SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
The data compiled by Jon Peddie Research (JPR) reveals a significant surge in global AIB [add-in board] volumes, up 47.9 percent year-on-year to 9.5 million units and up 9.4 percent quarter-over-quarter from 8.7 million.
Yet since Intel introduced its first dedicated AIB – or graphics card – via the Arc Alchemist microarchitecture in March 2022, the company has seemingly failed to capture meaningful market share from either Nvidia or AMD, at least according to JPR.
[...] When Intel first teased its Arc GPUs, there was a lot of buzz. Could Chipzilla translate its experience in processors to AIBs and perform as well in the dedicated graphics market as it has elsewhere?
On launch, the company talked a big game about disrupting the duopoly of Nvidia and AMD. Intel promised its products would be affordable and competitive, with options for gamers, creators, and enterprise users. Just over two years in, the reality hasn't lived up to the hype. Intel has suffered some technical setbacks, including driver instability and immaturity, which is a given for a new player in the market. The other stumbling block is performance related, although Intel has consistently released new driver updates looking to address this.
From here, Intel's movement into the AIB market seems to have been a dud, particularly considering the company's poor financial position and rivals expressing interest in acquiring assets. If Intel can't even dent a full percentile of AMD's market share, it seemingly doesn't stand a chance.
Unless Intel can recapture some of that earlier buzz with the upcoming Battlemage AIBs between now and the end of 2025, its goal of being a major player in dedicated graphics appears more likely to be a pipe dream.
Intel needs to focus on its pedigree in microprocessors rather than trying to enter a market locked down by Nvidia because the issues around its 14th and 13th gen Core series families haven't done its reputation any favors. Nvidia's dominance in the broader graphics market looks unlikely to change as we enter the age of AI, nor will its chokehold on the AIB industry, at least not any time soon.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday October 09, @05:51PM (2 children)
Firstly, Intel claims that the instability problems of their 13th and 14th gen CPUs are fixed [tomshardware.com]. I hope Intel is correct about this. And honest. They haven't always been honest. Very poor handling of the FDIV bug in the first Pentiums in the early 1990s. There used to be a website, faceintel.com, that was very critical of Intel's treatment of employees.
Intel survived all that quite handily. AMD beat Intel to the punch with a design for a 64bit x86 architecture, and Intel weathered that too. Just a few years after AMD64, it was AMD that was falling behind while Intel tick-tocked further and further ahead. AMD finally released Ryzen, catching up.
But now, to hear that Intel is struggling? What? I find this hard to believe. Yes, their early integrated graphics, such as the i845 stuff, were horrifically slow. They've gotten a lot better. I can't understand why Intel is so bad at graphics.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aafcac on Wednesday October 09, @09:17PM
I'm not sure that "weathering" is how I'd describe engaged in blatant antitrust violations so egregious that regulators actually stepped in. And then again a few years later when AMD had caught up again.
Intel exists mainly because they can pump out the chips fast enough to take up most of the demand. If they actually had to compete on merits without being able to commit antitrust violations, I'm not sure they'd still be in business. And with more and more computing being done on mobile devices that can't deal with any of Intel's offerings, I do wonder if they're going to still be in business in 20 years.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday October 10, @04:21AM
Over in yonder junk box I have one of those early AMD64 CPUs. It cannot run a 64bit OS, only x86. AMD had a similar problem back in the olden days, a 32 bit CPU that would only support a 16bit bus.
Just in case you wondered why a 32bit version of Vista shipped on HP's concurrent foray into AMD64 CPUs.....
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.