Microsoft to buy AMD?! [updated]

[MoonSpot]

altough LMG should get it imo, with linus at the wheel nothing could go wrong....

 

I think I found the documentary of just that happening from a parallel universe with big bossman Linus calling the shots.

 

 

I happen to think microsoft is going to get more and more into the hardware space.  Mostly because they've been slowly moving more in that direction, and with hololens as another potential example if it become the new interfacing tool(mouse), then why not make on their own?  I think it would be an interesting match at the very least, and it'd be interesting to see what those 2 groups could do together under the same banner.

Of all the AMD up for sale rumours this week, I like this one the most.

[MageTank]

I know of the scuffle over Larrabee, and even though the Iris Pro 6200 is an iGPU, its performance is getting incredibly close to that of Nvidia and AMD's entry level dGPU-which have the benefit of dedicated vRAM and consume significantly greater power. And I know about Zen'z supposed efficiency gains-which would be better than that of the pre CMT CPU's if what I've read is correct. With Skylake, I just hope that Intel knows what they are doing and haven't outright lied about the performance gains.

Intel already has considered making a dedicated GPU (they even had a few being sold in the 90's), and even had a graphics card in the pipeline several years after their initial cards failed, but Nvidia pulled some crucial IP that Intel would have used so Intel didn't end up making their next graphics cards. (Intel also has OpenCL on their more recent iGPU BTW)

I agree with you 100% about Skylake. I am also buying a Core i7 5775C when they are available to consumers, so i am excited about Iris as well. While Intel might put a very heavy dent in the entry market, i can't see them entering the high end market any time soon due to certain limitations that they just cannot overcome. Putting all of the resources that are on a full fledged GPU on to a CPU just is not possible at the moment. 

 

Good news is, if Intel continues to make powerful iGPU's, we might still benefit greatly from them if DX 12 apps allow us to pool their resources in with our current dGPU's. Either way, i am rooting for all sides of the GPU market, lol.

[FaZe Booce]

Microsoft buying another product or company? That's a shocker. Also that building looks like the white house of computers.

[ApolloEleven]

What about sony? AMD has the information about sonys APU.

Everyone knows what Sony's APU already is.

[thirtyfpsonpcisgood]

I fully support anything that allows for AMD to come out with better cpus and graphics cards.

[paps511]

I highly doubt this will actually happen...

[VanayadGaming]

It's quite interesting you mention that. I was thinking about the main reasons I wouldn't buy AMD nowadays. And it's not necessarily just the better performance from Nvidia, it's the whole ecosystem. Shadowplay, Geforce Experience, Gamestream are all things I would miss greatly if I switched to AMD. There's huge potential for Microsoft to partner with and assist in the development of AMD software.

 

Also if you flip your statement around, you could say, what would AMD bring to Microsoft. For example, I see game streaming technology becoming huge in the not to distant future. This potential deal makes a lot of sense in that regard.

You mean things like Raptr and DVR ? That when nVidia saw copied them as well ? Ok. 

[soaringchicken]

If Microsoft buys AMD. Microsoft works with NVIDIA = ULTIMATE GRAPHICS CARD..

 

Wet dream

Actually that would work opposite. The competition from AMD causes Nividia to release new GPUs, therefore no competition=little to no improvements on gpu hardware. 

[sms1202]

I wish that AMD get some huge funding. Because AMD needs to get their game up. I want to see nVidia releasing titans at $899 bucks just to be on competition.That said i don't want the AMD cards or CPU's to cost a staggering 1000 bucks either on flagship levels

[Adriel]

At this point I just want SOMEONE to buy amd so we can get some competition going, Nvidia is slacking and just cruising in front with no intention of going faster. 

[Techhog]

Intel already has considered making a dedicated GPU (they even had a few being sold in the 90's), and even had a graphics card in the pipeline several years after their initial cards failed, but Nvidia pulled some crucial IP that Intel would have used so Intel didn't end up making their next graphics cards. (Intel also has OpenCL on their more recent iGPU BTW)

That was back when the dGPU industry was growing. Things have changed, and i can't really see any company wanting to make dGPUs that isn't already at this point, at least for consumers. They might want to make professional and HPC cards, but that's it.

[Techhog]

At this point I just want SOMEONE to buy amd so we can get some competition going, Nvidia is slacking and just cruising in front with no intention of going faster. 

... Are you high? Nvidia isn't slacking at all at this point. They're being extremely aggressive because they want to kill AMD and become a monopoly ASAP. After they reach their goal they'll slack, but they certainly aren't slacking now. I really don't understand what more you're looking for from Nvidia.

[bogus]

Here is something I think we both agree on (for the first time in forever), love or hate the company we can't just dismiss their success as luck.  No body gets to become a $333B company on luck and stealing shit alone.

 

Eventually it happens

 

I think people don't actually value that much Bill Gates (the entrepeneur - the charitable one is very well known and beloved), like he stays in the shadow of Steve Jobs... when in reality even though Steve was a great visionary, sometimes "almost to ahead of his time" (what ever this means) and marketer, he had alot of flaws in the execution part... while Bill was probably one of the best professionals we've ever seen when it comes to build and sell products.

 

He was just far enough ahead of the curve to deliver what people needed. That requires both vision and execution ability.

 

Do you think McDonalds nails the execution in making hamburgers?

 

McDonalds nails it from the simple flipping of the hamburger, all the way up to their franchise model.

[LAwLz]

... Are you high? Nvidia isn't slacking at all at this point. They're being extremely aggressive because they want to kill AMD and become a monopoly ASAP. After they reach their goal they'll slack, but they certainly aren't slacking now. I really don't understand what more you're looking for from Nvidia.

How are Nvidia being aggressive? Right now their cards have pretty much the same price:performance ratio as AMD (maybe slightly better). That seems like regular business to me. If they wanted to crush AMD and become a monopoly they could sell their GPUs at near BOM prices. If they did that AMD would have to do so too, and AMD wouldn't survive as long as Nvidia without a proper income.

 

The slow death of AMD seems to have been very organic.

[Techhog]

How are Nvidia being aggressive? Right now their cards have pretty much the same price:performance ratio as AMD (maybe slightly better). That seems like regular business to me. If they wanted to crush AMD and become a monopoly they could sell their GPUs at near BOM prices. If they did that AMD would have to do so too, and AMD wouldn't survive as long as Nvidia without a proper income.

 

The slow death of AMD seems to have been very organic.

That's the thing. They don't need to compete with AMD in price:performance. There's no reason for them pricing the 980 Ti where they did, since it dealt a huge blow both to the value of the 980 and the Titan X. They did it to hurt AMD's margins on the Fury line, which are likely very small. I highly doubt that AMD planned for the Fury X to be $650 originally. It went against rumors, leaks, and logic. Fury X is probably right up against BOM really. Then there's the fact that Nvidia is going nuts with GameWorks as of late, going as far as sabotaging their own older cards to make the new ones look leaps and bounds ahead. You can believe what you want, but they're going for the throat in my eyes.

[RagnarokDel]

Microsoft knows that with software and their little hardware they won't last much longer

hmm, what the hell are you talking about? It's a 170B corporation and they're making 20~25% profit margins yearly.

 

yeah, this would be great if intel didnt instantly revoke x86 licencing. 

Nothing could go wrong with intel chips not working with windows, you know 90%+ of the market for PCs. (I assume that wouldnt change anything for existing computers but anything new would no longer work with Microsoft software/hardware?)

 

 

 

Linux is already getting DX12 in the form of Vulkan which will bring gaming up to windows 10 performance. Nvidia's Linux drivers are already at windows 8.1 performance, it's just AMD that needs to catch up with their current Linux drivers, but I think they're just gonna sit on it until Vulkan comes along though. AMD seems to have their hands tied with other things at the moment. 

Linux will never become mainstream because it's too inconvenient for most users.

 

 

1- Nvidia will bitch about AMD possibly having better dx12 optimizations or AMD could have complete exclusivity over DX13 which would be good for nobody

2- Sony will literally be giving money to Microsoft on each ps4 sold

3- NO X86

4- AMD is not profitable

5- What will Microsoft do for AMD?  

6- THIS IS STILL A RUMOUR

1. Isnt DirectX open source?

2. So what? They're still selling playstation 4 at a predetermined price and they have a contract in place.

3. That can be easily renegociated and Intel would be extremely stupid not to do so.

4. There's about 10 000 corporations, including microsoft that were not profitable at one point in their existence, that doesnt mean it's worthless.

5. Keep the lights open and the AC running, that's already a good start. After that they may very well bring in more business via Azure, Xbox One (let's say at least keeping the business there for the next generation), phones, etc.

6. When has that stopped the internet from arguing?

7. Surprise additional number: H.O.L.O.L.E.N.S.

[Techhog]

hmm, what the hell are you talking about? It's a 170B corporation and they're making 20~25% profit margins yearly.

Nope, they ded clearly. They'll probably go bankrupt next month.

[RagnarokDel]

Consumer software sales aren't doing well, people are expecting everything to be free these days. I can see a world where windows is free but runs better on microsoft-built PCs. Or, worse, they no longer make windows available on anything but their own hardware. There's lots of bad things that can come from this.

cant be worst then whatever the fuck Apple does on a yearly basis and yet the world has yet to crumble.

 

 

 

Keep in mind that Microsoft can't lean on AMD's side right now. If they f*** over Intel or Nvidia, A LOT of people would move to Linux.

Yes, there would be 5 nerds instead of 3 out of 100 using linux, Microsoft shivers in fear.

[RagnarokDel]

Nope, they ded clearly. They'll probably go bankrupt next month.

Microsoft could buy 10 AMD a year and still break even.

[Techhog]

Microsoft could buy 10 AMD a year and still break even.

Nope nope nope they ded

[Khvarrioiren]

And it's not necessarily just the better performance from Nvidia, it's the whole ecosystem. Shadowplay, Geforce Experience, Gamestream are all things I would miss greatly if I switched to AMD.

AMD already has equivalent features.

[LAwLz]

That's the thing. They don't need to compete with AMD in price:performance. There's no reason for them pricing the 980 Ti where they did, since it dealt a huge blow both to the value of the 980 and the Titan X. They did it to hurt AMD's margins on the Fury line, which are likely very small. I highly doubt that AMD planned for the Fury X to be $650 originally. It went against rumors, leaks, and logic. Fury X is probably right up against BOM really. Then there's the fact that Nvidia is going nuts with GameWorks as of late, going as far as sabotaging their own older cards to make the new ones look leaps and bounds ahead. You can believe what you want, but they're going for the throat in my eyes.

You might want to take off your tinfoil hat and look at things objectively for a moment. I don't see Nvidia doing anything aggressive to kill AMD as soon as they can.

[Citation Needed] That Nvidia are so desperate to make AMD cards look bad they are even making their own cards perform badly.

 

Nothing you say make any sense. Again, if Nvidia wanted to kill AMD they could do so very easily with more aggressive pricing, but that's not what we are seeing. Why would Nvidia hurt their own performance when they could just kill off AMD with a graceful price cut across the board, completely dominating AMD with price:performance? What you are saying makes absolutely no sense from any angle. Why would Nvidia do so many complicated things and harming themselves when there is such a simple solution compared to your tinfoil-hat level assumption?

You say they want to do it ASAP, but then you propose a plan that is quite slow, and ignore the very quick plan.

 

Also, lol a graphics card does not cost 650 dollars to make. You can get 8GB of GDDR5 for like 90 dollars (possibly even less). Even if we assume that HBM costs 3 times as much per GB that's only ~135 dollars for the memory. The PCB is next to nothing (like 10 dollars). The water cooler might be ~35 dollars and then the GPU itself is maybe 100 dollars. Throw in some stuff I might have missed (packaging, assembly, a bit of generosity on my part to cover and possibility of underestimate) and you end up at about 400 dollars.

It's pretty expensive, but I really really doubt that they are selling it at near BOM at 650 dollars, unless AMD really fucked up with some of their supplier or design (like HBM being super expensive and completely not worth it at all).

 

 

 

 

AMD already has equivalent features.

I don't agree.

G-Force Experience or whatever it's called is light years ahead of the Rapr garbage AMD licensed. FreeSync is not as good as G-Sync is right now. Fans doesn't turn off at idle (not sure if all Nvidia GPUs does but some do). Some exclusive features like PhysX.

[Murdoch]

AMD already has equivalent features.

 

What are their equivalent features to Shadowplay and Gamestream called?

 

Do AMD cards even have a hardware h.264 encoder?

 

I mean I'm genuinely non the wiser.

[Khvarrioiren]

What are their equivalent features to Shadowplay and Gamestream called?

 

Do AMD cards even have a hardware h.264 encoder?

 

I mean I'm genuinely non the wiser.

 

GVR and Instant Replays.  All GCN cards have a built-in H.264 encoder.

[LAwLz]

What are their equivalent features to Shadowplay and Gamestream called?

 

Do AMD cards even have a hardware h.264 encoder?

 

I mean I'm genuinely non the wiser.

Yes they have a H.264 encoder on them. On AMD cards it's called the Video Coding Engine (VCE). Raptr can take advantage of it and so can RivaTuner (the program MSI Afterburner is based on, among others).

Nvidia seems to have a lot more software support though. For example OBS supports both Intel's and Nvidia's hardware encoders, but not AMD. Not sure how the quality is but it seems more flexible than Intel's QuickSync at least.

 

It's a shame the 300 series are rebrands because AMD had a pretty good chance of pulling ahead Nvidia on the GPU encoding front. VCE 3.0 is going to support HEVC but I am not sure if they have any GPUs shipping with it right now.