dovah-chan :
RobCrezz :
Well, it makes sense to be more efficient in performance per watt at the moment. No real incentive for them to make huge leaps in performance when the competition isnt there - doesnt look like we will have anything new from the FX range from AMD, and the APUs arent exactly setting the world alight with performance.
It seems that AMD has given up on their CPUs and just moving strictly to APUs now. Guess the FX-9590 was the last CPU we'll see from AMD. It's a shame because I like AMD but they've been out of their league for years now and only keep getting behind every year. And I've heard Kaveri has stirred up some talk but not much since integrated desktop graphics are very undesirable.
I don't really see the point in pursuing integrated GPU performance on a desktop. Anyone in their right mind who intends to game on a desktop is probably going to be using a separate card. A consumer who doesn't game isn't going to care because they won't be taking advantage of the extra power.
They could aim for the mobile market (which they've made recent attempts to do so as I'm using an A6-5200 APU in my lenovo G505) AMD has no chance in the mobile market at all due to haswell and ivy bridge now dominating with high performance per watt and great battery longevity. Plus to regular everyday consumers Intel has the advantage with their brand name and marketing.
It's surprising to think but the majority of desktop systems sold to joe public rely solely on the integrated GPU. Also remember that all new intel cpu's below the 'E' range are APUs essentially, and Intel have been pushing hard on the integrated graphics performance.
As it stands if a random person buys a system from PC World- they're likely to have a better overall experience with something like Kaveri than with an i7 due to better graphics chip. The CPU side of the equation on Kaveri is plenty fast enough for day to day tasks and the graphics will run most games fluently- it's a good 'just works' solution. Obviously they could simply add a discreet card to the i7 (or the Kaveri rig for that matter) and they'd have a much faster machine overall, however the uninitiated probably wouldn't even be aware this is an option.
AMDs approach does make some sense as they're targeting products where the money is. Also market share wise AMD aren't doing too badly on the desktop from what I've read (they've still got there 20 ish % they've always had), it's laptops where they're getting creamed and that's mainly because they're at such a disadvantage in process tech they're products aren't really competitive.
One thing of note- although the PC market as a whole is decreasing, us gamers are buying more kit than ever before (the gaming desktop market has been steadily growing for years). That would suggest that both Intel and AMD might take a bit more notice of us moving forward (although in AMDs case I don't think they're limited on manufacturing node to do much more at the moment- I'd expect a 6 or 8 core APU from them in the next few years to take the place of FX).