Intel's Got Game? Ex-AMDer Chris Hook Joins Company's New Discrete GPU Team

[PaulAlcorn]

Chris Hook, who recently left AMD after 17 years of leading the company's global marketing efforts, has joined Intel.

Intel's Got Game? Ex-AMDer Chris Hook Joins Company's New Discrete GPU Team : Read more

 

[DookieDraws]

Hoping Intel will have great success in the GPU market. We need more players in the discrete GPU game.

Let's go, Intel! I am pulling for you!

 

[mattkent]

In about 5 years Intel should be in very dominant position with the talent they have been gobbling up. Despite Intel's issues with 10nm, I doubt AMD will gain much marketshare... although consumers don't really know what powers their system anymore... so I may be overvaluing Intel's brand name power. Regardless, AMD has lost it's top talent, so they won't have anyone to develop future plans once the next generation Zen architecture comes out.

 

[tamalero]

Its interesting the technique of intel, despite having craploads of talent, craploads of money and technology. They still get bamboozled by a small company like AMD. And their only technique is to BUY talent from other companies to manage to stay relevant.

 

[SockPuppet]

Dont get excited. As a 20 year Intel employee, I can tell you that our senior management team is comprised of morons that have no idea how to run a business. Its like theyre purposely ramming the ship into every iceberg they see on purpose, but the strength of the Xeon plated hull stops them from scuttling our vessel.

 

[photonboy]

WHERE is a single, official statement that has the word "gaming" that indicates Intel is going after gaming on desktops?

Breaking into the gaming market is very, very hard. You've got advertising, drivers (for both new and games years old) etc.

I think Intel is more likely to focus on non-gaming first then maybe go after gaming if things are going well.

 

[photonboy]

Tamalero,
I wouldn't say they were "bamboozled" by AMD. I think a more accurate description of the ecosystem is to say that Intel illegally kept AMD down by dirty tactics, then AMD rallied enough to gobble up the low-hanging fruit in the x86 ecosystem.

As an architecture is improved there is less and less room for improvement. Combine that with the challenge of shrinking nodes (die size) and you see that really both Intel and AMD are converging on the "optimal" x86 design year-over-year.

There's not much left that's interesting in x86 CPU's (AFAIK) which is is partly why Intel needs to focus on GPU's.

When it comes to Server CPU's you have to balance a lot of things including cost and reliability so it's tricky to convince people to switch, but what's really interesting to me is STOCK PRICES.. when you're really big already how do you improve the stock prices?

The underdog can often continue to get revenue streams in the hopes that when they do well the stock price can go way up. If they go from say 1% to 5% that's a big deal.

 

[SkyBill40]

Why this would come as any surprise whatsoever to anyone in the computing space would be genuinely surprising. As soon as he left AMD, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion he was going to Intel.

They're going to need more firepower than what they've assembled if they want to compete with teams green and red. While another competitor o ly adds intrigue and potentially drives development going forward, they're going to need some luck to go along with what they've assembled thus far.

 

[milkod2001]

AMD had pathetic marketing, comes us surprise it had any. This guy leaving AMD is actually huge win for AMD and loss for Intel.

 

[Plumboby]

Intel are up to there old tricks again buying AMD employees to strangle AMD as finally AMD next Gen Ryzen chips have forced Intel to buy all the decent eggineers off AMD to get there node size down to beat AMD but can only get a 10nm yet Ryzen will be7nm by end of year & I suspect when Nvidia release there next gen cards AMD will probly test the 7nm in the Vegas at lease before maybe Navi next year but you never know, if AMD has there process right with testing I suspect to see 7nm in AMD at least. I am going with Ryzen with my next build I like the core value. OC doesn't bother me but the multi thread workloads is where I rather it, the more cores & threads I can get for better values out of a chips that have given Intel a scare. I am a Intel user but going AMD switch Minimum R2600 at least for 6/12 value where simular $ just for an i5 6/6 the R2600 got bang for buck with added support & carries same AM4 socket with all APUs being released. It be intresting to see Intels try the GPU segment with the way Nvidia & AMD with the next gen could be a game breaker or complete tax write off for Intel. AMD has gained alot of traction on the Market & the releases AMD are releasing are scaring Intel & if AMD can get the 7nm being close or to by end of year early next Intels 10nm aint going to cut it why the using Vega with there Laptop cpus. Hmm funny that & funny that they been poaching staff from AMD. I actually hope Intel fails & AMD gets that jump they need the old top dogs needs the Bulldog of AMD nipping at there heals.

 

[vinay2070]

AMD purchased the Entire ATI to get into the graphics business. Intel purchased just 2 members

 

[joe.birish]

This can also help if they want to eventually become a choice in the console market.

 

[joe.birish]

Also this may help with improvements to their other chipsets outside the cpu, one of the areas I think AMD still needs to put more work into.

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

There seems to be this idea that Intel has to reinvent the wheel to get into selling gaming GPUs, but I don't think that is the case. Intel already has driver support, contacts with game developers, and other huge points to "break into" the gaming market. It is arguable that Intel is the largest graphics company in the world since every Intel desktop CPU nowadays has on chip graphics. They really only need the silicone to compete with the likes of NVidia and AMD as everything else is pretty much in place... That being said, I'm not sure why they need a marketing guy for it.

 

[King_V]

AMD purchased the Entire ATI to get into the graphics business. Intel purchased just 2 members

Apples to oranges. AMD wasn't in the graphics business at all at the time, and, if I recall, ATI was struggling. (It's been years, so I don't know if AMD was essentially a life-preserver for ATI at the time or not)

That said, Intel *is* in the graphics business, though, apparently, their efforts have always been minimal, despite the various statements I seem to recall about them planning to be competitive in 3D.

I'm actually a little surprised, though, that Intel was able to take employees from AMD like that. I thought non-compete clauses were typical in employment contracts, but I'm not a lawyer.

 

[greenmachineiijh]

If anyone recalls, Intel tried once before all alone with the project "Larabee". Failed quickly.

 

[greenmachineiijh]

Anyone remember Larabee?

 

[PaulAlcorn]

AMD purchased the Entire ATI to get into the graphics business. Intel purchased just 2 members

Apples to oranges. AMD wasn't in the graphics business at all at the time, and, if I recall, ATI was struggling. (It's been years, so I don't know if AMD was essentially a life-preserver for ATI at the time or not)

That said, Intel *is* in the graphics business, though, apparently, their efforts have always been minimal, despite the various statements I seem to recall about them planning to be competitive in 3D.

I'm actually a little surprised, though, that Intel was able to take employees from AMD like that. I thought non-compete clauses were typical in employment contracts, but I'm not a lawyer.

Non-competes aren't enforced in California. They are void.

 

[10tacle]

^^California is the last state in our union I'd have thought would fail to enforce non-compete clauses.

Anyway, it's been interesting reading the various opinions on this. My first knee-jerk reaction was that Intel is going to steal more AMD secrets but I don't think that is the case. If anyone doesn't believe that Intel has bought AMD chips and reverse engineered them, I've got an i7 2600K Sandy Bridge chip to sell you for $850.

AMD's weak point, as someone mentioned above, is that their marketing department is terrible. Main stream consumers see "Intel Inside" ads everywhere in magazines and on TV. They do not understand the benefits of a Zen chip over Intel when it comes to an all around balanced system between gaming and productivity. They sure don't understand that a 3.8GHz Zen chip vs. a 4.2Hz Intel chip doesn't mean that the Intel chip is 400MHz faster in real world applications.

Let's also keep in mind AMD is now powering current and apparently next generation gaming consoles, so they are spread three ways between CPUs/APUs, GPUs, and consoles. Nvidia branched out to the portable gaming market but they are of course not making chipset motherboards anymore. With all that said, I'd like to see AMD get more involved again on the high end GPU market to directly compete with Nvidia's GTX 1080 Ti line. This IMO is a lost opportunity as 4K gaming and beyond is the future.

 

[SkyBill40]

...
AMD's weak point, as someone mentioned above, is that their marketing department is terrible. Main stream consumers see "Intel Inside" ads everywhere in magazines and on TV. They do not understand the benefits of a Zen chip over Intel when it comes to an all around balanced system between gaming and productivity. They sure don't understand that a 3.8GHz Zen chip vs. a 4.2Hz Intel chip doesn't mean that the Intel chip is 400MHz faster in real world applications.

Truth be told, I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've ever seen anything on TV regarding AMD and advertising. I'm 43 years old and have been in the enthusiast side of the computing camp for probably 30 years or so, too. That's remarkably telling, don't you think?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Seriously? Intel can't even get their 10nm CPU process off the ground aside from a few sample batches, while AMD is ramping towards 7nm production for both CPU and GPU processes, Nvidia is likely in a similar mode, and Intel is going to COMPETE in the gaming card market?

Not to mention they can't seem to create a seriously competitive iGPU which has led to the partnership for AMD graphics on some Intel skus, but they are going to delve into discreet graphics. Seems like a fastlane to tanking investor earnings and a sure way to go from bad boy to laughing stock. Perhaps not, but the fact that they have been stuck on 14nm for four years now doesn't bode well for other development processes.

 

[KidHorn]

I doubt this will succeed. There's a huge gap between Intel and AMD/Nvidia in graphics. Intel tried this a decade or so ago with Larrabee and it never got off the ground. I suspect this has more to do with having something to prop up the stock price. Maybe they'll try to improve on board graphics to compete with AMDs on board, but there's little chance they'll compete in discrete.

 

[teodoreh]

AMD is developing HBM2 and owns ATi's know-how, Intel is the company that payed $1b to NVidia for patents that had ZERO impact to their GPU line. Intel's list of defeats is crazy: They lost the mobile CPU war to ARM, the GPU war to NVidia/AMD, the Server war to Opteron (and the death of their non-x86 processor), the memory war with Rambus and even the ownership of the monopoly on desktop PCs thanks to AMD's x64 architecture. And this company is still making tons of money! What to say..

 

[Slesreth]

"AMD Earnings Soar on Exploding Ryzen Growth, Crypto Mining Craze"

Why does anyone actually think Intel is after a gaming enthusiasts dollar? Crypto Currency is a market that they currently have little share in. It is the AIBs that are getting bought out to expand ones Crypto generating capabilities, not CPUs, APUs, or integrated graphics.

Outperforming current AIBs in currency generation may be all their after. Being able to game as well as current AIBs is something that they may not even design for.

 

[Darkbreeze]

There is no future in crypto mining. Much as with almost everything else that has come along in the past, if people are making money off it and the government is not, then governments find ways to either tax it to death or outright outlaw it, sooner or later. We've already seen clear evidence of this happening in one form or another in several major countries, not least of which is India which is the second most populous country in the world, and there are already rumblings in China and the US.

I'd say the writing is on the wall, at least for the way it's been done so far. It's highly likely this will become something done only by those with millions to billions in their pockets already, leaving the market without a need for continued expansion or an extensive hardware need.