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Non Nvidia/AMD GPUs and non Intel/AMD CPUs?

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Hey everyone, I was thinking and something crossed my mind, how come only 2 companies make GPUs and only 2 companies make CPUs? Are there any CPUs or GPUs that aren't made by these companies, maybe they're just not very well known? Or do these 3 companies literally own the WHOLE CPU/GPU market of today? I know there are some third party manufacturers for GPUs, however the technology is still from Nvidia or AMD. Any input or explanation for this? 

 

Q: Why we only have 2 companies making CPU's?

A: Well we have a variety of companies making CPU's. Just not x86 processors which Windows support (and recently ARM with Windows RT).

So, I assume your question is why only 2 manufactures making only x86 processors? Well, it never used to be like this, We used to have VIA, IBM and others. However, they all could not compete with Intel, and got annoyed with Intel scare tacks to not renew their license of the x86 architecture patent (which is owned by Intel). So, they all stop making processors. Except for VIA. They have not officially discontinued making x86, but they pretty much stopped.  As for AMD. Intel has no choice to keep AMD. Else Intel has the monopoly, and, much like Microsoft saving Apple back in 1997 from closing its doors, Intel would end up with a monopoly, which would make them impossible to sale their processor, outside of the United States, as nearly every country has a anti-monopoly law. (Also, it doesn't help, that Intel licenses AMD patent on AMD64, the 64-bit add-on on the x86, allowing the processor, to not only fully support 32-bit processes, but also 64-bit one).

 

Intel if not interested in licensing their x86 to someone else, and no other manufacture is interested in working under, essentially, Intel control (ie: you make a processor more powerful then Intel, then Intel will threaten you of not renewing the license, like with AMD back in the old Socket 939 days, when AMD simply crushed Intel best offering.)

 

Q: Why only 2 companies making GPUs?

A: You do have more than AMD and Nvidia.. but all the others are focusing on specialty market. Like Matrox focuses on deliver graphic card for video walls (walls of screens). And of course, you have Intel, which OEM loves, because the GPU is a free one, making them pick that over Nvidia and AMD offering, as most of the consumer don't know any better, or care. Does it surf the web somewhat? Does it run Office? Is Windows experience somewhat smooth? And is the laptop or desktop the least expensive as possible, even though opening the box once purchased and seeing the produce in one peace, is a manufacture error (yea, I went there), then Good! They like it, and that is what they buy. Nvidia and AMD doesn't have a chance. That is why Nvidia started Tegra recently, and playing catchup with the big guys (surprisingly they are doing leap and bound at every generation.. I expect Tegra 5 to actually be kick-ass.. maybe not the most powerful of all of them, but most likely superb value for your money). What helps Nvidia with Tegra, is the company extensive knowledge on graphic card, and able to deliver graphic performance on a what it would otherwise be a weak chip, with excellent efficiency and low power. Also, Nvidia focuses more on Quadro and Tesla series graphic card, as this is where the money is.. not consumer products (not that it's nothing, it's pretty big, but not the main inputs of money). As for AMD, they are focusing on their APUs. If AMD can make their CPU in the APU more closely match Intel CPUs, then it would take the win and a massive increase in market share.

 

You used to have a longer list of consumer gaming graphic card, if you will, back in the old days, but they all closed down, or got bought by other companies, or made them change market like Matrox. Bessie best performance, and value for your money, another issue was business models not working for companies, as a new business model had to be put that didn't exists from text books, or used by other businesses.

Hey everyone, I was thinking and something crossed my mind, how come only 2 companies make GPUs and only 2 companies make CPUs? Are there any CPUs or GPUs that aren't made by these companies, maybe they're just not very well known? Or do these 3 companies literally own the WHOLE CPU/GPU market of today? I know there are some third party manufacturers for GPUs, however the technology is still from Nvidia or AMD. Any input or explanation for this? 

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We have mobile chips too, like Snapdragon.

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the big 3 bought out the other companies, like amd bought ati and nvidia bought the company that made physx

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There are other companies but non that are really used or known off. I can't name any off the top of my head. I know a lot of mobile CPUs are made by a third processor company. 

 

However there are the 3 main companies you mentioned because CPUs and GPUs are only worth researching, developing, manufacturing and distributing in high volumes as there is a huge amount of R&D cost. Then the successful companies as in all markets purchase the small, failing or up and coming companies to increase their own market share and therefore volume.

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Moved to CPU's

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Hey everyone, I was thinking and something crossed my mind, how come only 2 companies make GPUs and only 2 companies make CPUs? Are there any CPUs or GPUs that aren't made by these companies, maybe they're just not very well known? Or do these 3 companies literally own the WHOLE CPU/GPU market of today? I know there are some third party manufacturers for GPUs, however the technology is still from Nvidia or AMD. Any input or explanation for this? 

 

Q: Why we only have 2 companies making CPU's?

A: Well we have a variety of companies making CPU's. Just not x86 processors which Windows support (and recently ARM with Windows RT).

So, I assume your question is why only 2 manufactures making only x86 processors? Well, it never used to be like this, We used to have VIA, IBM and others. However, they all could not compete with Intel, and got annoyed with Intel scare tacks to not renew their license of the x86 architecture patent (which is owned by Intel). So, they all stop making processors. Except for VIA. They have not officially discontinued making x86, but they pretty much stopped.  As for AMD. Intel has no choice to keep AMD. Else Intel has the monopoly, and, much like Microsoft saving Apple back in 1997 from closing its doors, Intel would end up with a monopoly, which would make them impossible to sale their processor, outside of the United States, as nearly every country has a anti-monopoly law. (Also, it doesn't help, that Intel licenses AMD patent on AMD64, the 64-bit add-on on the x86, allowing the processor, to not only fully support 32-bit processes, but also 64-bit one).

 

Intel if not interested in licensing their x86 to someone else, and no other manufacture is interested in working under, essentially, Intel control (ie: you make a processor more powerful then Intel, then Intel will threaten you of not renewing the license, like with AMD back in the old Socket 939 days, when AMD simply crushed Intel best offering.)

 

Q: Why only 2 companies making GPUs?

A: You do have more than AMD and Nvidia.. but all the others are focusing on specialty market. Like Matrox focuses on deliver graphic card for video walls (walls of screens). And of course, you have Intel, which OEM loves, because the GPU is a free one, making them pick that over Nvidia and AMD offering, as most of the consumer don't know any better, or care. Does it surf the web somewhat? Does it run Office? Is Windows experience somewhat smooth? And is the laptop or desktop the least expensive as possible, even though opening the box once purchased and seeing the produce in one peace, is a manufacture error (yea, I went there), then Good! They like it, and that is what they buy. Nvidia and AMD doesn't have a chance. That is why Nvidia started Tegra recently, and playing catchup with the big guys (surprisingly they are doing leap and bound at every generation.. I expect Tegra 5 to actually be kick-ass.. maybe not the most powerful of all of them, but most likely superb value for your money). What helps Nvidia with Tegra, is the company extensive knowledge on graphic card, and able to deliver graphic performance on a what it would otherwise be a weak chip, with excellent efficiency and low power. Also, Nvidia focuses more on Quadro and Tesla series graphic card, as this is where the money is.. not consumer products (not that it's nothing, it's pretty big, but not the main inputs of money). As for AMD, they are focusing on their APUs. If AMD can make their CPU in the APU more closely match Intel CPUs, then it would take the win and a massive increase in market share.

 

You used to have a longer list of consumer gaming graphic card, if you will, back in the old days, but they all closed down, or got bought by other companies, or made them change market like Matrox. Bessie best performance, and value for your money, another issue was business models not working for companies, as a new business model had to be put that didn't exists from text books, or used by other businesses.

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, how come only 2 companies make GPUs and only 2 companies make CPUs? Are there any CPUs or GPUs that aren't made by these companies,

For GPUs, most of the other companies could not compete with AMD and nVidia in the upper end of the discrete video card market, but there are still companies that make graphics chips for mobile devices and I think there's even a few that make desktop video cards for low-end computers, mostly in the Asian market.

For CPUs, there are, of course, companies making CPUs for mobile devices, mostly based on ARM designs. I think VIA and perhaps a few others still make some x86 CPUs, but again, mostly for low-end, low power systems and mostly in Asia.

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My opinion is it's the technology equivalent of darwin's theory. When I was younger there was a huge market. Over the years most companies couldn't compete. Some say it's due to strong arm tactics from companies like Intel and Nvidia, but others think it's just that the best companies survived while the weaker companies went out of business.

 

I had Cyrix CPU, Matrox Graphics cards, and they weren't competitive. 3dFX was great at first, but they didn't compete after a few generations and nvidia killed them with the GeForce cards. There were also graphics cards from people like Hercules, and others I cannot even remember. The first few Radeon cards were not very good. The Radeon 8500 was OK but only once they got to their third gen 9x00 series were they competitive. That was way before they got bought by AMD.

 

Cyrix and even AMD were both OK back when they were all compatible with the same CPU socket (pre pentium 2), but once Intel made a proprietary socket only AMD was able to compete.

 

There are even more CPU companies that most people don't even think about. Sun/Oracle still makes high end server CPUs. Technically the largest selling CPU in the world is the ARM architecture, stuff by Broadcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments and a lot of others. The x86 market is really not as big as people think it is, considering how expensive R&D is, it isn't worth competing for most companies.

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What was the powermac G5 cpu powered by? they were called a PowerPC 970 i think

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Wow you guys gave some really informative answers, I see it's a pretty complicated subject but I definitely have a better understanding of it now, thanks.

Setup Video -----------Peasant Crushing Specs----------- 4K Benchmarks


-CPU- i7 3930k @4.8GHz 1.4v -Mobo- Asus Rampage IV Extreme -GPUs- 2x GTX Titan Hydrocopper SLI -RAM- 32GB (8x4GB) Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz -Storage- 500GB Samsung 840 SSD | 2TB WD Green HDD


-Monitors- 3x BenQ XL2420T | 1x Dell U2713HM -Mouse- Steelseries Rival -Keyboard- Corsair K70 Cherry MX Brown -Headphones- Audio Techinca ATH-M50 -Microphone- RØDE NT1-A

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What was the powermac G5 cpu powered by? they were called a PowerPC 970 i think

 

The PowerPC platform was from IBM.  They were pretty much the last big competitor for Intel and AMD to go, after Apple switched to Intel in 2006... Funny though even IBM themselves switched to Intel in their own PC lines before Apple did xD Although they still do make them for consoles like the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U, and for servers.

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