http://news.com.com/2061-10791_3-609...7453&subj=news
What are your thoughts on the matter?
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http://news.com.com/2061-10791_3-609...7453&subj=news
What are your thoughts on the matter?
It should be interesting. I use to sell AMD's but then started running into overheating problems and went back to Intel. Should be interesting to see how things go with the two companies working together.
I'm sort of annoyed at the brain drain effect- as ATI is probably one of the better known commercial technology companies out of Canada. Now it's just..located in Canada.
Anyway, I don't really know anything about AMD, but ATI has been annoying to me because they refuse to open their source which would give alternative operating systems competitive ground on the desktop market.
I think it's a good move. My best friend for a decade worked at ATI for a few years. Visiting the site every so often in Burlington MA, and from the stories told to me by him and a few others, ATI was run like a kindergarten, with high school petty politics for the most part. Smart kids, but a sort of amateur air to the place.
The only downside to this is if AMD tries to tie their CPUs/motherboards to work better or synergize with the ATI chips.
I like AMD, but I really hate ATI cards. But I hate ATI more than I like AMD, so I would be forced to go Intel/NVIDIA.
It would be nice if AMD will actually get the ATI people to not suck fucking balls with their graphics drivers... that could actually be a good thing. Then I might actually one day consider buying an ATI card.
I've had no problems with ATI cards but at the same time, I'm not a gamer so all i've ever needed was basic functionality.
I think the most graphically intensive thing my computer has to do is redraw the mouse cursor as i move it around.
ATI is famously horendous for taking forever to put out a driver update. Whereas nVidia updates and improves their stuff like there's no tomorrow. Which is nice for when new games come out.
Interesting Rumour:
AMD to shed ATI brand?
"word on the street is that AMD has decided to drop the ATI brand name from future products"
http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/07/a...hed-ati-brand/
My next graphic card will be an Nvidia, largely for this reason.Quote:
Originally posted by Bael
ATI is famously horendous for taking forever to put out a driver update. Whereas nVidia updates and improves their stuff like there's no tomorrow. Which is nice for when new games come out.
Oh man... You have an ATI? Why didn't you talk to me first? :(Quote:
Originally posted by Khirmint
My next graphic card will be an Nvidia, largely for this reason.
The interesting thing about AMD dropping the ATI name, is that you could potentially have computers with the [Intel Inside] logo as well as the [AMD] logo, if it is an Intel CPU with an "ATI" graphics card.
What I really do not want to see is things moving to Intel/NVIDIA computers vs. AMD/AMD(ATI) computers.
I like AMD chips, but hate ATI graphics cards. I don't want to be stuck always having to buy Intel just becaused I want NVIDIA.
I can't imagine such a thing being enforced, though it's quite possible that you won't be able to buy a new package-deal computer with an AMD chip and nVidia graphics card. But I'd consider it unlikely that standards such as PCI and AGP will be abandoned in favour of chip-specific designs - the anti-monopoly folk would have a thing or two to say about that.
slightly offtopic but related in a way...
"Intel aims for open-source graphics advantage"
Intel has released open-source software to give Linux full-fledged support for 3D graphics, a move that could give its graphics chips a leg up over rivals.
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6103...3941&subj=news
Also: http://intellinuxgraphics.org/
Which leads me to...
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/...OPcurve_1.html
Quote:
"From the moment I got the call, I knew there was much more to AMD’s acquisition of ATI than was being reported. My mind immediately leaped to the ramifications the acquisition would have on ATI’s relationship with Intel OEMs. Intel couldn’t be jazzed about having AMD inside systems that bear Intel’s imprint. Then I wondered whether AMD’s acquisition might result in the opening up of ATI’s graphics drivers, which are now distributed only in binary form. Is ATI rival NVidia going to keep working with AMD? And how does this figure into LIVE!, AMD’s push into consumer electronics and media centers?"
Well, it's about fucking time. Thank you AMD for delivering something ATI clearly was unprepared to do.
http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.tech...phics-drivers/
Wow. That is pretty huge.Quote:
AMD will soon deliver open graphics drivers
I wonder if this will be a trend. The #2 competitor in a market opening up their standard to make it more accessible and see if they can use that to gain market share.
I hope they succeed with this so it will tempt others to try the same tactic.
Agreed. Open standards = new markets that they might never even have thought of. So what if the manufacturers have no idea what OS/2 is? It may be only a small market, but it's cost them nothing more, and every sale is a sale. Same for all other niche markets - they all have their dedicated programmers.Quote:
Originally posted by Aristotle
Wow. That is pretty huge.
I wonder if this will be a trend. The #2 competitor in a market opening up their standard to make it more accessible and see if they can use that to gain market share.
I hope they succeed with this so it will tempt others to try the same tactic.
Good luck to them!
Uh oh... Here he goes again.Quote:
Originally posted by Rosuav
So what if the manufacturers have no idea what OS/2 is?
*wink*
That's exactly right. If the standard is open, then all the OS/2, AMIGA, etc. nermals out there can write their own fixes that will allow people to use hardware on those obscure or commercially dead platforms. Then you still get all those sales.Quote:
Originally posted by Rosuav
It may be only a small market, but it's cost them nothing more, and every sale is a sale. Same for all other niche markets - they all have their dedicated programmers.
Not to mention all the geeks who will by your product for their stock Windows Vista machine simply because they respect the fact that you are using an open standard.
I never understood why these hardware companies kept their drivers closed. They are in the hardware business. Anything that helps them sell hardware is a good thing.
I think it's because they're software driven. Much of the innovation goes into the software drivers and they want to project that from other companies.
bumpity bump bump..new news on this front..
The news already got out yesterday, but now it's official: AMD will open the specifications to its graphics chips. "AMD announced on Sept. 7 a major strategic change in open-source graphic processors support. The company announced it would provide open-source information and a development package supporting the ATI RadeonHD 2000 series ATI Radeon X1000 series of graphics processing units on Linux desktops." The new information is that AMD will partner with Novell's SUSE team.
Link: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2568321546.html
Wow. That's awesome for us consumers!
Yeah, that's some great news. I might actually look into buying my first ATI card at my next upgrade.
The issue here is certification, or that's what I'm sure someone would say. At least for the professional gaming market it is. WPL Certified Drivers, basically assuring that everyone is on as level of a playing field as is possible. At least that seems to be how nVidia approaches their drivers.Quote:
Originally posted by Aristotle
I never understood why these hardware companies kept their drivers closed. They are in the hardware business. Anything that helps them sell hardware is a good thing. [/B]
That's pretty niche on the whole, and really most people aren't going to give a good fuck either way. I really think these days the only people to whom driver stuff is much of an issue would be the "fringe linux crowd." And really, I don't think making your shit open source is going to change all that much. ATI needs all the help it can get with its drivers, but on the big stage (ie - Windows), I don't think it's going to help them out all that much. But then again, I doubt I'm going to be touching an ATI card in a gaming rig any time in the next 10 years, so I'm not the kind of person they're trying to market to.
On another note, I think this purchase will make an interesting battlefield out of the console market... the companies not being totally fucking retarded (ie. - everyone but Sony) and paying $82376594837625 to make their own processors... it's all about ATI vs nVidia vs Motorola... though motorola mostly deals in the handheld market. Right now Nintendo and XBox both use ATI GPUs for the Wii/360... amusingly enough the Gamecube used ATI but the first gen xbox was nVidia (which is why they have the stupid compatability list, they have to emulate the xBox on the 360). It'll be interesting to see how the trend ends up going, and who's processors will be paired with the gpus from here on out. And which end they'll cave on AMD vs Intel on the CPU or ATI vs nVidia on the GPU. It'll be a couple years before we find out, so we'll see.