Athlon 64 Launch success?

[TiG]

Just considuring the relative hype over the pentium 4 c class chips and other releases recently the AMD 64 bit desktop chips seem well to be a little flat on publicity to me.

Regardless of how the perform whether it is good or bad, i'm simply not hearing enough about them to get excited.

Anyone else got the same or different views?.

I'd be interested to hear.

TiG

[Gubs]

In entirely general terms I don't think this is anything new. Joe Q Public is always hearing about how the extra few MHz on the latest Intel processor is going to make the internet go faster, but I don't think I've ever seen an AMD advert. Maybe I just haven't looked in the right places - I don't scour the web every day for hardware news (not when Hexus can do it for me ) - but now I'm thinking about it, I'm surprised that AMD chips sell as well as they do, given the sheer weight of advertising from Intel.

[TooNice]

AMD should hire Intel to advertise for them

What, think thats unrealistic?
..

Okay... Maybe it is. But here's something I saw in Taiwan 3 years back (approx - back when P4 were still on the Wil. Core and Mobile Athlons were only just announced).
I was in a computer fair, looking for AMD laptops.

I went all over the place, and could only see P3-Ms.
Then I saw a section where a bunch of people were wearing a shirt with the AMD logo on it. Bingo, lets have a look.

You can probably guess what happens next.. Upon inspection, the few laptops they were selling, were ALL Mobile P3's (obviously not made by them)
So I asked for a leaflet. My expression was tripled.
Of the the 8 or so models they had, 6 were based on the P4..

I just walked away... Confused, and wondered if the heat made me see things for the rest of the day lol..

[Anders]

Well I don’t know what the Pentium 4 c class chips are, so the advertising hasn’t reached me. (Could just be because I’m dumb ) Where as I have heard of the AMD 64 chips, although only through word of mouth, here on Hexus, and “Click Online” on BBC News 24. So my knowledge of the AMD 64s is no thanks to advertising.

I don’t think Intel pays for all the advertising it gets though. A lot of it is companies like Dell who show the Pentium logo during their adverts. AMD need to get a little annoying jingle like Intel have got. On second thought, please no. Joe public doesn’t generally buy processors, they buy whole computer.

[liquid-fix]

Intel may not pay for all, but they do pay for some. Other wise they just wouldnt get advertised, Also interesting to note the price is higher on their chips .
Amd's success lies in the majority with their price, its a lot lower then intels. However they still need to make a substantial profit to make their efforts worth while. Advertising on the ole box costs a hell of a lot. It's my guess that Amd dont want to have so many televised adverts for this reason.
Im no business Guru so this could all be rubbish, just a thought of mine though.
Another thing to consider. The majority of people that buy CPU's individually know a thing or two about computers in the first place and look around at options before buying they are not so easily swayed by an alien watching a snow boarding vid in his comfy space ship.
Nearly everyone on these forums woulda heard of the new 64 bit processors, you claim to not have heard it from advetising. Well seems like AMD have it sorted if you ask me
Fix

[Anders]

Yep exactly liquid-fix. I can’t see there being all that much point in AMD advertising their CPU’s on TV. However, they could do with getting computers using their processors advertised at bit more maybe. As I said before, Joe Public buys PCs not CPUs. I guess if AMD is making a lot of money all ready, it might be the case that the spending on advertising would be waste because it wouldn’t increase their profits by a greater amount than they spent.

[SilentDeath]

i agree liquid-fix, but i think i might have seen few amd ads in a pc magazine... so they are advertising, but it is more aimed towards there target market, unlike intel which advertises to everyone, which a lot of them will have no idea what a cpu is...

[unrealrocks]

There is very little AMD advertising although I think the idea is people who are cleaver enough to know what a CPU is are gonna be able to research and work out which ones best for there needs!

When the NDA was liften on the Athlon64s there we're a good lot of reviews (shame we didn't get ours up). Although after that it is a little flat although there another step up ... once the 64bit OSs start appearing I recon they'll start to shine!

[Lexeus]

Originally posted by |SilentDeath|
i agree liquid-fix, but i think i might have seen few amd ads in a pc magazine... so they are advertising, but it is more aimed towards there target market, unlike intel which advertises to everyone, which a lot of them will have no idea what a cpu is...

I agree, when most people talk about their CPU, they are talking about 'the big box which the screen is attached to'
AMD know who their target market are and they don't need to insult them with intel type advertising
NEW INTEL PENTIUM BEST PROCESSOR RUNNING AT AN AMAZING BILLION BIGGERHERTZ

[VladTheImpaler]

Intel will pay for your adverts if you insert their little jingle. If you are an IPI, you can get an advanced warranty replacement for any retail Intel product, no questions asked. And they pay for carriage both ways. No more buying hugely expensive spare parts to get that vital server up and running, only to have the 'repaired' and depreciating spare sat on the shelves when it is returned to you....

This is why I sell Xeons and not Opterons. If AMD want my business, they should offer me the same terms for support. This is why many computer companies sell Intel only at the higher end.

[Anders]

Sorry if it’s obvious, but what is an "IPI"?

[telfer12000]

I've nothing new to add about AMD - I'm a P4C man - but there's a good and well written six pages in this week's Micromart about the Athlon 64 which I am sure just about sums up the position which can be encapsulated thus... no big deal (32 bit v 64 bit v 128 bit (eventually) and does the public really care) which help explain why there's not the big advertising push.

[VladTheImpaler]

An IPI in an Intel approved supplier. If you have a computer company you can become an IPI. You get all of the above as well as a rebate for each CPU that you sell. You can get up to $25 for Xeons but more often than not about $4 for a P4. You also get assigned an individual at Intel to sort things for you if you have any problems. Being an IPI is free.

By the way, I am not an Intel fanboy or anything, I deal with the companies that treat me with respect. I don't even know AMD UK's phone number, and I am an AMD approved supplier! They need to make more of an effort to bring people like me around to selling their stuff.

[TooNice]

Well.. It'll get there. It'll probably start to pick up next year (with the release of the 64bit Windows).
Although it might take a bit longer we get all the drivers/applications ported to 64bit.

[Ravens Nest]

I wonder how long people with Creative lab sound cards will have to wait for new 64bit drivers?

I do think the Athlon64 is a success, as it's a new design and seems to be faster than any Pentium 4 equilvelent and when 64 bit games and applications appear then it will come into it's own.

But i'm steering clear until it's a bit more settled and a 64bit windows O\S appears..

So i suppose it all hangs on support for the CPU and then when that's abundant i will upgrade, but by then Intel may have something out (Who knows..)

[TooNice]

Nah, the question is, will it be DOS compatible