AMD-ATI Merger?

Advertisement (Why?)

Forbes reports Advanced Micro Devices may be looking to buy graphics company ATI Technologies, a move that would benefit the overall graphics industry, according to RBC Capital Markets.

"The synergies of this seem consistent with the recent announcements by AMD to significantly increase capacity over the next few-years," wrote analyst Apjit Walia in a note to investors Wednesday. "We believe ATI is a rare-buy in the semiconductor space right now given the near-term tie-up dynamics."

With the release of AMD Live!, AMD seem set to expand their horizons and tackle Intel in the desktop space full on this year. Dell are due to ship machines with AMD chips in them and a coupling with ATI could mean some interesting prospects for AMD for gaming and performance based systems.

Intels june quarter isn't going too well with revenues down 10% and the next quarter is set to look worse. As Intel starts cutting chip prices to gain market share back will this help in the long term if a partnership with ATI is on the horizon?

We have contacted both companies for an official response but at the time of writing have received no official response regarding the rumours.

View: Neowin Forum Discussion

View: ATI Home | AMD Home

#1 Nose Nuggets on 31 May 2006 - 22:38

redonkulious!

(2 replies) #2 Croquant on 31 May 2006 - 22:38

Oh God no! Leave them as seperate companies!

#2.1 Boogiman on 31 May 2006 - 22:44

why?

#2.2 Croquant on 31 May 2006 - 22:55

I just think they're better of as seperate companies.

#3 TexasFlood on 31 May 2006 - 22:46

It's not a done deal yet! It's only a prediction/rumour.

(1 reply) #4 Jonax on 31 May 2006 - 23:05

It leaves the possibility of company polarisation open - If AMD & ATI merge, it may be seen that either Intel & nVidia have to merge as well or they both gain a disadvantage against the combined AMD-ATI.

That will be a hefty blow for those who prefer that the CPU & GPU businesses remain independant - e.g. those who like the choice of going either ATI or nVidia regardless of what processor they have, and vica versa.

#4.1 mikey on 01 Jun 2006 - 08:29

You're forgetting that Intel are already have the largest market share in (on-board) graphics cards/chips.

#5 aldrlandon on 31 May 2006 - 23:15

I would hate if that happened because I really like amd processors, but much prefer Nvidia gfx cards over Ati graphics cards.

(2 replies) #6 stezo2k on 31 May 2006 - 23:34

Great news, should give nvidia a good run for the money. Hope its true, i'm quite a AMD/ATi fanboy

#6.1 killa101 on 01 Jun 2006 - 00:00

Word. I'm an AMD/ATI fanboy myself so this is wonderful news. When I read the headline, my jaw dropped and I chuckled with joy

#6.2 Jugalator on 01 Jun 2006 - 08:08

Giving nVidia trouble by trying to push them out of the market isn't exactly the way to increase competition for better consumer products. You do realize that a major reason ATI is what they are today is because of fierce competition, right?

As I believe I said even yesterday, don't let the fanboyism go over the logic.

#7 Draje on 31 May 2006 - 23:44

Ah, this means ATI products will maybe improve in quality. I already love ATI.

(1 reply) #8 Section 31 on 01 Jun 2006 - 00:06

This may be good for ATi.

#8.1 Jugalator on 01 Jun 2006 - 08:14

The question is how bad it would be for nVidia.

Because without them as a consistent knife on ATI's throat through more backing from AMD's economy, it could spell trouble both as for ATI and nVidia quality, as there aren't really any other graphics card developers in the enthusiast market forming a decent competition.

#9 Quick Reply on 01 Jun 2006 - 00:07

I always saw AMD as being closer to Nvidia. At least if they buy ATI, better driver support for Radeon could happen, but I certainly wouldn't hold my breath

#10 dhitb on 01 Jun 2006 - 00:12

LOL the rumors on and off have been ATI being gobbled up by Intel. I just hope if the GPU makers are bought out that they don't make platform exclusive GPU's (probably not a rational fear as there are standards in PCI-E, and I don't care about SLI/CF).

(1 reply) #11 strekship on 01 Jun 2006 - 00:22

Quote - Jonax said @ #2.3

Its not like AMD will say that if you want to use their processor, you need to use an ATi card. Im sure they wouldn't block the use of ATi cards on Intel machines.

#11.1 CyberInferno on 01 Jun 2006 - 05:28

Intel and nVidia might not be allowed to merge, though. AMD and ATI are both the underdogs in their respective markets, and as such their merger is not as much of a threat. I think that Intel and nVidia would have a more difficult time doing so.

(1 reply) #12 Circaflex on 01 Jun 2006 - 00:37

Would be bad for intel users wouldnt it? I mean we already have no SLI unless we use these garbage nvidia chipsets for intel, xfire is are only hope on intel chipsets.

#12.1 robert27 on 01 Jun 2006 - 00:49

this makes no since...those "garbage intel-nvidia chipsets" are the same ones AMD users have.

#13 Stealth-X on 01 Jun 2006 - 02:16

This is huge :|

#14 Audhumla on 01 Jun 2006 - 02:21

What the friggin' crap? Can't even imagine what kind of impact this will make on the entire GPU/CPU market.

#15 KzR on 01 Jun 2006 - 03:02

Woah, two gaming influencial companies merging! I wonder if it's good or bad news.

#16 mundox on 01 Jun 2006 - 03:09

Bad for me since I prefere Nvidia over ATI...

#17 californi4 on 01 Jun 2006 - 04:11

I am a strong AMD supporter, and feel that if this merger happens; then it will help in the advancement of both their technologies. It will only add to intel's run for their money

#18 davemania on 01 Jun 2006 - 04:25

As long as it doesn't hinder my choice of what video card i can get for an AMD chip, I don't really care.

#19 Dale on 01 Jun 2006 - 04:59

i'm a little against this because ATI is a canadian company and i just don't want to see a canadian company go.

#20 HawkMan on 01 Jun 2006 - 06:07

Well this doesn't matter much as there will be no performance icnrease for ATigraphics anyway.

since the only usable AMD chipsets are Nvidia made, wich also happens to be very very good chipsets. and pretty much the reason I use AMD

#21 McG on 01 Jun 2006 - 06:29

Something wrongwith thespace bar, Tom?

Cool news. Big news. This could be huge.

#22 bilemke on 01 Jun 2006 - 06:38

This might make Intel improve their horrible integrated graphics in their chipsets.

#23 Pox on 01 Jun 2006 - 07:56

no no no NO NO NOOOOO!!

they should buy nvidia. much better idea.

(1 reply) #24 ~*McoreD*~ on 01 Jun 2006 - 09:27

Why don't AMD go with NVIDIA?

#24.1 HawkMan on 01 Jun 2006 - 11:21

Because Nvidia woudl cost a lot more, and probably wouldn't accept a merger anyway.

I dno't care much in Ati get's merged to nothingness, but I'd hate to see Nvidia go away even if it' still exist as a sub-brandname.

(1 reply) #25 Croquant on 01 Jun 2006 - 10:40

You're forgeting that all of Intel's on-board GPUs are not in the same leauge as nVidia's or ATi's GPUs. That's like comparing Intel to VIA. ATI and vNvidia's core business revolves around the high-end graphics card market, something that Intel just does not do.

The interesting thing about this rumor is that nVidia and AMD seem like more of a match than AMD and ATI, considering that nVidia's SLI technology was originaly only supported on boards with AMD processors. It used to be that AMD and nVidia had sort of an unwritten "alliance" going.

#25.1 PureLegend on 01 Jun 2006 - 11:26

Look at the polls. The combo seems to be AMD+nVidia

#26 Digix on 01 Jun 2006 - 11:30

nvidia suit intel better,

but amd and ati omg god as landed B)

#27 d4v1d04 on 01 Jun 2006 - 12:27

This would mean that ATi might finally start making decent products, rather than "Crossfire," the biggest and poorest copy of SLI I've ever seen. However I much prefer nVIDIA and AMD as they make the better products. Bring on the future is what I say.

#28 Digix on 01 Jun 2006 - 14:41

Crossfire has a better rendering form then SLi does thats why i dont understand why people think its a joke. maybe it was a copy of there idea but if they didnt it wouldnt be equal competition. i dont know why you all like nvidia they are just as bad as intel they make a whole lot of what they claim as quality hardware which fails to perform alot of the time, multiple times i have experienced standard nvidias just burning out ceasing and dieing which is very poor to the floawless experience ive had with ati.

#29 chisss on 01 Jun 2006 - 15:10

you guys dont realize that if they merge they would probably still keep different names.... but it would be contained within the same comnpany.. probably like ATI a division of AMD....
you will still have the choice of buying whatever the hell you want... it's not like if they merge the ATI card would only work with an AMD processor....

The problem with corssfire is that at th beggining it was not as available as the SLI cards...

#30 WiZzArD on 02 Jun 2006 - 07:36

AMD lacks the financial resources to buy Ati or Nvidia. There's also the slight problem that this is a rumor and AMD has nothing to gain by buying Ati or Nvidia.

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Neowin.net

AMD-ATI Merger?

About the Author

Neowin.net

AMD-ATI Merger?

Share this Article

About the Author

Related news