AMD/ATI bundles appear

[BaronMatrix]

As I expected, AMD has started to release chipset/CPU/IGP bundles. Because of the ease of ordering for OEMs this should be a shot in the arm especially as R600 derivatives show up.

With the RD600 making its appearance it looks like AMD may make a few bucks off of Intel after all. I'm sure nVidia will be accelerating their chipset/IGP but they may actually look to the FP (floating point) domain with their CUDA initiative.

But anyway

take it with a grain of salt

 

[The_Abyss]

Are these actually released, or just showing up as out of stock on some Froogle link?

 

[piesquared]

Yeah, the diversification that AMD now employs is very large. We aren't looking at an AMD making cpu's anymore. They've got deep deep inroads into a very large number of markets with this aquisition. I think people are trying to ignore what ATI is bringing to the table. Again, their new chipsets that are on the way alone should generate alot of interest.
BTW Baron, it does look like this pricewar is having a not so positive affect on Intel, as you suggested. Depending where you look of course.

I've checked out Reuters:
Intel profit falls
The Street:
Intel Feels Price Pinch
EE Times:
Intel to sell NOR fab amid sluggish Q4

And then there's TGDaily:
Core rings Intel's cash registers in Q4

Anyway, an interesting spin.

 

[piesquared]

Profits are up sequentially, but not YOY. Of course, we are not seeing the full impact of C2D yet, but neither has the ATI aquisition contributed much if any revenue, and I don't think that can be ignored. I see it as a huge boost in the arm to AMD's business.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Your source says NewEgg has special bundle deals and is the "evidence" they cite.

NEWSFLASH

NewEgg does this all the time with many different products. YAWN.

 

[skud]

what was the point of this post?

 

[IcY18]

Intel today reported fourth quarter 2006 revenues of $9.7 billion, down about 5% from last year. Net earnings came in at 1.5 billion

Not sure how making 1.5 billion could ever be considered a bad quarter :lol:

 

[IcY18]

Did AMD go into the red this year cause of the ATi acquisition? i forgot and just thought it was funny when "some people" put intel's down from last quarters in the same sentence as AMD not breaking even, even :lol:

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Did AMD go into the red this year cause of the ATi acquisition? i forgot and just thought it was funny when "some people" put intel's down from last quarters in the same sentence as AMD not breaking even, even :lol:

Yeah, if the estimates are correct, AMD will post a 500 million loss Q4 with acquisition charges, this exceeds the amount made in Q1 through Q3.... so 2006 will technically be a red year.

However, the acquisition brought value to the company so it should not be viewed as a negative.

Jack

I don't think you're right. Shakira says that AMD is going to acquire nVidia (no, I'm not joking) and that Intel will be near BK (not Burger King, but bankruptcy) by this time next year. Shakira is a doctor, so she's gotta be right.

 

[ajfink]

Did AMD go into the red this year cause of the ATi acquisition? i forgot and just thought it was funny when "some people" put intel's down from last quarters in the same sentence as AMD not breaking even, even :lol:

Yeah, if the estimates are correct, AMD will post a 500 million loss Q4 with acquisition charges, this exceeds the amount made in Q1 through Q3.... so 2006 will technically be a red year.

However, the acquisition brought value to the company so it should not be viewed as a negative.

Jack

I don't think you're right. Shakira says that AMD is going to acquire nVidia (no, I'm not joking) and that Intel will be near BK (not Burger King, but bankruptcy) by this time next year. Shakira is a doctor, so she's gotta be right.

That was a joke, right?

 

[Wombat2]

Baroness gets off by trolling this board.

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

That was a joke, right?

I pray to goodness it was! I can't stand Shakira, Sharikou, or whoever it is that posts that Fanboi stuff. It feeds people like Baron.

 

[chunkymonster]

Hey Baron! Got a legit question for you.

What's your take on the 4x4 platform using Torrenza and the potential for AMD/ATI to release a socketed gpu for the 2nd socket? Maybe even having a 4x4 set-up where there is a quad core Barcelona in one socket and an ATI gpu in the other? Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks!

 

[TechnologyCoordinator]

Hey Baron! Got a legit question for you.

What's your take on the 4x4 platform using Torrenza and the potential for AMD/ATI to release a socketed gpu for the 2nd socket? Maybe even having a 4x4 set-up where there is a quad core Barcelona in one socket and an ATI gpu in the other? Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks!

Now that thinking makes me very interested.

 

[harty23690]

I'm kinda wondering whats gonna happen if I want a C2D and an R600....

 

[Lacostiade]

regarding socketed GPUs, i did some research and i found that %40-%50 of the cost of the GPU comes form soldering it into the PCB ( as well as other things that can be avoided with socketed GPUs sorry cant remember). I wish AMD makes a socketed GPU and sells these in bundles with CPUs, just like what they are doing now but on a larger scale.

 

[jingles98]

i know i'm a noob so please forgive the stupidity of this but would a socketed gpu increase data throughput/bandwidth/overall performance? if so by how much or would it just drop prices??

 

[BaronMatrix]

what was the point of this post?

To show that AMD will not be going quietly into that good night.

 

[BaronMatrix]

Hey Baron! Got a legit question for you.

What's your take on the 4x4 platform using Torrenza and the potential for AMD/ATI to release a socketed gpu for the 2nd socket? Maybe even having a 4x4 set-up where there is a quad core Barcelona in one socket and an ATI gpu in the other? Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks!

Can't say as Vista has not yet released.

 

[salvador]

Hey Baron! Got a legit question for you.

What's your take on the 4x4 platform using Torrenza and the potential for AMD/ATI to release a socketed gpu for the 2nd socket? Maybe even having a 4x4 set-up where there is a quad core Barcelona in one socket and an ATI gpu in the other? Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks!

Can't say as Vista has not yet released.

These bundles were just a matter of time. Had to come.

OT: Got my Vista Business couple a days ago. Much better than I expected Recomended. Now I just gotta wait to Yorkfield comes, so I can upgrade this damn artifact.

 

[chunkymonster]

i know i'm a noob so please forgive the stupidity of this but would a socketed gpu increase data throughput/bandwidth/overall performance? if so by how much or would it just drop prices??

Unlikely not --- a socketed GPU will be slaved to the memory interface specified by the socket standard. Today's discrete graphics boards offer up to 384 bits x as high as 1600 MHz bandwidth. Discrete graphics cards and the onboard memory has much higher bandwidth than today's CPU to DDR2 memory.... for good reasons. Socketing the GPU would slow this down tremendously and is also one of many reasons why IGPs suck so bad.

Hmm, yes, the socketed gpu sharing system memory would be no different that an IGP. Perhaps a chipset solution to reduce latency. Or, perhaps if the 2nd socket had it's own bank of memory, like 2 socket server boards do today. But even so, as of today, you're still only looking at 128bit by what, 800 or 1000MHz? Perhaps if the path were widened to say 512bit x 2000HMz (GDDR4 speeds?), then maybe it'd be worthwhile. Running with that idea, that could possibly open up the door for system and gpu memory upgrades, let alone the swapping out cpu's and gpu's as upgrades/new gen is offered, providing there isn't a socket change. I can't help but think that AMD/ATI will try and offer a socketed gpu for the 4x4. The creative collective at AMD/ATI has to have more in mind for 4x4 other than what they've shown us, at least I hope there is. Anyway, just thinking out loud.

 

[chunkymonster]

Hey Baron! Got a legit question for you.

What's your take on the 4x4 platform using Torrenza and the potential for AMD/ATI to release a socketed gpu for the 2nd socket? Maybe even having a 4x4 set-up where there is a quad core Barcelona in one socket and an ATI gpu in the other? Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks!

Can't say as Vista has not yet released.

Not even speculation? If not, that's cool...

 

[BaronMatrix]

i know i'm a noob so please forgive the stupidity of this but would a socketed gpu increase data throughput/bandwidth/overall performance? if so by how much or would it just drop prices??

Unlikely not --- a socketed GPU will be slaved to the memory interface specified by the socket standard. Today's discrete graphics boards offer up to 384 bits x as high as 1600 MHz bandwidth. Discrete graphics cards and the onboard memory has much higher bandwidth than today's CPU to DDR2 memory.... for good reasons. Socketing the GPU would slow this down tremendously and is also one of many reasons why IGPs suck so bad.

Hmm, yes, the socketed gpu sharing system memory would be no different that an IGP. Perhaps a chipset solution to reduce latency. Or, perhaps if the 2nd socket had it's own bank of memory, like 2 socket server boards do today. But even so, as of today, you're still only looking at 128bit by what, 800 or 1000MHz? Perhaps if the path were widened to say 512bit x 2000HMz (GDDR4 speeds?), then maybe it'd be worthwhile. Running with that idea, that could possibly open up the door for system and gpu memory upgrades, let alone the swapping out cpu's and gpu's as upgrades/new gen is offered, providing there isn't a socket change. I can't help but think that AMD/ATI will try and offer a socketed gpu for the 4x4. The creative collective at AMD/ATI has to have more in mind for 4x4 other than what they've shown us, at least I hope there is. Anyway, just thinking out loud.

That's not really true. By placing a reasonable amount of E-DRAM on the die, it would be possible to up the bandwidth the way Xenos does with the XBox360.

The biggest problem will be the size of the die. This cannot happen before 45nm which may be why Fusion has been delayed. It could also be so that it won't be late.
AMD will first have to modularize the pixel pipes and integrate the GPU core with the CPU core.

I said before nVidia may get there first because they only need to be able to decode X86. Though AMD does have "Stream" already.

I would suspect that if they push 65nm forward (80nm nVidia is already out for mobile) they are going to try to release an SOC.

 

[BaronMatrix]

Hey Baron! Got a legit question for you.

What's your take on the 4x4 platform using Torrenza and the potential for AMD/ATI to release a socketed gpu for the 2nd socket? Maybe even having a 4x4 set-up where there is a quad core Barcelona in one socket and an ATI gpu in the other? Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks!

Can't say as Vista has not yet released.

Not even speculation? If not, that's cool...

I can't talk about QFX until Vista is released. I went to the NYC launch for IT people yesterday and that thing is PRETTY COOL. I also got Office 2007 which is finally worth the money.

Anyway, it's possible that APUs may be used for QFX, but more than likely not. I did see the next AMD chipset for QFX (690G) and it doesn't have an HTX slot so they are probably not going to use APUs for anything but servers for the next two years or so.

 

[piesquared]

Hey Baron! Got a legit question for you.

What's your take on the 4x4 platform using Torrenza and the potential for AMD/ATI to release a socketed gpu for the 2nd socket? Maybe even having a 4x4 set-up where there is a quad core Barcelona in one socket and an ATI gpu in the other? Thoughts? Ideas?

Thanks!

Can't say as Vista has not yet released.

Not even speculation? If not, that's cool...

I can't talk about QFX until Vista is released. I went to the NYC launch for IT people yesterday and that thing is PRETTY COOL. I also got Office 2007 which is finally worth the money.

Anyway, it's possible that APUs may be used for QFX, but more than likely not. I did see the next AMD chipset for QFX (690G) and it doesn't have an HTX slot so they are probably not going to use APUs for anything but servers for the next two years or so.

I'm also interested in the results of Vista and QFX. Am looking forward to seeing some!

As for HTX, would it be possible that it will only utilized in WS or Server type environements?