own worse enemy.

They are cannibalising their own high end CPU sales with the 2500k / 2600k. Hardly anyone wants to buy a more expensive Intel chip because they hardly perform any better.

AMD havnt been any kind of a concern to Intel for such a long time now. The only competition that Intel have is their own mid range chips.

Based on competition from AMD, there was absolutely no need at all for Intel to release mid range I5 CPUs. They could have simply focused on high end I7s and not bothered with anything lower because there was absolutely no competition.

However they needed to release attractive mid range CPUs at the £150-£200 price point because this is simply the biggest market for computer hardware, and the Q6600, I5 750, and I5 2500k have been their most popular and best selling chips.

Even if AMD completely leave the CPU market, Intel arent going to stop making high perf <£200 CPUs because there is simply far more money to be made here than only making high price £400+ CPUs (if they did this they wouldnt sell enough to make a profit).

So many people lack basic business understanding. Prices are based on what people are willing to pay and the price points at which they will sell at to make the most profit. Competition may affect prices, but a lack of competition isnt going to make everything super expensive.

Don't get me wrong, intel are clearly fantastic at what they do. However they have already started charging a premium for their "unlocked processors", can you imagine the premium if AMD left the market completely?

IMO the black edition processors by AMD are a godsend to people like us, and keep the enthusiast market alive and well. Not everyone can afford a 2600K build, but they still would like to get into custom building.

What premium?????

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-368-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

No one needs a 2600k for gaming, why do you even suggest it when everyone is buying I5 CPUs without HT for gaming?

Even AMD black edition CPUs carry a price premum over non black editions, so why is this a problem with Intel, but not with AMD?

The 2500k is worth every penny over a crappy phenom CPU for gaming.

If you still need a cheaper CPU than the 2500k:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-366-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1671

AMD who? Phenom what? Why do people buy these things?

 

[Meetgrinder]

AMD who? Phenom what? Why do people buy these things?

Price. Because not everyone needs the fastest, latest thing. Only us lot with our bling cases and flashing strobe lights and giant electric bills from running prime95 all the time

That said, I've just spoken to my mother who is convinced she needs a new laptop because the existing one has a virus on, so being daft cannot be ruled out either *sigh*

I wonder if she'll have bought another laptop before the 5 minutes it will take me scrub the malware is up...

 

[Loke]

aslong as AMD is making a profit on CPUs, and they can't shift production to more profitable items, they will carry on making CPUs. Strategic shifts happen all the time, it doesn't mean they are pulling out completely.

The company I'm in change strategy often, but we still retain profitable arms of the business.

 

[bhavv]

Price. Because not everyone needs the fastest, latest thing. Only us lot with our bling cases and flashing strobe lights and giant electric bills from running prime95 all the time

That said, I've just spoken to my mother who is convinced she needs a new laptop because the existing one has a virus on, so being daft cannot be ruled out either *sigh*

I wonder if she'll have bought another laptop before the 5 minutes it will take me scrub the malware is up...

Did you even click on the links I posted?

You are aware that Intel outperform AMD CPUs in every price category? They have cheap CPUs as well, its not like the 2600k is the cheapest CPU that Intel sell

I dont understand what peoples fetish is with AMD CPUs, they arent any better priced than what Intel also offer.

Oh em gee, whats this, a £35 Intel CPU???? No wai!!!!!111111

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-350-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

 

[Meetgrinder]

Did you even click on the links I posted?

You are aware that Intel outperform AMD CPUs in every price category? They have cheap CPUs as well, its not like the 2600k is the cheapest CPU that Intel sell

I dont understand what peoples fetish is with AMD CPUs, they arent any better priced than what Intel also offer.

Oh em gee, whats this, a £35 Intel CPU???? No wai!!!!!111111

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-350-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=567

Don't just look at the cpu - look at the motherboard, memory and so on, i.e. the whole 'upgrade path'. You, I, and everyone on this forum know Intel blow AMD out of the water just about everywhere on performance. If they are doing it on price as well then it explains why AMD might be throwing in the towel to a limited extent.

But there are people who will always buy/support AMD if they are in the ballpark through personal choice, reusing some bits from their previous build, or simply because they don't like Intel, or whatever. If people bought purely because Intel were better than AMD in every way would have AMD gone bust (or at least scaled down as they are possibly doing) years ago.

I stuck with my previous computers (all AMD, and I have about half a dozen desktops knocking about the house) for years because they did the job I wanted them to do. There's a lot to be said for brand loyalty. If you've been burnt with a companies offerings at some point in the past and had no problem with anothers, some people will stick to that brand regardless of what anyone else offers.

Choice is the key word. People make their own choice based on their circumstances, regardless of anything else. That's why I went with Intel this time and I love the new setup. If AMD had offered something almost comparable but for a price saving, I'd have gone with that instead. I certainly don't have a fetish with AMD cpus. At the time they were right for me. Right now (and probably for the forseeable future) Intel is.