AMD-ATI Merger on the Way?

miketronics writes "Forbes.com is reporting the possibility of a merger between industry heavyweights AMD and ATI. This is largely based on a 'prediction on recent checks in the PC food chain' by industry analyst Apjit Walia. A move like this might give AMD some leverage over Intel, who has been slashing prices lately to compete with a major surge in AMD popularity in both the home and server markets. Despite AMD's recent gains Intel still has a dominant market share and consumers have high hopes for their upcoming Conroe processors."

Re:Why not Nvidia

[mrchaotica]

Hey, I'd love to be able to get an AMD card, since they often seem to be a better value for the money. But I can't, because the Linux drivers suck. It's not fanboyism, it's practicality.

Can't see it happening...

[RayDude]

IMO this is pretty silly. AMD would be backhanding NVIDIA by doing this. And this would encourage NVIDIA and Intel to merge in response. You really don't want Intel and NVIDIA working as the same company do you? Talk about stiff competition. And this could eliminate some choices we have as consumers on chipsets and video processors. All in all this would be very bad for consumers. I can't see this happening, no matter what the analysts say. Raydude

What's with all the "Merge with nVidia instead"

[OzPhIsH]

I don't want ANY of these companies to merge. I want more houses out there designing chips, pushing the limits, and enabling us to have more and more powerful rigs at a cheaper price. I don't want less competition in the sector one bit. We already only have really 2 choices for CPUs, and two different choices for GPUs. I wish there were a lot more to choose from. What I don't want is to be locked into a specific video card chipset based on whether I have an Intel or AMD CPU.

Re:Why not Nvidia

[smittyoneeach]

More to the point, is such a merger getting us any closer to a FOSS video driver?

Pump and dump... ATI up 9% on the rumor

[DeafDumbBlind]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ecn?s=ATYT [yahoo.com]
Looks like the analyst needed to justify his price upgrade so he started the rumor.

Re:I hope not

[kimvette]

Current catalyst drivers today are perfection relative to what they were like a couple of years ago. They're a vast improvement.

When you dance with the devil

[geekoid]

it's not the devil who changes.

Maybe...

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe if I get a blog and use the name 'AnonymousIndustryAnalyst,' I can spew random crap about Google being bought by Microsoft and get it posted on slashdot.

I don't need any actual evidence. I can simply hyphenate lots of words ("near-term tie-up dynamics" and "but we remain negative on the semi-space," anyone?) and base the overall prediction on something as meaningless as "recent checks in the PC food chain."

Instant fame! Now I just need decent advertising.

Re:When do analysts get it right?

[OzPhIsH]

Consumers have high hopes for Conroe? More bullshit.

Everything I have personally read on every tech/hardware/overclocking/etc site about Conroe has been about the chips slaughtering AMD's top FX chips. The core line has got a LOT of people excited. Intel's finally given up on Netburst, Intel is finally fighting back against AMD, Intel is ready to reclaim the desktop, etc. People who, you know, actually read all that stuff are consumers too you know. Tech is one of the most popular and active subjects on the net. And people talking tech have high hopes for Intel's new line. Calling that bullshit is, well, frankly it's bullshit.

Other than pick with your comment, I agree that these analysts are crap.

Re:Why not Nvidia

[WilliamSChips]

I think you mean an ATi card.

Re:Why not Nvidia

[geobeck]

All I can think is why AMD ins't looking at nvidia instead?

Because nVIDIA isn't a three-letter acronym starting with A*, which is probably this analyst's rationale for starting this pump-and-dump "prediction".

*A for "analyst", which of course starts with "anal".

Re:When do analysts get it right?

[TheGavster]

I think that the point is, Intel's going to sell millions of conroes, but only a few thousand people will have bought them because of the merits discussed in technical magazines. All the other sales will be because that's what Dell put in the box.

We could get closer to FOSS driver...

[MWales]

The Linux/FOSS community really really wants ATI and/or NVidia to open source their driver.

The way I see it though, NVidia will never act first, and they shouldn't. NVidia's excellent software drivers have led them to become the undisputed favorite graphics card chipset for Linux users. The hardware performance (atleast in Windows) between the top level ATI and NVidia cards is pretty similar. So NVidia has a distinct advantage over ATI in this regard, and they won't want to give it up.

On the ATI front though, it's a whole different story. Every one knows their graphic drivers are lousy. No Linux enthusiast would ever pick an ATI card. But if ATI were to release an open source driver, they *INSTANTLY* become the favorite card for Linux enthusiasts. Plus, with community support, the driver can only get better. It's a win-win. They gain support of Linux users, plus potentially get a better driver.

Why ATI hasn't already done this, I don't know. What could be in their driver (which we all know is lousy) that they need to hide from NVidia? And as far as AMDs role, would some new management possibly reopen the issue as far as letting the driver go open source?

Re:Why not Nvidia

[chewedtoothpick]

Perhaps this is a move by AMD to help NVidia finally rid themselves of their competition from ATI. Given the close relationship that AMD and NVidia have, and AMD's dependancy on NVidia, AMD would want to do everything in their power to help NVidia lorde their power over their competitors.

That, or perhaps AMD is seeking to relieve themselves of their dependance on NVidia, and it has become quite obvious that VIA is no longer a player in the motherboard battle. AMD Could be looking to expand their performance by making an AMD motherboard that actually is worth the silicon it's made on - just as Intel's best boards use Intel north and south bridges.

Re:Doesn't make sense

[moro_666]

amd wants ati's mobile chipsets, if anything at all.

  amd sees a strong perspective in the mobile market and that's where ati rocks right now with their new chipsets and integrated or dedicated graphics chips.

  if amd really is planning this move, then there's far more to it than "oh ati makes great graphic cards" or "let's now bash intel with it". it's a multi billion dollar business and nobody makes decisions based on "oh"-s. maybe amd knows something about ati that we don't ?

Re:Can't see it happening...

[Joe The Dragon]

We need for the on board video to have it own ram as that is one of things that makes it bad.

Re:Why not Nvidia

[brucifer]

No offense, but when I see comments start with "(insert company/product name here) is evil", I immediately tune out and skip the post. There may be very valid points, but when you start off with emotional statements like that, I have to fight very hard to prevent my eyes from rolling.

Re:When do analysts get it right?

[ZachPruckowski]

Well, if my friends who know nothing about PCs are buying a comptuer, they'll look to their tech-inclined friends. I'll say get a Mac, but when they decide to go PC, I might say, get this line over that line, these Intel chips are better. Tech people have an influence in their non-tech friends/relatives purchases

This isn't even good speculation

[theendlessnow]

AMD+ATI means instant death for AMD since they rely heavily on Nvidia.

Duh.