Dell buys tons of AMD graphics chips
OEMs go nuts for DirectX 10 GPUs
AMD'S R6xx SERIES may be having a troubled birth, but the amount of these babies that are being sold numbers in the millions. This is welcome news for AMD, a company that had to revise financial guidance for this year and announce restructuring.
As yet unlaunched, its DX10 entry-level chip, R(V)610 is already set to become the fastest-selling graphics chip of all time. OEMs just went beserk for these cards, able to bring Vista capabilities and gaming at baseline resolutions for a very affordable price, thanks to 65nm manufacturing process at TSMC.
The biggest buyer is none other than the company from Round Rock, TX. Dell went out and bought all the chips it could get. The company wants to have a DirectX10 push across the board, and needed WHQL drivers for every part of its product line-up. AMD received its R600/610/630 WHQL driver for Vista a long time ago, so it was a non-issue for the "three sticker" program (Every PC brand is enrolled in the three-sticker programme, where up to three stickers are placed on every computer in exchange for money... marketing incentives).
According to pur sources, Dell wanted just about every 65nm GPU that AMD will launch to the world in very early May, following the Tech Day in Tunisia. And it had the readies ready.
R(V)630 is no slouch either, and the integration of Xilleon video processing technology into the GPUs was a golden move for AMD, because a massive amount of consumer electronic companies already use this chip in their LCD/Plasma TVs.
With Xilleon tech inside desktop and notebook parts, expect a lot of crossover devices to feature exactly these graphics chips. It could happen that AMD ships more than 100 million 65nm GPUs by the end of 2007, but this is a very optimistic forecast.
http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38836WHEN WE FIRST wrote that AMD is working on 65nm R600 chip, half the firm itself did not have an idea of what was going on.
We never wrote that 80nm GPU would be scrapped, but we did state that it would be quickly surplanted by a 65nm part.
Now it seems our old chum Fudzilla has been converted to our point of view and we can now finally go out and say what 65nm R600 is and what will happen with this chip.
In short, AMD's CPU manufacturing strategy will be introduced to the world of GPUs. This should result in more affordable and better performing parts. Even though AMD is not using its own manufacturing facilities or facilities that use AMD's own procedure called APM, some elements of it will be used to get flexible manufacturing with GPUs as well.
First, R600 is going to be more affordable than any GPU part after Radeon 9700Pro and 9800Pro. AMD wants to undercut current high-end price bracket by $100-150, so expect an 8800GTX performing part for the price of 8800GTS. This is not all.
The company is getting the 65nm part on line as soon as possible, as this will enable savings in power well within the 60-100 Watt range, depending on what part are we talking about.
As we already wrote months ago, AMD developed four completely different PCBs and the company wants to cover every possible demand from its partners. We have talked with mid- and high-ranked executives and they told us that AMD plans to bring its customer centric mantra to every aspect of business.
This also means redefining the way graphics and chipset wars are fought. And we have to say that we cannot wait to see the slaughter-fest between AMD, Intel, and Nvidia in 2009. Somehow, we feel that AMD is the best-positioned company, especially if the flexibility that we were told about actually ends up implemented across the board.
If 65nm high-end GPUs end up on boards for $300, $350, to $400 a new era will begin indeed. Some of our AMD sources claim that most price brackets are achievable, the only real limit is yield. If AMD gets great yields from the 65nm R650, company will ship not hundreds of thousands of high-end chips, but rather millions and millions of these chips, bringing prices down and redefining its GPU sales profile. µ
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38837
As cenas parecem estar a correr muito bem à AMD, afinal.
O Fudzilla é de um ex-editor do Inq (um dos mais... "polémicos", que deu a fama ao Inq), portanto a fonte é tão ou menos viável