EggXpert

Probably lawsuit against Intel and denial of their current financial situation.

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Q9650 @4.05Ghz 1.2125VID
Gigabyte P45 UD3P rev1.1
Prolimatech Megahalem + San Aces
XFX GTX 260 Black Edition
Mushkin Ascent 4GB @900MHZ
HT Omega Claro Plus + Logitech Z-5500 + Energy 5.1 Speakers

TFJ:

So what do you guys think the next move AMD will make be?

 As of right now, AMD looks screwed in the cpu market especially when Intel releases a dual core celeron to try recapture the low end market from AMD. Phenom x4 was pretty much a failure IMHO, all this talk about native quad core and look what happens...

If IBM buys AMD, you can kiss AMD goodbye.

A better bet would be for some type of cash investment (similiar to what Microsoft did for Apple and Borland a few years ago).  Intel has almost no competition, so it's actually in their best interest to keep AMD afloat.  From that regard, if I was Intel I wouldn't bother to compete in the low end market until AMD bounces back.

Intel would not want to permanently defeat AMD. The Fed would not allow a monopoly to form in a market like this...everyone needs computer these days

If it wasn't for 911, MS would have been split up

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mrbiggums:

Intel would not want to permanently defeat AMD. The Fed would not allow a monopoly to form in a market like this...everyone needs computer these days

If it wasn't for 911, MS would have been split up

Yea I fear a monopoly then I though about Federal regulation so it won't happen.

Amd is very weak ATM which isn't hard to see.

As stated, AMD has to stay in business.  And for the very reason stated above.  If AMD goes to far under, it wont matter what intel charges, they will always be able to sell.  There would be nowhere for anybody to get thier CPUs cheaper.

But, if AMD does leave the CPU business, hopefully the government will be able to control their prices much like they do peoples power rates.

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Updated Utility thread without downloading*online!*

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It is sad indeed. I love my Quad FX Cpus, and they are still AMDs most powerful chip. The Phenoms are extremley handicapped by the TLB and low clock speeds, and none of the retail versions come close to the power of the Quad FX, let alone the QX9650. AMDs purchase of ATI was a poor maneuver, they purchased it right as Nvidia began to dominate with its 8800 cards. I really do feel sorry for them, I love my AMD Quad FX cpus, and we need AMD to stick arround to keep Intel from monopolizing the market. Hopefully they can get Phenoms up to 3.0ghz by mid 2008, and roll out the FASN8 8-core platform.
 

DeadCheckR:

The quad buyers represent what % of the market?  How many apps out there take advantage of quad?  Let's see how the dual core Phenoms pan out early next year and at what price point. If AMD can't score with those, then I might think they're in trouble.  This talk of quads is over-hyped in my opinion.

The phenom x2 is fundamentally the same as the phenom x4 except with less cores so I can't imagine phenom x2 being magically fast. Unless they don't have the L3 cache ''errata'' and their price is extremely competitive.

But then again Cheaper 45nm core2duos will really be a challenge to phenom x2s.

you are kind of late on that one.

People said it was a bad idea when it came up in the first place

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At this point I have pretty much lost faith in AMD's ability to produce anything that can beat Intel. 

But just because their products are inferior does not nessessarily make them bad.  In my personal opinion the Athlon X2's are still really good processors.  No their not the best, and in most cases not even close, but they are still really good all the same. 

It is widely known that without AMD, Intel will just run the prices way up, to a point where we the consumers are left high and dry.  A monopoly in this business would indeed be very bad. 

So I made the decision recently to keep supporting the underdog here.  While I really do want a Core 2 Quad, I am getting ready to outfit my next build with an X2 4200+. 

Most of my customers are picking the AMD X2 systems right now as well but that is mostly because they are cheaper at the moment.  However that could change really fast once the dual core Celerons hit the market. 

I figure on average I sell about a hundred new systems a year.  Out of the hundred or so systems sold in 2007, about 75% of them were AMD based systems.  In the grand scheme of things, that probably won't make any difference at all, but it could help. 

If AMD can manage to make it through these difficult times, I see them moving back down to a 2nd tier CPU maker, much like they were prior to K8.  Once that happens and they can refocus their energy on other things, we may see a comeback.  But if that happens I don't expect to see it for at least 5 to 10 years. 

Maybe somebody like Via or Sis would like to step up in their place.  Wouldn't that be interesting?

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Rj Systems

kunzy:

But, if AMD does leave the CPU business, hopefully the government will be able to control their prices much like they do peoples power rates.

Why is it that people look to the government to handle price controls or try and keep failing companies afloat?  The US government has a long history of completely screwing normal people in the area of price controls.  Food, Healthcare, Steel, do you need more examples?  Our taxes are STILL paying for the S&L bailout of the 90's. 

As far as the Fed saving AMD; I sincerely hope not.  I, for one, am tired of my tax dollars going to help companies.  If they can't make a decent product that people really want and that COMPETES in the normal marketplace, then adios.  Someone else will always come along to compete.  And before you say it's too expensive, guess what, if AMD dies and Intel raises the prices, someone else will definitely step up to compete thereby forcing Intel's prices back down or causing them to innovate with even faster parts.  How do you think AMD even got into this business? Or nVidia and ATI for that matter.

It's called the free market, and, when left alone, works just fine.  Every single time the government adds either pricing support or company bailouts you see several things happen.  First, prices go up, because they can.  Taxes go up, because we have to pay for it.  And companies receiving that support get lazy, because they no longer have to succeed to make money. 

Sorry for getting on the soapbox, but you have to get your head out of the sand.  The average person is already paying 50% of their income in taxes between Federal, State, and Local.  I think that's quite enough.

TFJ:

So what do you guys think the next move AMD will make be?

My guess is that the following news article, (Bloomberg News) that came out towards the end of November, 2007, will explain where AMD will get started with a recovery.  I haven't seen this info posted, so if it has, please forgive me.

As for my money, AMD still provides the best computing environment for the least amount of $.  I can still see all the posts written by excited comp enthusiasts when the AMD 64 line was released.  All the "pledges of lifetime loyalty" made me smile, if not snicker.

AMD CPU's quite literally blew away Intel.  I knew that Intel would not take long, (in dog years), to catch up and even exceed AMD.  That is the nature of business.  The ATI thing, at the time, looked promising for AMD because ATI was totally blitzing Nvidia.  As to why AMD took on ATI?  It's my guess that the rumors of a few years ago about Intel buying a much beaten-down Nvidia, caused AMD to feel a need to secure graphics support.  Those rumors of an Intel/Nvidia deal came when Nvidia stock, once flying high at over $65 USD a share, had dropped to around $15.00 USD.  ATI, long selling for around $6.00 USD was moving up, rapidly to 4 and 5 times that much.  The two chip mfg. waved to each other as one slid down and the other climbed higher.  However, it was a bad business deal as it now appears at this moment.  But who knows?  ATI certainly took Nvidia to the woodshed a couple of years ago with much more advanced graphics capabilities and that's not impossible for it to happen again.

I wish AMD the best in the future because, as stated in other posts, we need the competition.  OK, enough of my blathering.... here's the story:

Gulf investor buys stake in chip maker AMD

In the latest foreign commitment by a government-backed investor, Abu Dhabi’s investment arm is spending $622 million for an 8.1 percent stake in Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s largest maker of computer processors after Intel.

The Abu Dhabi company, Mubadala Development, paid $12.70 a share for the 49 million new shares, Advanced Micro said Friday.

Advanced Micro filed documents with regulators Thursday in the United States to sell as much as $700 million in new stock. The company, which is based in Sunnyvale, said Mubadala would not receive any board representation as part of the noncontrolling, minority investment.

Therefore, the transaction will not be subject to review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is meant to identify national security risks.

Funds like Mubadala are purchasing up stocks around the globe as governments in the Middle East invest the revenue from surging oil prices.

These sovereign wealth funds, through which governments buy equities and other assets, will grow to $7.9 trillion by 2011 from $1.9 trillion now, Merrill Lynch economists wrote in a report last month.

Last year, the proposed sale of some American ports to a Dubai company set off an outcry in Congress that abated only after alternative buyers were found.

Mubadala agreed in September to buy a 7.5 percent stake in Carlyle Group, the U.S. private-equity firm with $76 billion in assets, for $1.35 billion.

The Dubai fund’s investments also include stakes in Ferrari, the Italian carmaker, and SR Technics, an Swiss aircraft maintenance company.

Advanced Micro posted more than $2 billion in net losses in the past four quarters, and analysts estimate it will not return to profit until 2009 as it struggles to keep pace with Intel.

Spending on a new plant, a $5.4 billion acquisition and price competition with Intel, the semiconductor industry’s richest company, have hurt Advanced Micro’s finances.

Advanced Micro had a 23.5 percent market share in the third quarter, similar to a year earlier. Intel has the rest.

Advanced Micro said it would use the proceeds of the sale for general corporate purposes including investing in research and development, product innovations and manufacturing.