In the context of gaming hardware, AMD is right up there with NVIDIA and you really can’t have a discussion about processors without bringing it up alongside Intel. Change the context to the stock market, however and AMD is just another name… one that isn’t doing as well as the other companies mentioned here.
A story by Bloomberg’s Ian King reports that AMD has been forced to cut 710 jobs, or seven per cent of its workforce. This comes off the back off missed sales targets and a drop in revenue of 16 per cent between this quarter and the last ($US1.6 billion to $US1.2 billion).
Occasionally we bring up the topic of PC versus mobile and while the former platform is by no means dead — or even remotely ill — it is facing some challenges against tablets and mobiles. Combined with the ever-present behemoth that is Intel, AMD is having to work hard to maintain a profitable position.
King makes it easy to understand the company’s proposition:
…Intel took in 94.7 percent of the revenue in the PC processor market in the second quarter, while AMD garnered 5.2 percent, according to market researcher IDC. Intel’s chips powered 84 percent of desktop units shipped and 88 percent of laptops. By all those measures, AMD lost ground to its larger rival.
AMD is also battling on two fronts, with its graphics business going up against the rampant NVIDIA. Technically, Intel is a competitor here too, but it helps a great deal when notebooks ship your hardware side-by-side with AMD and NVIDIA’s discrete options.
AMD to Cut 7% of Staff as Sales Forecast Falls Short [Bloomberg, via MCV]
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12 responses to “AMD Cuts Over 700 Jobs In The Face Of Declining Revenue”
Maybe they wouldn’t be tanking so hard if they would make something capable of taking on Intel in the processing power department, not just in SoC graphics power
They haven’t been truly competitive in the PC market for years now. They do power the consoles though so no danger for them going under or anything
Actually this statement isn’t true at all. Yes their CPU’s have been lackluster for years, but their GPU’s have always been up their competing against Nvidia’s. And this is from a Nvidia fanboi. I read benchmarks and articles all the time…. Yes the 900 series is now beating AMD’s 200 series… but that’s like comparing a PS4 with a PS3…. Next gen tech with last years model. Wait till the 300 series comes out and gives Nvidia a run for its money (Even the 290x actually holds up pretty well still against the 980.. especially at higher resolutions + Xfire vs SLI)
I should’ve stated in the CPU side of things. Yeah, so far as GPUs go they’re still right up there. AMD CPUs though haven’t been ahead of the curve (in gaming at least) probably since the FX-51. Since then starting with the core2 range Intel have been in front for performance, bang for buck, efficiency
its a punch for punch fight with nvidia of who owns the fastest gpu… tends to be who released last is fastest… Also most pc gamers don’t strap top price gcards into their pc, meaning price vs performance is king in 90% of cases.
With each generation both nvidia and amd are strongly worth considering, and if you automatically go with one over the other you’re a fool. (not you personally).
Nvidia does have special features like physx etc but amd has been hitting back hard with things like mantle, along with other great features like the hair simulation seen in tomb raider a amd game I might add.
cpu wise Intel kills on all fronts no competition there.
They lost something like 30% of their stock price earlier this week, was crazy seeing them drop into $2 territory.
Seems about right. In saying that apparently AMD CPUs fare better for 4k Gaming, so my next upgrade will likely be a AMD mobo/cpu setup. Since I run at 4k.
I think the biggest issue for AMD atm is heat, they need to start making their chips MUCH more power efficient without sacrificing performance.
i got a closed loop cooler on my 4.5ghz amd 8core and it stays under 60deg under load
My quad core i7 over clocked and under load barely reaches 50
If that’s the case your not overclocking it very well.
No I just have a good cooler and Intel cpus dont generate heat like amd ones
im still rocking a965 Black Edition CPU in my gaming rig along side a HIS HD5850. Anyone? anyone?
The fact that 710 jobs made up 7% of their workforce was an early warning sign in itself.