How the tide has turned

[shawnp]

I find it pretty humorous that the CPU wars have taken the sudden shift that they have.

8 months ago AMD could do no wrong. Their stock price was extremely high (unjustified, P/E ratio was stupidly high) and the fans really thought that Intel was doomed (which had a low stock price and low P/E ratio).

Now, with Conroe, things have really flipped. AMD's surge ahead kinda sputtered and now they don't have anything huge waiting in the wings.

Now, the only thing AMD can really fight back with is price/performance ratio, but Intel has deep pockets.

What do you guys think?

[borschtBomber[ss]]

Its hard to say that AMD has nothing waiting in the wings. I doubt they are sitting around on their hands doing nothing. They didn't get to where they were at by not innovating.

[Jason]

Gotta agree with the bomber I think AMD has shown some amazing creativity and has also proven that they listen to their customers. I wouldn't doubt that AMD will pull out the stops to regain market share. In any case consumers now understand that there are two significant companies to chose from and that Intel is not the only serious offer on the market. I don't think I would have any problems getting an X2 or any AMD processor for that matter to power any kind of machine.

[Napster]

Now that AMD acquired ATI. They definitely have some innovative genius up their sleeves.

[shawnp]

Originally Posted by Napster

Now that AMD acquired ATI. They definitely have some innovative genius up their sleeves.

See, I think this is part of the problem. AMD is already behind in the FAB process, they are still working on an older nm process while Intel has surged ahead. AMD won't even begin to move over to the newer process until later next year.

Couple this with the relative slow adoption of AM2 *AND* having to merge companies, it's pretty daunting.

The company I work for recently bought one bank and then announced the purchase of another a few months ago. The integration is going smoothly, but thats because banks are alike in many ways.

Taking a CPU company and merging it with a foreign graphics company is completely different. The corporate cultures are very different and the prime focus is not in alignment.

It's not an impossible task, but a very difficult one. AMD has to coordinate the upgrading of two FABs and a purchase while maintaining a strict timeline of two companies plus compete with Intel.

If they pull it off it could be one of the greatest moves they could ever make. If they don't, they will wallow in stagnation while Intel pushes the boundaries of chips.

I hope they pull it off, the products coming out of this merger will likely be awesome.