AMD: The Rise, Fall and Future of an Industry Giant

Julio Franco

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[newwindow=https://www.techspot.com/article/599-amd-rise-and-fall/]https://www.techspot.com/article/599-amd-rise-and-fall/[/newwindow]

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AMD IS still the better company and they STILL produce better products.

An AMD article is like a COD review...
 
Thanks Graham Singer this is a really great article! Almost brings a tear to my eye, reads like a classic tale of good vs evil.

I like to think that although AMD are scaling down right now, they will be back one day in the future after regrouping.
 
Let's hope AMD is here to stay for a long time. The lost of AMD would only impact the industry in a negative way. No real competition for Intel and Nvidia means these two companies would get away with charging even greater prices to the already high prices on their main products: CPUs & GPUs.

I certainly cringe to the thought of seeing $500 desktop CPUs and $700 midrange GPUs on store shelves.
 
I personally find the ethical and moral corruption of Intel to be the defining point for me to support AMD since the 386 days.. ( I think I had a DX55 and a dual 500mhz PIII setup.. ).
 
Intel has pushed the Atom series through heavy marketing. It simply sucked, it sucked then, it sucks now. The $250 Chromebook is superior to the latest Atom chips.

The Core I series is a processing monster, but it does not deliver the type of performance graphics-wise that AMD can pull off. In the long run, AMD has the upper hand. I don't think Intel's graphics performance, especially on integrated solutions, will be superior to AMD's. And graphics performance is what the end-user will be looking for the most from now on, especially in small form factors (there are some Mini-ITX FM2 designs that will kick a**).

What really bothers me is that when Intel throws something out that clearly has sub-par performance (such as Atom or the integrated HD Graphics), the reviewers put up all sorts of caveats before showing the (horrible) numbers. When it's AMD, there's absolutely no excuse for low numbers.
 
I wish they would just buy a load full of Intel chips and stamped AMD on em...! :(
 
I have a AMD Bulldozer 8120. I know it doesn't benchmark as good as some of the intel chips it runs great for everything I use my pc for. I don't need to have the fastest cpu to enjoy using my pc. I do play games but it's not worth it to spend loads of money on top of the line parts because the architecture changes so fast. Middle of the road works fine for me.
 
I honestly think AMD would have been worse off if they hadn't purchased ATI. After all their graphical devision is what's allowing them to continue competing. I think AMD is exactly where they wanted to be, producing APU's which couldn't have been done without the ATI acquisition. AMD just didn't anticipate Intel rate of progress as well as under-estimated their own.
 
The Athlon/pentium years were great, being an overclocker was extremely fun, using pencils to unlock

now both just make bleh cpu's, theres just no challenge/fun to messing with your chip

think I might just get my thoroughbred out and have a play
 
AMD IS still the better company and they STILL produce better products.

An AMD article is like a COD review...
Except they aren't and they don't. I wish that wasn't the case because competition is good and I've had no problem buying AMD or ATI if their offerings are better than Intel or Nvidia. Unfortunately, that isn't the case now and hasn't been for several years on the CPU side and at least a couple years on the GPU side.
 
I've always owned AMD - better spot on the price/performance curve for me.

Great article, DBZ! AMD overpaid for ATI and sold off mobile chip technology to Qualcomm?! Ouch!

This story sounds like a good example of a company failing to continously improve. Success can be a huge challenge for a company to handle. Just look at what Toyota did to GMC.

Looks like they could be a in a good position to put a nice pivot in their business model. Intel is already behind on low-powered mobile SoCs. AMD might be in a position to shift into a new area... gaming consoles (as mentioned), or who knows what else? As chips get smaller and faster, they'll be used in more and more places. I'm looking forward to the day when most my groceries have an RFID on them and I only have to pass by a sensor to checkout. AMD needs to get on the bandwagon.

Now if they can only find some money....
 
What a wonderful trip down memory lane coupled with some very interesting insights about AMD's failings and future. It was a perfect complement to my morning cup of coffee.
 
Great writeup dividebyzero, I am impressed!
While I don't agree with AMD's performance vs Intel in the K6 days (it is kind of implied that via their higher clockspeed they where faster but I know for a fact they where not, because they had very weak FPU's)
I owned a K6-2 550Mhz CPU myself and it was quite a weak CPU compared to Intel's CPU's at the time.
But once I replaced that for my first Athlon, oh my, my socks flew off!
But in any case very nice article!

The Athlon/pentium years were great, being an overclocker was extremely fun, using pencils to unlock
It sure does bring back memories :) https://www.techspot.com/articles/athlonxp_overclocking/
 
I'm looking forward to the day when most my groceries have an RFID on them and I only have to pass by a sensor to checkout. AMD needs to get on the bandwagon.

Oh, don't worry, you'll be there soon. Their already gearing up to embed chips into everything, like your shoes. And <I>totally</I> by coincidence, the federal government is preparing a huge rollout of RFID sensors in high-traffic public places. Then they can track you all the time. What a wonderful idea! /s

As for AMD, buying ATI was a good idea which they bungled completely. Letting go of the mobile division was bad enough, but the combined CPU/GPU thing may be just as big of a mistake. The corporate world is perfectly happy with cheap-as-dirt onboard video. The desktop market is being driven totally by gamers now..and the first thing that usually gets upgraded in most gaming systems in the GPU. For at least a couple more years, these "APUs" are not going to be as good as discrete chipsets. All you're getting is a CPU with the unnecessary added cost of a GPU that you can't upgrade without also swapping out your processor. While it would be cool if the progress of CPUs and video chipsets were perfectly synchronized, how likely is that to happen? I also have an inherent mistrust of any device that tries to do too much. There are always compromises in performance.
 
I really tried to make sure my new gaming laptop had AMD in it, but I just couldn't. I bought stock in the company purely because I supported them as underdogs and competitors to Intel... Looks like I may lose a lot of money.
 
Make a radical new design in the processor department good enough to beat the intel's ivy bridge,sandy bridge-E series.I believe then,AMD will rise again.
 
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