AMD Ships 50 Million ATI 'Hollywood' Wii GPUs

While everyone can see that Nintendo is making money hand over fist thanks to amazing sales of the DS Lite and the Wii, some of the console maker’s partners are also riding the wave.

One such partner is AMD, which has one of its ATI graphics chip inside every Wii. AMD today announced that it the 50 millionth ATI ‘Hollywood’ chip (the GPU for the Wii) from Nintendo shipped today.

“Nintendo values its ongoing relationship with AMD. AMD’s graphics technology expertise as displayed in the ATI ‘Hollywood’ chip is a great part of the momentum of Wii. Our combined efforts help deliver entertaining experiences to create many smiling faces in living rooms around the world,” said Genyo Takeda, general manager of Integrated Research and Development, Nintendo Co., Ltd.

“We’re proud to provide the ATI ‘Hollywood’ chip as the cool and quiet graphics engine that factors so prominently in the overall enjoyment for Wii owners,” said Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Products Group, AMD. “AMD counts Nintendo as a valued customer and we continue to work together to make console entertainment a growing phenomenon worldwide.”

With 50 million units delivered, the ATI ‘Hollywood’ becomes the most successful AMD game console chip to date in terms of unit sales. ATI supplied the graphics chips for the Nintendo GameCube, and is still producing the ‘Xenos’ GPU for the Xbox 360.

Last month we reported on a rumor that had Intel producing the graphics technology for the next generation PlayStation. With AMD already having what we assume to be a positive relationship with Microsoft and Nintendo, Nvidia could be the one left out in the next round of consoles. Industry insiders, however, don’t foresee any new consoles hitting the market until 2011 or 2012.

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macer1

AMD today announced that it the 50 millionth ATI ‘Hollywood’ chip (the GPU for the Wii) from Nintendo shipped today.

sorta forgot the "shipped" part....
JeanLuc

I wish AMD would tell us how many Radeon 3XXX, 4XXX they have shipped, that's something I would be interested to know as if you could combine that with numbers from Nivdia you can get some idea on where PC gaming is heading.
pochacco007

amd was nintendo's choice as it was probably the most cost effective company to partner with in the technology sector. with processing chips [ibm, amd, intel], the cheapest is probably amd. it becomes even better since now amd and ati are together, nintendo can probably make a cost effective partnership, which also comes and saves the consumer money as well.
hairycat101

So now we know why the WII has such weak graphics... (I've used mostly ATI cards for the last ten years BTW)
pharge

hairycat101So now we know why the WII has such weak graphics...

... that is not a surprise. Remember thw words they said... "... the ATI ‘Hollywood’ chip as the cool and quiet graphics engine" How can you expect a cool and quite GPU (Wii)to beat a hot (PS3 and new Xbox360)and melting GPU (old Xbox360)?.. even if they are from the same company (Xbox360 & Wii = ATI)..;)
captaincharisma

Quote:

amd was nintendo's choice as it was probably the most cost effective company to partner with in the technology sector

really and i thought it was ATI that partnered with Nintendo before AMD bought them out.
Tekkamanraiden

pochacco007amd was nintendo's choice as it was probably the most cost effective company to partner with in the technology sector. with processing chips [ibm, amd, intel], the cheapest is probably amd. it becomes even better since now amd and ati are together, nintendo can probably make a cost effective partnership, which also comes and saves the consumer money as well.

Ok you are aware the Wii runs a custom IBM PPC cpu? On top of that the most likely reason the Wii has a ATI/AMD video chip is due to the fact the Gamecube had one.
radiowars

Consoles are are PC's little brothers. They can't be updated. That's their only fault really.
invlem

ATi seems to be a good parter to work with, nVidia got ousted by Microsoft for the 360 due to the issue they had with the original 360.

ATi has had their chip in the GC and the Wii, and the 360. nVidia seems to be killing themselves off in the console market with partnership pricing issues.
invlem

^^ issues with the original xbox^^ not 360 sorry.
curnel_D

invlem^^ issues with the original xbox^^ not 360 sorry.

ATI also had their issues with the 360, but I can imagine it's much more pleasant to work with the AMD group over Nvidia. From what I've seen of Nvidia's higher up attitude, I cant imagine them keeping any distant partners for long before pissing them off and driving them to ATI/intel. But I dont have to imagine either. lol.
zhelkus

Nintendo has proven to be a reliable business partner and such a partner would expect to receive the same treatment in return. ATI/AMD apparently fits that role.

Don't know what the deal is with nVidia, Intel and/or M$ but I do recall some backstabbing in the past. Although that's not right to say since the biggest backstab would have to be Nintendo's when they stood up Sony's addon for the Super Nintendo mid-show. Thus the birth of the PSX.
Tindytim

I really must point out that the "Hollywood" GPU is just the old "Flipper" GPU from the Gamecube running at a higher clock. The Wii is just an OC'ed gamecube.
JumpKickJoe

captaincharismareally and i thought it was ATI that partnered with Nintendo before AMD bought them out.

That's true...ATI did the GPU for the Gamecube and it performed very well.

I wanna know how much $$$$ ATI & AMD are making from console sales. With the 360 and the Wii selling like hot cakes (or high grade coca, cause ppl are still buying 360s after RRODing like 3,4 of 'em ), it is surprising that one would say they are hurting and reeling.
matt_b

radiowarsConsoles are are PC's little brothers. They can't be updated. That's their only fault really.

"Updated" yes - through firmware downloads and software updates due to bug fixes. "Upgraded" no, the hardware is as is. It is a blessing in another way that they cannot be upgraded, you buy a game for that particular console, and you know it just works! No having to check your minimum specs to see if you can play a game or not. This is where your average casual gamer comes in at, it's much more convenient this way.

hairycat101So now we know why the WII has such weak graphics... (I've used mostly ATI cards for the last ten years BTW)

Nintendo has a budget and a blueprint in mind and contracts a company to build it for them. It was chosen for cost/profit to use a GPU based off of the GC for a reason. Sure enough that's what it is, just slightly refreshed.
sublifer

pharge... that is not a surprise. Remember thw words they said... "... the ATI ‘Hollywood’ chip as the cool and quiet graphics engine" How can you expect a cool and quite GPU (Wii)to beat a hot (PS3 and new Xbox360)and melting GPU (old Xbox360)?.. even if they are from the same company (Xbox360 & Wii = ATI)..

I think you've all missed a bit of the point... why use a hot high end gpu when you aren't going to output 1080p. If Nintendo planned for better output (and an HD format drive in the system) they'd have planned for the graphics needed to do it. If a weaker chip can handle anything displayed at 720p or below then why use anything better?
pochacco007

oops.
pochacco007

i made a mistake and look how many people have responded back. i post this response and more people will be back to make replies. fumbles bring customers.
tenor77

This may be AMD's saving grace through this storm. At least the Wii did something for true gamers after all. (even if you don't like ATI or AMD competition is ALWAYS a good thing)
wikiwikiwhat

yeah, the wii isn't graphically enhanced as the PS3 or the 360 but it has gameplay going for it and the chicks ABsoluTELY love the WII.

ATI obviously could have put something more powerful in the Wii, but that's Nintendo's decision. Hopefully Nintendo's next system will be a powerhouse because I'm still looking for that grand Zelda game that they could truly make.

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