It's such a sad, but interesting affair.



We know people want strong GPUs; be it integrated in a mobile device with increasingly higher rez screen, apu for a sff/laptop, or discrete desktop part for gaming, especially as even low-power arm cpus are reaching the general purpose tipping point that x86 hit around the time of Conroe or so. It's unfortunate when you see companies like Qualcomm (ironically with adreno) and nvidia with K1 release products that are well-regarded, especially given amd's mission statement since 2006. Even Intel had 4k decoding before AMD...it's just sad, given they used to be the pioneers in so many areas over the years that attracted customers for one reason or another. Such a long way from avivo and the AIWs (not to mention core gpu features).



While ofc AMD is still in a (forced) holding/restructuring pattern until 14nm/2016ish, and I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping they can shock the world with products at that point...the last couple years of generally stale products have devastated them; it really is starting to bite them when their competition (intel in apus, nvidia in gpus) have or will have lower-end parts competing with the strengths of their flagships...conceivably even before some launch. Say what you will about their finances, but that never should have been allowed to happen when there are so many ripe markets to plunder with their specific strengths and IP. Dirk has been gone for FOUR YEARS, and it is beyond the blame of anyone of that time period. It's one thing to readjust focus to where they can be profitable, it's another to allow your competition to seriously start to nullify your purpose of existence in the meantime. Everyone has got to have an angle; at least then a niche will bite (more cpu or gpu performance discrete or apu, best price/perf per market, perf/watt, arm, x86, unique or first to a feature-set). AMD has the potential for any of them and is close to having none, while the areas that have held them back from further innovation (bandwidth and process tech) are being solved by the companies that used to so far behind them in such matters it didn't even use to be a concern*. When you're a company that has largely played second fiddle in your market(s), the last thing you want people to do is forget your name or what you do uniquely/best...because it takes a lot to make them come back.



I'm not saying this because I bought one (which coming from a big supporter of amd I do think is something), but when you see a product like the 970 versus the 290x, that's really quite shameful...and I've already expressed my reservations about Fiji (ram size for efficient bw with HBM, power/size/cooling requirements, inability to likely compete with anything above GM204 while probably being less efficient). When you see intel, the laughing stock of hardware graphics, surpass your video capabilities (and soon integrated graphics capabilities as the edram Iris pros float into more markets with broadwell and skylake), it's inexcusable.



*Intel/nvidia largely solved bandwidth issues with on/off die cache and unit optimization, while amd has been flops-heavy for years (and should have been in the forefront about solving the issue). AMD used to be first to a new process (compared to nvidia) by a large margin, but are having difficulty innovating without it (one could argue contrary to Maxwell).



TLDR:



I'm not saying anything anyone doesn't already know, and surely amd will live to see another day (with better products or a dead-shot aim on specific markets), but damn...this is the start of what's going to be a truly rough year...and I think it was avoidable on multiple counts. I'm not saying we may have been talking about a better cpu than intel, nor a more efficient gpu than maxwell...maybe it could have been a competitor to Tegra, or a faster time-to-market for off-die buffer than HBM, or something else completely that was better/unique. But instead, it's nothing...just hopes (and further anticipation of having) to catch up...with the sales numbers starting to show it...and that bums me right out.

Posted on Nov 14th 2014, 5:35 Reply