Originally Posted by directhex
are amd competing on anything other than price these days?
and is that a sustainable strategy?
Thought provoking comment - and that is a compliment, btw.
At the moment it seems their strategy doesn't seem "sustainable".
My guess is that the chips (both CPU and GPU) are "made" and ready to be shipped. So AMD's spent their money', with R&D, production, etc.
The tactic then is surely to make as much money back as possible.
So, typically, (i.e. in a competitive market,) you
price differentiate, where possible, so as to target as many market "niches" as possible.
However, when you're product simply "won't sell", the best strategy is to just get rid of it, and get some money from it. (Tesco/Sainsbury's do this late at night, when they sell things off for 10p instead of "chucking" them.)
My guess is that's what AMD are doing, to help finance R&D for a 2012 product (perhaps).
Within the next year or two, AMD will get going - they're too big a company to take it lying down
as it were.
(I'm sure an economist will read this and destroy what I've just written - I look forward to it...)
I've got Intel and nVidia in my system atm - I'm keenly interested in Intel's Nehalem and nVidia's 9600gt, but I'm not a fan boy - my "open mind" considers all options.