Intel’s Xe GPU team has just lost some important players

[Slayerking92]

Quote

Chris Hook and Heather Lennon, former Radeon Technologies Group marketing staffers, have left Intel. In the last couple of years they both left the crumbling team of RTG where most of them found a new home at Intel, and now Hook and Lennon have left the odyssey. I reached out to both of them and had the news confirmed independently, too. Given that Intel are really starting to see their wheels wobble in the consumer market with huge market share losses to their consumer and now HEDT processors, AMD is really putting the pressure on them. Intel did a shady trick of having an NDA of their latest 10th-gen HEDT chips just before AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 3950/3970X launched -- and then within a couple of days this news breaks out. I'm being told to expect somewhere in the 5000-10,000 jobs being slashed and this could be happening at Intel much sooner rather than later, and it could've just begun with Hook and Lennon. This is turning into quite the journey indeed.

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/69002/intel-gpu-team-loses-ex-amd-staff-chris-hook-heather-lennon/index.html

 

https://www.pcgamesn.com/intel/intel-xe-staff-departures

 

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/69002/intel-gpu-team-loses-ex-amd-staff-chris-hook-heather-lennon/index.html

 

Looks like there could be some delays with Intel GPU's.  But was anyone really expecting something to compete with Nvidia/AMD?

[TempestCatto]

3 minutes ago, Slayerking92 said:

was anyone really expecting something to compete with Nvidia/AMD?

I wasn't holding my breath. Why would I want IntelHD Graphics on a dedicated card when I can just use what's already on the CPU! Money making scheme if you ask me. /s

[Arika]

10 minutes ago, Slayerking92 said:

But was anyone really expecting something to compete with Nvidia/AMD?

their first gen GPU? probably not on the high end, but more options is always good for the consumer.

 

Though it's worth noting that they worked in marketing, not the actual creation of GPUs. no idea bout the other 5-10k if that's even true

[Slayerking92]

8 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

I wasn't holding my breath. Why would I want IntelHD Graphics on a dedicated card when I can just use what's already on the CPU! Money making scheme if you ask me. /s

The i740 wasn't a bad video card,  but I remember replacing it with a 3dfx banshee when it was affordable.

[Vishera]

17 minutes ago, Arika S said:

no idea bout the other 5-10k if that's even true

That statement sounds like a speculation to me.

17 minutes ago, Slayerking92 said:

The i740 wasn't a bad video card,  but I remember replacing it with a 3dfx banshee when it was affordable.

Those are some really ancient GPUs,It's like comparing stone age weapons to modern weapons,

the industry completely changed since.

[Dabombinable]

56 minutes ago, Slayerking92 said:

The i740 wasn't a bad video card,  but I remember replacing it with a 3dfx banshee when it was affordable.

Thing with the i740, it was effectively OEM bait, due to it being designed to rely more on system memory than vRAM, making it cheaper and simpler, while also knee capping its performance (at least it certainly didn't help).

[Sakkura]

The design is probably already finalized or nearly so, this is like Jim Keller leaving AMD before Ryzen launched... and we all know what a disaster Ryzen's been.

[Donut417]

3 hours ago, Slayerking92 said:

But was anyone really expecting something to compete with Nvidia/AMD?

To my understadning it was going to be a workstation card. So it wasnt going to affect most of us anyway. 

[warrenr]

As the senior marketing director, Chris probably had significant say in the bizarre choice of "Ponte Vecchio", so yeah, good that he doesn't work there anymore.

 

Also, don't overthink their importance -- they're marketing people who have left to join a startup.  This is not an uncommon thing for tech execs to do after 20 years of working for large companies, especially after they find themselves sitting on a tidy pile of cash.

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Why do we think some marketers leaving the team means the ship is sinking?

 

Whatever to connect the conspiracy dots I suppose.

[mr moose]

Just because they left doesn't mean anything.    Certainly least of all does it mean any new product is a flop.  

 

 

[RejZoR]

9 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

I wasn't holding my breath. Why would I want IntelHD Graphics on a dedicated card when I can just use what's already on the CPU! Money making scheme if you ask me. /s

Or if you sell CPU's with GPU's and then sell them another GPU. That's the real money making scheme.

[dizmo]

Their poor sales as of late will definitely result in job loss, but that should be expected. Staff costs are the most controllable aspect of a business, and realistically once you're Intel's size and have enjoyed as much success as they have, you probably have a lot of positions and staff that simply don't need to exist. As has been pointed out, these guys were in marketing. Who knows, maybe they were behind moving the embargo date and that's why they're gone. Maybe they see greener pastures elsewhere. Lots of reasons to leave. 

 

I have high hopes for Intel's GPU. 

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Their poor sales as of late will definitely result in job loss, but that should be expected. Staff costs are the most controllable aspect of a business, and realistically once you're Intel's size and have enjoyed as much success as they have, you probably have a lot of positions and staff that simply don't need to exist. As has been pointed out, these guys were in marketing. Who knows, maybe they were behind moving the embargo date and that's why they're gone. Maybe they see greener pastures elsewhere. Lots of reasons to leave. 

 

I have high hopes for Intel's GPU. 

 

I agree, except maybe with their sales.  Are they really losing sales? their revenue is still growing and they are still at maximum capacity on 14nm.    It was only a year ago that articles were claiming ryzen sales were partly due to Intel's inability to supply, which means its sales were at maximum.

[MeatFeastMan]

I am expecting them to compete actually. I just have a sneaky feeling for them. They said double the performance of Gen11 is what Gen12 will bring. Gen11 is near Vega Graphics so..

 

Whether that'll translate as you go up the tiers remains to be seen. But I expect them to at least be able to offer good products in the midrange to compete against so-called 'Ampere' and also Full fat Navi (RDNA 2.0). Not sure they'll top the charts, but I'm expecting them to at least be in the conversation.

[porina]

Intel still can't make enough CPUs to satisfy market demand and this situation is ongoing. Lack of sales are not a short term problem. If AMD can make sufficient inroads, that may change in future. https://www.anandtech.com/show/15132/intel-publishers-letter-to-customers-apologizing-for-cpu-shipment-delays

 

Some speculation on the move here - Ian does a lot of the CPU stuff at Anandtech.

[Rune]

Marketing staffers? Won't be missed.

[warrenr]

9 minutes ago, Tedny said:

hasn't Hook join intel like 5 months ago? 

18 months.  Just long enough for some restricted stock units to vest.

 

The guy was poached from AMD, right, surely for a sizable pay increase in conjunction with some stock.  Usually you have to wait a year before you can start cashing out those stocks, and 3+ years to get access to the whole thing. It's a way of getting people to stick around.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

15 hours ago, Sakkura said:

The design is probably already finalized or nearly so, this is like Jim Keller leaving AMD before Ryzen launched... and we all know what a disaster Ryzen's been.

One could make the argument that the marketing team's workload will actually peak after the chip is ready, and product design + communication strategies begin.

 

Still, the main point stands: connecting the departure of two members of the (GPU?) marketing team to thousands of job losses, negative events in a completely different market, etc, in a company that big... I'd say it's more than a stretch, and requires something, anything, to back it up.

Otherwise, it's like "mm, I lost a dollar... OMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

[VanayadGaming]

On 11/29/2019 at 12:20 AM, Slayerking92 said:

 

https://www.pcgamesn.com/intel/intel-xe-staff-departures

 

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/69002/intel-gpu-team-loses-ex-amd-staff-chris-hook-heather-lennon/index.html

 

Looks like there could be some delays with Intel GPU's.  But was anyone really expecting something to compete with Nvidia/AMD?

Why? These are marketing people...they won't influence the gpus at all. (in terms of when they will be ready for market)

[Nicnac]

On 11/29/2019 at 12:57 AM, Sakkura said:

The design is probably already finalized or nearly so, this is like Jim Keller leaving AMD before Ryzen launched... and we all know what a disaster Ryzen's been.

I was just about to say something along those lines...

Top Talent in this industry changes all the time and they probably already finished what they were working on for intel.

[mr moose]

59 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

 they probably already finished what they were working on for intel.

 

Yep, we have evidence they have done their job already as they were working on marketing.  We only need to look at the current marketing for Xe to see their AMD experience showing through.  A couple of media releases without much information, no hard data and a few chosen words to insinuate huge things including the "accidental" leak of it having RT capabilities.   Then let the Internet do the hyping for the next 2 years until it actually does release and bam.