AMD CPUs and GPUs Used to Make 'Machete'

Robert Rodriguez makes movies that we love to watch. These include Sin City, Planet Terror, and From Dusk Til Dawn. This week he's back with Machete, featuring an all-star cast including Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Michelle Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Alba.

Why is this news? Because AMD technology was behind the scene with its CPU and GPU technology to help finalize 500 shots.

Machete is referred to as a "spaghetti western for day laborers," and the film centers on a former Mexican ex-Federale named Machete, who after being setup, embarks on a quest to seek revenge and clear his name.

Production company Troublemaker Studios made use of a unique mix of high-performance AMD hardware, including FirePro V8800 professional graphics accelerators and six-core Opteron processor-based workstations to produce the film on a compressed schedule. A team of ten artists with a post-production period of only six months accomplished 500 final shots.

Shots from three different digital camera models, one film camera, camera tracking work using PFTrack, 3D special effects work using Softimage, and compositing work using Nuke, all came together through AMD hardware.

Such added effects include extensive set damage, a huge number of bullet holes, and wide-ranging set extensions. AMD hardware also played a part in sophisticated particle simulations helped more accurately render realistic blood spatters that interact with each other, the actors and objects in the environment.

Stay tuned tomorrow for our Q&A with the technical team of AMD and Troublemaker.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • killerclick
    Oh, so that's why it sucked...
    Reply
  • shaun_shaun
    Toms didnt talk, what GPUs used to make movies like Avatar or any other recent CGI intense movie ..so what s the big deal about this Machete??? probably Jessica Alba !!!
    Reply
  • elbert
    Todays movies are getting cheaper to make as tech improves. Even the TV shows of today are able to produce realistic effects in a fraction of time and cost. This unfortunately has movies reaching near price elasticity of demand for views.
    Reply
  • hp79
    And I used intel CPU and intel GPU to type this comment.
    Reply
  • blasterth
    Is this the only movie ever made that uses AMD CPUs and GPUs?
    Well congratulations!
    Reply
  • joytech22
    Awesome! good to see AMD getting recognized for this stuff.

    And didn't IBM's cell processors and a mix of intel processors render Avatar? (Some NZ renderfarm or something)

    Is this the only movie ever made that uses AMD CPUs and GPUs?
    Well congratulations!

    Nope, AMD also did Predators (2010)
    Reply
  • Wheat_Thins
    WOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAHHH FULL ON DOUBLE AMD RAINBOW RENDER! It's so intense; what does it mean? Honestly does this mean anything?
    Reply
  • thesmokingman14
    ROFL, it's like ate Kill Bill, The Matrix, and Last Action Hero and crapped out a movie. The only thing missing is a geriatric Steven Seagal....although having enough chicks running around in bras with guns could redeem it! ;)
    Reply
  • nforce4max
    This is one of the worst movies to come out for a long time that is this racist. I hope that it flops at the box office.
    Reply
  • velozzity
    So has anyone actually seen what this movie is about...i mean yes the man was set up, but it basically boils down to a minority (and illegal alien omfg i said it im not politically correct sue me) running around shooting whites...if it were reversed would'nt that be called racist instead of artwork.
    Reply