Softbank Sells Entire $3.6 Billion Nvidia Investment

[mischon123]

Huh, I could've sworn just a few months ago people were yelling about how AMD's stock was going to tank because they couldn't keep up with Nvidia's PC graphics cards....

I never said anything about AMD's stock, but I'm among those who thought AMD was in real trouble, with the launch of Nvidia's RTX cards.

What changed? Well, DXR performance is weak and support still hasn't really materialized. I think DLSS has yet to prove the game-changer they claimed. And the cards' prices haven't really dropped, even though production has had time to ramp and the GTX products they replaced are now pretty much sold out.

I will fully admit that Nvidia's new lead seems to have been illusory, and AMD now could have a small window where they could mount a credible threat. I still see Nvidia with an overall lead, but it looks like they overplayed their hand and it's cost them dearly. That said, in the long run, the new tech in their RTX cards could still turn out to look like a smart investment.

Pure luck played AMD up. Then again. AMD is lead by a brainy engineer. Nvidia just has frantical marketeers segmenting the shit out of 1 chip and ended up with a 1080 with RT...and I already got an 1080. The AMD VII is just a stopgap. The next gen might be more interesting.

 

[King_V]

Huh, I could've sworn just a few months ago people were yelling about how AMD's stock was going to tank because they couldn't keep up with Nvidia's PC graphics cards....

I never said anything about AMD's stock, but I'm among those who thought AMD was in real trouble, with the launch of Nvidia's RTX cards.

What changed? Well, DXR performance is weak and support still hasn't really materialized. I think DLSS has yet to prove the game-changer they claimed. And the cards' prices haven't really dropped, even though production has had time to ramp and the GTX products they replaced are now pretty much sold out.

I will fully admit that Nvidia's new lead seems to have been illusory, and AMD now could have a small window where they could mount a credible threat. I still see Nvidia with an overall lead, but it looks like they overplayed their hand and it's cost them dearly. That said, in the long run, the new tech in their RTX cards could still turn out to look like a smart investment.

But, for the record, I'll admit to believing the hype, and I'll own my misjudgement. IMO, what makes this saga fun to watch is you never quite know for sure how it's going to turn out.

P.S. another thing I wouldn't have guessed is Nvidia's support for FreeSync coming at this time. I figured it'd take a period of comparable weakness for them, but I thought that wouldn't be until AMD had a stronger contender in the market. Did they get spooked by rumors of Radeon VII, similar to how rumors of Vega 64 seem to have caused them to launch the GTX 1080 Ti with more aggressive pricing than people expected? Or were they just desperate to improve the appeal of their products, in hopes of eking out a little more sales volume to help them through the current slump?

I'll agree on a lot of that - particularly, I think they got spooked, and figured that more people might've been considering the additional cost of GSync.

But the comments I recall was referring to AMD's stock prices - and, from what I recall, looked a lotlike fanboyism in the statements made, or, some single-minded focus on only the top end video cards.... neglecting the fact that 1920x1080 is still where the bulk of gamers are playing, neglecting AMD being in consoles, and neglecting the entire Ryzen side of things.

I swear, it really seemed like some people had the view that of AMD couldn't match Nvidia's top video card, that somehow proved they were not a viable business.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Huh, I could've sworn just a few months ago people were yelling about how AMD's stock was going to tank because they couldn't keep up with Nvidia's PC graphics cards....

I never said anything about AMD's stock, but I'm among those who thought AMD was in real trouble, with the launch of Nvidia's RTX cards.

What changed? Well, DXR performance is weak and support still hasn't really materialized. I think DLSS has yet to prove the game-changer they claimed. And the cards' prices haven't really dropped, even though production has had time to ramp and the GTX products they replaced are now pretty much sold out.

I will fully admit that Nvidia's new lead seems to have been illusory, and AMD now could have a small window where they could mount a credible threat. I still see Nvidia with an overall lead, but it looks like they overplayed their hand and it's cost them dearly. That said, in the long run, the new tech in their RTX cards could still turn out to look like a smart investment.

But, for the record, I'll admit to believing the hype, and I'll own my misjudgement. IMO, what makes this saga fun to watch is you never quite know for sure how it's going to turn out.

P.S. another thing I wouldn't have guessed is Nvidia's support for FreeSync coming at this time. I figured it'd take a period of comparable weakness for them, but I thought that wouldn't be until AMD had a stronger contender in the market. Did they get spooked by rumors of Radeon VII, similar to how rumors of Vega 64 seem to have caused them to launch the GTX 1080 Ti with more aggressive pricing than people expected? Or were they just desperate to improve the appeal of their products, in hopes of eking out a little more sales volume to help them through the current slump?

The one advantage they will have though is starting it. RTX and DXR is new but they already have a product and it does seem that performance can be increased with optimization and driver updates. This will allow them time to work with it more and give them a head start.

DLSS is the more interesting piece to me, although Ray Tracing is a nice feature to push, because it presents the possibility of AA minus the performance drops and little to no quality loss.

I am sure AMD will follow up and have their own method for each. After all they pushed Tesselation a lot harder than nVidia did originally and were, for a time, better at it.

Huh, I could've sworn just a few months ago people were yelling about how AMD's stock was going to tank because they couldn't keep up with Nvidia's PC graphics cards....

I never said anything about AMD's stock, but I'm among those who thought AMD was in real trouble, with the launch of Nvidia's RTX cards.

What changed? Well, DXR performance is weak and support still hasn't really materialized. I think DLSS has yet to prove the game-changer they claimed. And the cards' prices haven't really dropped, even though production has had time to ramp and the GTX products they replaced are now pretty much sold out.

I will fully admit that Nvidia's new lead seems to have been illusory, and AMD now could have a small window where they could mount a credible threat. I still see Nvidia with an overall lead, but it looks like they overplayed their hand and it's cost them dearly. That said, in the long run, the new tech in their RTX cards could still turn out to look like a smart investment.

Pure luck played AMD up. Then again. AMD is lead by a brainy engineer. Nvidia just has frantical marketeers segmenting the shit out of 1 chip and ended up with a 1080 with RT...and I already got an 1080. The AMD VII is just a stopgap. The next gen might be more interesting.

Sometimes you need something other than an Engineer at the helm. To be honest I have met a lot of Engineers. The majority of them would make bad CEOs.

I will say Lisa is doing well but those are very rare breeds that can do both sides well.

 

[bit_user]

I will fully admit that Nvidia's new lead seems to have been illusory, and AMD now could have a small window where they could mount a credible threat. I still see Nvidia with an overall lead, but it looks like they overplayed their hand and it's cost them dearly. That said, in the long run, the new tech in their RTX cards could still turn out to look like a smart investment.

The one advantage they will have though is starting it. RTX and DXR is new but they already have a product and it does seem that performance can be increased with optimization and driver updates. This will allow them time to work with it more and give them a head start.

Exactly my point. A couple generations hence, their ray tracing performance might approach the current rasterization performance, and hindsight might cast this first step in a decidedly favorable light.

DLSS is the more interesting piece to me, although Ray Tracing is a nice feature to push, because it presents the possibility of AA minus the performance drops and little to no quality loss.

I am sure AMD will follow up and have their own method for each.

This is tricky. I'm sure Nvidia patented DLSS rather heavily. So, AMD will need a very different angle on the problem. However, to stand even a chance, they'll first need an answer to Nvidia's tensor cores.

Sometimes you need something other than an Engineer at the helm. To be honest I have met a lot of Engineers. The majority of them would make bad CEOs.

Well, it's not like they just walk into the middle of an engineering cubicle farm, pluck one of them at random, and throw that person in the CEO's chair. No, to make it to the CEO's spot, an engineer will first have to move into management and show some aptitude in that role. Then, (I think) they need to be nominated by board member and voted on by the rest of the board. That takes some political savvy and is the fruit born only of much networking.

Though I'm biased, I would hazard a guess that the few engineers who make it to that level are disproportionately successful, as CEOs. As opposed to business school weenies, engineers have to undergo more rigorous schooling and master useful concepts around things like nonlinear system dynamics.