Its official....AMD acquires ATI

[defiant]

It's now official, AMD acquires ATI. (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~110899,00.html)

NEW YORK -- July 24, 2006 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) and ATI (TSX: ATY, NASDAQ: ATYT) today announced plans to join forces in a transaction valued at approximately $5.4 billion. The combination will create a processing powerhouse by bringing AMD’s technology leadership in microprocessors together with ATI’s strengths in graphics, chipsets and consumer electronics.
I don't know what anyone else thinks, but monopolies are never a good thing for consumers. :(

[saneman]

I don't know what anyone else thinks, but cabbage is never a good thing for consumers.

Just saying.

(What does this have to do with a monopoly? )

[Odyzen]

that's incredible news. Didn't think it would happen so quickly.

I don't know what anyone else thinks, but monopolies are never a good thing for consumers.

This doesn't mean monopolies. It's still AMD vs Intel and ATI vs nVidia. It now means an integration of AMD and ATI technology to better unify the hardware design.

The live announcement of this is being made at 5am PDT

Link to hear it live. (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c=74093&eventID=1356639)

[Taco]

My thoughts exactly, monopoly? Alone or seperate, they are still second place. No I am not talking about quality.

[lpmiller]

not a monopoly, and it's a merger, not AMD buying ATI...though I suppose for all intents and purposes, that's what's happening.

[bboy]

Whatever will become of Nforce chipsets for AMD processors? I think we'll start to see Nvidia shift it's chipsets purely to the Intel side going forward.

This is by no means a monolopoly (funny how folks like to toss that word around) but it sure ain't helpin' the consumer in any way at all.

[Evil Avatar]

IMHO... ATI cards are crap anyway. I guess this just means that my next system will be Intel / NVIDIA all the way. Kind of a shame, because I've always been a big AMD backer in the past, but I don't want to get caught up in the whole thing (that you know will happen) where only ATI cards work right with AMD CPU's.

[CraweN]

Whatever will become of Nforce chipsets for AMD processors? I think we'll start to see Nvidia shift it's chipsets purely to the Intel side going forward.

This is by no means a monolopoly (funny how folks like to toss that word around) but it sure ain't helpin' the consumer in any way at all.

Don't think you need to worry about that, why should they want to lose millions of dollars by only supporting Intel. that just doesn't make sense.

[bapenguin]

From what I understand (and there's a great article in CPU Magazine about this), this doesn't mean that all AMD stuff will have ATI stuff integrated. What it does mean is that both companies get a significant boost in manufacturing potential as well as shared technology to help improve both lines.

The article in CPU even goes as far to say this is GOOD for NVidia and that AMD would never jeopardize that relationship.

[SexualChoc]

I've always been a intel/nVidia man anyway. I never liked ATI, and AMD was always sort of meh, so it's no skin off my nose.

[Spigot]

Ah, good. Everyone else already jumped on the fact that it's not a monopoly.

I'd actually say that this would sort of be good for consumers given that AMD would have less of a hassle integrating a proper and functional 3D card on their boards instead of the usual pieces of crap soldered onto motherboards these days. As was argued over on this thread (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14944) (ironically about Intel killing PC gaming), having a working 3D card (albeit one without all of the crazy bells and whistles we hardcore folk like to have in our rigs) would do wonders for bringing in casual and new PC gamers as newer games would actually work on the integrated chips.

My father-in-law has an integrated chip on his relatively new computer and it wouldn't even run WoW or EVE Online. That really churned my butter. I wasn't expecting a quad-SLI setup or anything, but come on.

[Zeal]

Now Intel buys Nvidia.

[Spigot]

I've always been a intel/nVidia man anyway. I never liked ATI, and AMD was always sort of meh, so it's no skin off my nose.
I agree. Granted, I was a big Voodoo guy myself until far longer than I should have been, but it's been Nvidia all the way. I also tend to stick with the Intel chips because the one time I did upgrade to an AMD chip it was THE worst upgrade of my life. I got a bad chip and it was 2 solid weeks of reinstalling Win95 and reformatting my system over and over and over again... I'm sure they're decent chips these days, but that really turned me off of them and it's getting on 10 years since that fateful upgrade...

[Knite]

I agree. Granted, I was a big Voodoo guy myself until far longer than I should have been, but it's been Nvidia all the way. I also tend to stick with the Intel chips because the one time I did upgrade to an AMD chip it was THE worst upgrade of my life. I got a bad chip and it was 2 solid weeks of reinstalling Win95 and reformatting my system over and over and over again... I'm sure they're decent chips these days, but that really turned me off of them and it's getting on 10 years since that fateful upgrade...

And right there is what first impressions do.

Shame you didn't get one of the fantastic original Pentium 90s! They were so good, they rewrote mathematics! It was now possible to devide by 0!!!

[Spigot]

And right there is what first impressions do.

Shame you didn't get one of the fantastic original Pentium 90s! They were so good, they rewrote mathematics! It was now possible to devide by 0!!!
Hey, I probably DID have one of those... actually, no I didn't. I was lucky and hadn't upgraded from my 486 until after they'd stopped violating the laws of physics with the Pentium chips.

And yeah, it's sad that my first impressions have left such a bad taste in my mouth regarding AMD, but that's what's happened. Granted, I'm not an Intel fanboy and have no problem using other people's AMD rigs and would be more than happy to have an AMD set given to me. If I'm forking over my own money though, it's Intel all the way.

I was VERY close to upgrading to AMD this spring when I got the new system but the price difference for an equivalent or faster Intel chip was within my budget so I went with it.

[baz]

I agree. Granted, I was a big Voodoo guy myself until far longer than I should have been, but it's been Nvidia all the way. I also tend to stick with the Intel chips because the one time I did upgrade to an AMD chip it was THE worst upgrade of my life. I got a bad chip and it was 2 solid weeks of reinstalling Win95 and reformatting my system over and over and over again... I'm sure they're decent chips these days, but that really turned me off of them and it's getting on 10 years since that fateful upgrade...

I wouldn't worry about AMD now, ever since they released the Athlon, they've been getting better and better, and for gaming performance, they've been dominating for quite some time. The K6 chips where pretty shitty, but since then they've really released some quality stuff.

[DingBat]

I don't know what anyone else thinks, but monopolies are never a good thing for consumers. :(

You know, you guys should REALLY think about just dropping these little "punch-line" tags in the story posts.

I mean, this one basically shows the poster didn't even bother to read and understand his own referenced article. Kind of embarrasing, no?

[Spigot]

I stand by my irrational fear of bad chips of all varieties, potato and micro alike.

Of course, my ludditis tends to infect every tech I touch, so no matter what I get, there's bound to be a problem with it. I need a virus scanner that will scan me instead of my hard drive to make sure I don't crash the system when I touch it.

[Spigot]

You know, you guys should REALLY think about just dropping these little "punch-line" tags in the story posts.

I mean, this one basically shows the poster didn't even bother to read and understand his own referenced article. Kind of embarrasing, no?
When they're done by a red name, they tend to be ok. I know that when I've done them they have either been misinterpreted by the unwashed masses or have been just plain wrong.

This particular example is one where it's just wrong. He probably meant mergers though.

[Jack Random]

I read the CPU article as well, but i'm not so sure i have such a sunny outlook on it. I fear this will lead to less Nvidia support for AMD platofrms and that worries me

[laggerific]

It's surprising to think that this would actually mean less support between the various manufacturers. Interoperability is the lifeblood of the PC world. Now if Apple had acquired ATI, then maybe I would be concerned.

[lpmiller]

dual core gpus would rock.

[Nimos]

If this is a merger, then the new company will probably be called... Amdati !!!

[Kelegacy]

You know, you guys should REALLY think about just dropping these little "punch-line" tags in the story posts.

I'm not going to fault the original poster, but I've always said that if those little comments were left off, we'd all be much better for it. See how much time and energy was wasted while we discussed the comment instead of focusing on the story reported?

I'll always stick by this rule, at least in terms of news reporting. Comments 9 times out of 10 only detract from the news story and our discussions suffer because of it.

-Dan

[EvilBob46]

IMHO... ATI cards are crap anyway.

Think nVidia is better? Fine. Saying ATI cards are crappy when the product lines after the introduction of the 9x00 series have been praised highly? Silly.
If you erased all traces of nVidia drivers on your system (with Driver Cleaner, very important), always uninstall old drivers first before installing new ones, and then install the latest drivers whenever, and still experience a variety of issues other people do not, then other parts of your system may be to blame. You wouldn't believe how many performance problems can result from your soundcard, crappy motherboards and that kind of thing. And most importantly, when it comes to visual artifacts (and inferior performance to the norm), overheating of the card may be to blame (this may cause minor/major artifacts in taxing 3D games only, but not elsewhere, thus looking like driver related bugs instead). If all else fails, you may have a faulty card which is a rather common occurrence with both ATI and nVidia cards.

Judging by the fact that your experiences were unproportionally terrible, I'm inclined to say the problems didn't entirely lie with the graphics card(s).

I'm sure they're decent chips these days, but that really turned me off of them and it's getting on 10 years since that fateful upgrade...

It's common knowledge that AMD chips used to have tons of issues back then. The AMD prior the introduction of the Athlon architecture in 1999 does not even compare to the new AMD thereafter.

[Skjef]

I just hope this leads to better Linux driver support for ATI cards. The current ones are pathetic.

[Evil_SPanKY]

Monopoly, hunh? How do you figure that? That requires dominant market share, which neither has anything close too. I see this as a good thing in the long run

[drakkarim]

perhaps amd will now bring ATI card prices back down to match the nvidia ones.

[51|RandoM]

Whatever will become of Nforce chipsets for AMD processors? I think we'll start to see Nvidia shift it's chipsets purely to the Intel side going forward.


nvidia will keep making those chipsets, no worries.

No, the chipsets that disappear will be the recent ATI chipsets for Intel. You can probably kiss those goodbye.

[51|RandoM]

Now Intel buys Nvidia.

Intel doesn't want or need nvidia. Every market nvidia is in? Intel is in as well, and actually has a larger portion of.

If Intel was looking at nvidia, it would be to remove competition, not expand their capabilities.

[Citizen Philip]

I've been using ATI and AMD since AMD came with a cartridge processor. This sounds very interesting. My x2 64 3000 and my x1900xt are wonderful.

[rubbishfoo]

I don't know if I shouldn't swear on this forum but...

HOLY MOTHER OF SHIT!!!!

Im a pretty big fan of ATI. I like their cards. Im not against Nvidia (other than they killed 3Dfx... but time has healed that wound). Nvidia makes an excellent product. My only gripes are as follows...

ATI - Every now and again... a funny texture will show up.

Nvidia - Only complaint w/ them lies in Linux. (not sure anymore but...) NEVER allow Xfree86 to autodetect an Nvidia Card... might as well restart your install.

RubbishFoo

[Stormwatcher]

I really doubt that AMD will stop nVidia from making chipsets... They are not in the the position to do that, they need the extra punch.

[shnastybiznastic]

The K6 chips where pretty shitty, but since then they've really released some quality stuff.
The k6 2 was an awesome risc processor, years ahead of it's time. It was a really bad 586 though, which is what it was used for. If you get a chance sometime, get a p2 and K6 2 of comparable clockspeed and compare their speeds with applications compiled specifically for each other. The K6 2 will spank the pentium, but when you try and run the pentium compiled binary on the AMD, it crapps out.

I just hope this leads to better Linux driver support for ATI cards. The current ones are pathetic.
Amen! I would fellate a thousand donkeys in order to bring about this turn of events!

[AversionFX]

Fucking horrible news. I love AMD processors, but i hate anything ATI.

=/

[KNOTE]

ATI is smarter than Nvdia, Nvida is better marketing than ATI.
AMD is smarter than Intel, Intel is better at marketing than AMD.
Nvidia drivers are better than ATI, ATI cards use less power than Nvidia.
Intel drivers are better than AMD, AMD chips use less power than Intel.

This seems like the pairings are working out the way they should. I've always been an ATI/AMD enthusiast because I don't like leaf blowers in my computer case and paying a 30% premium so that I can see commercials of my chipset on TV. Here's hoping for some sexy all-in-one packages that are totally efficient.

[saran_js]

I just don't understand it. What does AMD have to gain in buying ATI, when they could be working with both ATI and Nvidia to further their agenda ? Why buy one company and relegate their processors in to using only one type of Graphics chipset ? Mark my words, this event is going to ice AMD's and Nvidia's relations, and if you think otherwise, think again.
AMD could be buying out ATI for their contracts that they have with multiple other vendors, and they could be market capitalizing on this to further sell their chips (other than CPUs) in to this market, as ATI does have a huge market in the integrated arena.

[Xerxes]

Now the 4(cpu)x4(gpu) starts. And those half assed boards ATi used to make are sure to get a whole lot better, for AMDs. I don't think this was a union was unplanned by AMD. I bet ATi will soon be attempting to go for the crown again. Intel should want nvidia, get them some InForce boards. I still wonder if nvidia would continue with amd nforce boards. I assume it's a huge money maker. It's not helping AMD or ATi anyhow since it's the chipset they are selling around to other mobo makers.

[Soap]

I've had no issues with my Nvidia based Video Cards.

ATI, on the other hand, has been the total opposite. Now take this with a grain of salt, but I've only owned two ATI cards, an X700, and a X1600. X700 burns out in under 6 months of ownership. Ended up with an X1600 but now I can't play BF2.

If any of my fellow EA readers knows of a fix that will let me play BF2 at either 1024x768or 1280x1024 resolution on an x1600 ATI. Send me a PM, and if it works, I will definitely find a way to send you some love.

[Xerxes]

Didn't ATi go down the drain with the advent of the PCI-E and the X series. Thought after the AGP-8x 9800 XT was when Nvidia came in for the fumble.

[Phanto]

Now we will have to wait for a Intel/Nvidia purcharse and then Microsoft acquires AMD/ATI & INTEL/NVIDIA, AND CONTROLS THE WORLD OF COMPUTER for GOOD!!..... Too much you think?? nothing is impossible in this life..

[Deathbane27]

As long as nVidia doesn't stop making the nForce motherboard chipsets out of spite, nothing else matters.

[Voodoo]

Now the 4(cpu)x4(gpu) starts. And those half assed boards ATi used to make are sure to get a whole lot better, for AMDs. I don't think this was a union was unplanned by AMD. I bet ATi will soon be attempting to go for the crown again. Intel should want nvidia, get them some InForce boards. I still wonder if nvidia would continue with amd nforce boards. I assume it's a huge money maker. It's not helping AMD or ATi anyhow since it's the chipset they are selling around to other mobo makers.
Yup, here comes 4x4! Awesome. Can't wait to see those multi socketed AM2 motherboards start to show up. Sure will save a crap load of money when building a pretty kick ass PC. Go AMD + ATI!

BTW, I don't understand the hate from those towards ATI while you hump away on your XBOX 360. Makes no sense.

[Xerxes]

Yup, here comes 4x4! Awesome. Can't wait to see those multi socketed AM2 motherboards start to show up. Sure will save a crap load of money when building a pretty kick ass PC. Go AMD + ATI!

BTW, I don't understand the hate from those towards ATI while you hump away on your XBOX 360. Makes no sense.

Voodoo it's the computer offerings they hate... I'm thinking ON EvAv it's PC>XBOX 360> Wii(even though it's not out)> DS> other... So it's ok to like Xbox 360 as whole and parts but as far as computer parts they don't have the crown. Sooner or later Nvidia won't and they will be hated for it..

[A Lusty Alien]

I think HP/Compaq is really going to like this. They already offer Desktops and Laptops with AMD and ATI processors, I think this will let them cut costs even more and offer more computer value to their customers.

[Thenetcase]

Actually this is really smart. Intel and nVidia have been teaming up so much that the nForce chipsets have not been really using the full potential of AMD archetecture. I think with AMD being able to produce their own mainstream chipsets using their own video technology, we could finally see ATI become a REAL competitor to nVidia and seriously start making them work for their living.
nVidia has been riding on it's laurels for a long time now (ever since they bought 3dFX basically) and it's time that they were put back into the heat of things. I still prefer their cards, but ATI + AMD now have the power to really compete and blow nVidia away if they don't step up.

-TNC-

[Thenetcase]

Yup, here comes 4x4! Awesome. Can't wait to see those multi socketed AM2 motherboards start to show up. Sure will save a crap load of money when building a pretty kick ass PC. Go AMD + ATI!

BTW, I don't understand the hate from those towards ATI while you hump away on your XBOX 360. Makes no sense.


haha I couldn't have said it better buddy.

Personally I think AMD and ATI both offer AWESOME products. I think Intel is over priced for what you get (though still a decent product) and nVidia is, of course, the "best" because it's the market standard.
Hopefully thie merger will make developers stop designing with nVidia in mind and then programming the ATI bugs out later.

-TNC-

[Xerxes]

I keep thinking about and there 4x4 plans. I mean nvidia and intel isn't going to be on that plain of hardware. So far you can put two nvidia's in a system and sli shocks people draws. But 4 gpus on one board, 4 cpu in one system. Both known for being the least power hungery and most efficient in there respected areas. It's like the offerings sound like they could eat Crysis alive. Noting he said 4x4x4 as in four gigs of ram if i call correctly. ATi motherboard getting overhauled from low end turds to running amd processors like amd needs them to be run. Unless they strip each cpu and gpu to crap and rely on having more in instead of having more of the big boys falling into place.

[Spigot]

ARG! Does someone have an annotated version of Xerxes' comment? It looks interesting but it hurts my brain to try to translate it as I read.

[Xerxes]

ARG! Does someone have an annotated version of Xerxes' comment? It looks interesting but it hurts my brain to try to translate it as I read.

Sowwy... I was a bit excited on that last post. Let me see if I can make sense of it. :o

Both AMD and ATi, are the more efficient and the least power hungry choices in there respected areas. AMD I think will stop making ATi turd motherboards and get what they need made right.

4x cpus
4x gpus
4x gigs of ram
(Some comment about eating Crysis alive)

Intel or Nvidia wouldn't be prepared for what these machines could be in the gamer community. People thought SLi was nice but it shouldn't be anywhere near four gpus in a system. I ended my joy with a hopes they(AMD/ATi) don't plan to gimp the gpu and cpu thinking the sheer number or cores would compensate.

[Goronmon]

Pfft...AMD is just getting nervous after getting their asses handed to them by the Core Duo. ;)

[Voodoo]

4x cpus
4x gpus
4x gigs of ram
(Some comment about eating Crysis alive)

This isn't the AMD 4x4 plan. Their plan is to have motherboards with 1 to 4 sockets into which you can put whatever combination of cHT chips into them. These chips can be a combination of CPUs, GPUs, PPUs, SPUs and whatever else someone comes up with to pop into the socket. The reason AMD is doing this is to make a more standardized motherboard structure so that you don't have different mainboards for different purposes. Want to make it a sixteen core powerhouse? Fine, put in four quad core CPUs. The mainboard chipset will have an IGP anyways... Want to make it a hell of a gaming system? Put in one dual core CPU, two GPUs and one SPU. You can configure the system using these chips as you best see fit. Think of it as being in Diablo 2 (and soon World of Warcraft) where you can socket different sorts of gems into an item and make it work differently. This is the 4x4 plan.

[Schnoogs]

Threads like this demonstrate that this forum is dominated by console gamers. For someone to bash AMD and then proclaim themselves a PC gamer is the biggest joke ever. For a while AMD was PC gaming...it's only recently that Intel has come to play again.

[rubbishfoo]

Heya fellas...

Sorry if this is a repost...

There was an interview up on FiringSquad about the ATI & AMD merger and they got to talk w/ some of the higher ups.

Most of the article is blah blah blah we are getting bigger and want to move in this direction. blah blah blah blah we are all happy we had sex together. Blech blarf bloooreity this is good for all involved and I hope Intel doesn't hate us.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_ati_merger/

After re-reading the article... One of the things that I thought about was the ATI integration... such as in thier development of chipsets for console gaming...

In the past, ATI created the Gamecube graphics engine (no name sry...)
And currently the Xenos chipset for the Xbox 360, alongside the Nintendo development of the Wii... I think they are making quite a name for themselves (at least in the console market). Who knows with Sony... but they usually come out ok. Should make for an interesting next couple of years...

~RubbishFoo

[Xerxes]

This isn't the AMD 4x4 plan. Their plan is to have motherboards with 1 to 4 sockets into which you can put whatever combination of cHT chips into them. These chips can be a combination of CPUs, GPUs, PPUs, SPUs and whatever else someone comes up with to pop into the socket. The reason AMD is doing this is to make a more standardized motherboard structure so that you don't have different mainboards for different purposes. Want to make it a sixteen core powerhouse? Fine, put in four quad core CPUs. The mainboard chipset will have an IGP anyways... Want to make it a hell of a gaming system? Put in one dual core CPU, two GPUs and one SPU. You can configure the system using these chips as you best see fit. Think of it as being in Diablo 2 (and soon World of Warcraft) where you can socket different sorts of gems into an item and make it work differently. This is the 4x4 plan.

Well now I'm flabbergasted... I want to see that video again cause maybe I missed something.