Comments on: AMD buys ATI.

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 14:54:45 +0000

Here is a great article on the merger, http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEyMiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

By: Mr. H. Fusion

Mr. H. Fusion — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 01:26:01 +0000

#11, Gary, very good comment. The one constant in AMD’s favor is that so many of their customers are intensly loyal. There would have to be an extreme advantage to put an Intel above an AMD in our choices.

By: Gary Marks

Gary Marks — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 22:21:29 +0000

The worst thing about this acquisition is the potential for distraction at a time when AMD is already confronted with such a tremendous competitive challenge from Intel. Most acquisitions are accompanied by more than a few digestion pains, but AMD is already going to be hurting plenty until they can match the technological leap that Core2 Duo chips represent. Fortunately for AMD, Intel isn’t ramping their manufacturing of the new chips as fast as the market would like, and there isn’t a great selection of motherboards for Core2 Duo, either, but that will change.

On the same day that AMD announces a $2.5B load commitment from Morgan Stanley to buy ATI, they take a chain saw and slash their chip prices just to stay somewhat competitive with Intel, and you know they don’t need any unnecessary distractions. And they can’t afford a misstep. I certainly wish them luck, though, because they’re a scrappy little company!

By: OhForTheLoveOf

OhForTheLoveOf — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:55:46 +0000

ATI and nVidia have both taken turns in the captain’s chair… I tend to chose a side and stick with it. AMD is hands down the finest proc shop known to man. nVidia is the finest graphics house since 3dfx.

I doubt that AMD is alinging themselves with ATI. I doubt that AMD went shopping for a graphics card company. Rather, if we had a look at ATIs books, this is likely a case of AMD recognizing an opportunity when the see one, and I’m willing to bet a number of regular employees at ATI might be breathing a sigh of relief right about now… the relief of still having a job (for a while).

By: Mr. H. Fusion

Mr. H. Fusion — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:41:58 +0000

Put me on the skeptical bandwagon. AMD would have been much better off aligning itself with nVidia. Maybe buying them outright would be too expensive, but a merger or even partial ownership could have worked.

ATI makes good video cards. nVidia makes great video cards and chipsets.

By: John C Dvorak

John C Dvorak — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:34:40 +0000

I openly predicted that this deal could not be pulled off. I’m still not convinced until the papers are all signed.

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:12:38 +0000

That’s right, nVidia has never been amazingly superior to ATI, but thier support, and price in the US, has always set them ahead of their competion. Maybe with AMD ATI will be better supported, and maybe even a price drop.

As to AMD buying nVidia, can’t afford it is the simple answer. With ATI’s gradual drop in the American consumer market, which is probably the most influential market in Gaming hardware (CPU’s, Video cards…) . AMD may be up and coming, but there’s no way they could have affored to buy out nVidia, not under intel’s watch.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:57:39 +0000

#3
I’m not so sure. NVidia has always been a big supporter of AMD. AMD+NVidia has always been a strong combination. So much so, that I’m actually surprised that AMD is not buying NVidia instead of ATI.

BTW, ATI’s problem has never been the quality of its hardware. Rather, the problem with ATI is the quality of its drivers. That said, over the last couple of years NVidia has worked hard to bring itself down to the driver quality of ATI.

By: Jetfire

Jetfire — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:41:07 +0000

This makes no sence to me. Nvidia makes the best Chipsets for AMD MB. Is AMD shooting themself in the foot? Intel just released a better processor. So now they become competior to their (IMO) strongest partners. Will this push Nvidia to make the Intel+Nvidia the prefered gaming platform.

Don’t get me wrong ATI makes great video cards. The battle between them and Nvidia have been a plus for us gamers. I just don’t see the plus side for AMD or users.

By: Jared

Jared — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:10:19 +0000

It’s gone through. On AMD’s news page they have stated that they are going to merge. I really hope it doesn’t mean an anti-NVidia AMD, because they’ll lose a major base, gamers. Unless they can amp up ATI’s card qualities, or lower their prices (ATI is the top in Europe because price is lower than nVidia’s). One of the two has to happen if AMD does decide to make their support limited to ATI, or they’ll go under fast.

By: forrest

forrest — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 13:02:51 +0000

I can see this as the beginning signs of locking ATI graphics and chipsets to solely AMD and locking out nVidia to AMD…or having “additional functionality” with ONLY the ATI/AMD combination.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 12:09:52 +0000

I hope they increase the quality of those damn cards. The last ATI card I bought was the 9700pro and it exploded on me. I’ve been nVidia for 3 years strong now.

An AMD+nVidia merge would have knocked my socks off.

By: deitarion/SSokolow

deitarion/SSokolow — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:26:13 +0000

If they do, I hope they fix ATi’s policy regarding Linux support. As it is, I consider ATi to be an embarrasment to Canada.

Of course, I’ll still go NVidia for TwinView. (Hardware acceleration for dual-monitor use)