AMD in Trouble

Professor S · 04-23-2007, 10:33 AM

"The Perfect Storm"

This is how AMD described what they've had to sail through over the last 2 financial quarters. Delayed products, internal tumult from a merger and their competition in processors and GPU's producing superior products have dealt serious blows to the companies health and future.

AMD lost $600 million in the last 2 quarters, and while they deemed this acceptable losses, its a bit frightening when you realize that they only have about $1.2 billion left to dip into before having to look for funds elsewhere. Thats not a lot when you are bleeding like AMD is, and what makes it worse is the fact that Intel and nVidia aren't looking to lose their dominance anytime soon as they are both a full generation ahead if not more.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/31708/118/

May Take:
In my view, this was preventable and at least in the GPU market their problems where their own making. AMD's refusal to decrease the cost of their cards when they are DOMINATED by nVidia's cards at the same price points was instant death for them. Why spend so much for a 1950 xtx when nVidia has a faster, DX10 compliant card for LESS??? It makes absolutely no sense to me...

Angrist · 04-23-2007, 10:37 AM

My AMD makes so much noise, I wish I had bought an Intel.

Happydude · 04-23-2007, 12:16 PM

i'm still behind AMD and ATI...i've never owned a pentium or an Nvidia (well, i had an nvidia card for about 2 days, and it caused me tons of problems, so i exchanged it for an ATI)...hopefully they'll pull through this.

Professor S · 04-23-2007, 01:07 PM

What killed AMD and Ati for me was their lack of responsiveness. I bought a 1950 xtx card for a pretty penny, and when I put it in my motherboard it wasn't compatable. Now, according to Ati their cards work with everything, and every time I called their support they kept asking me about my drivers...

OH GEE, REALLY? I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT!!!

After a good amount of research what I found was that a LOT of Ati's cards are not compatable with a LOT of motherboards, to the point that they will almost instantly artifact and shut down if you attempt any average graphical application. Ati even tried to sneak in a fix on one of their driver updates, but it still didn't work. I eventually had to go buy ANOTHER card (nVidia this time) and now my PC is a beast, but unfortunately my old 1950xtx is now a very nice (read: expensive) copper paper weight (it does look snazzy).

Listen, this is the PC world... I'm used to **** not working right away and spontaneous failures. What I don't support and wil not support is denial and the lack of responsiveness that Ati has shown. Waiting MONTHS for software updates for basic compatability issues and in the meantime LYING about them is not smart, and they have lost a customer forever because of it.

And from the looks of this report, I'm not the only customer they've lost.

Null · 04-23-2007, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angrist

My AMD makes so much noise, I wish I had bought an Intel.

noise?? you mean the fan makes noise? well thats what you get when you use a fan that comes with the processor :P intels fans arent much better.

any fan that you get with the processor is never the best solution, its merely the one that does what it needs to at the lowest price they could put in the box.

Jason1 · 04-23-2007, 10:26 PM

Ive owned ATI cards for over 5 years now. Even upgraded from my old 9500 Pro to a X800 GTO. Ive never had any problems. I suppourt ATI all the way, and I have no plans to get an Nvidia as long as I can still get an ATI.

That being said, I am using a Pentium Processor.

Angrist · 04-24-2007, 05:18 AM

Null, from what I've heard, an AMD becomes hotter than an Intel and therefore needs more fanning.

I see/hear so many PCs that are quieter than mine and I know that those people didn't buy another fan.

manasecret · 04-24-2007, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angrist

Null, from what I've heard, an AMD becomes hotter than an Intel and therefore needs more fanning.

I see/hear so many PCs that are quieter than mine and I know that those people didn't buy another fan.

True.

...in my experience. The last AMD I bought was a loud-mouthed, dual-fan beast that made these looooooooong, droooooning whiiiiirrs as the two fans would get out of sync and would combine their loudness powers to form one uber loudness monster. Granted, that was an Athlon, and I haven't happened to build another AMD machine since.

The two Pentium 4s I built next, on the other hand, were very quiet without having to buy some special processor fan.

I've never had any particular loyalty to one company or another. I usually just buy whatever videocard or CPU happens to have the most power at the time I build the machine. I guess I'm lucky not to have had some of the horror stories I've read here, since I've owned and enjoyed products from AMD, Intel, ATI, and nVidia without any major problems from any of them. Except the Athlon loudness and overheating problems, one of which was solved by buying a couple extra case fans but the other one of which oddly got worse.....

KillerGremlin · 04-24-2007, 09:22 PM

nvidia has always been my card provider of choice, i find that their cards are cheaper, faster, and have some cool workarounds like unlocking pipes and easy overclocking.

i'm indifferent in the processor game...AMD's old processors were a bargain last year, and the two desktop computers that have been thrown together in my home both house AMD processors. One is dual core. My laptop has an intel core duo processor, and it runs wonderfully. I have an nvidia card in it.

I would not rule AMD out. I mean, not too long ago you might have been complaining about how crappy the p4s were.

but i'm with mana, i go for the cheapest most powerful thing at the time i need to buy/build. so whatever works!

Null · 04-25-2007, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angrist

Null, from what I've heard, an AMD becomes hotter than an Intel and therefore needs more fanning.

old AMD's used to run very very hot. not really so much from the amd 64's and on. they're pretty much the same as any cpu you buy these days.

but im not saying anything about heat. or how much cooling power is needed for the cpu. nor am i saying about which cpu is better. (altho last i heard, intel was the more powerful cpu currently, while amd gets you much better prices)

what im saying is, fans the come with the processors are not as good of quality as a real cpu fan that you buy on its own.

the fan that comes with the cpu (whether they need to cool a lot or only cool a little) are generally much louder fans then the higher quality fans you can buy for your cpu.

Quote:

I see/hear so many PCs that are quieter than mine and I know that those people didn't buy another fan.

exactly, cheap fans. you could buy the exact same processor as yours with the exact same fan and it itself might be quieter or louder then yours. they're inconsistent, and loud. even the peoples pcs you know didn't buy another fan, if they did, they could cool their computer better and make it even quieter then it is now

usually what i do is buy the processor on its own without the fan. save a bit of money and use that to buy a nicer fan on its own.

thatmariolover · 04-26-2007, 07:43 PM

I had a 6600GT for a while about two years ago I think. It was nice, but it ended up pulling too much power for my PSU. Apparently that's a common problem. They listed them as requiring ~100w less than they actually needed and burned out quite a few motherboards because of that.

With that said, I replaced it with an ATI x1600. It's a nice card, I like it, it's worked well for me. That said, I'm in the market for my next PC and the card in it will probably be an nVidia simply because the Catalyst drivers make me cry after being spoiled with Forceware. Quite honestly, that was my biggest disappointment in getting my ATI card.

But I've no real love for one or the other. They seem to trade power for price fairly regularly so I guess it'll just depend on how soon I buy my parts.