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AMD To Drop ATI Branding

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Broadwell
Original poster
The title may be a tad mis-leading 😉 but it appears that AMD is retiring ATI brandname
anandtech

For most of my computing days I've always preferred ATI over Nvidia. Its just that my use of Linux drove me back to nvidia thanks to ATIs poor linux support.
 
From day one I've always preferred ATI. Their drivers were a lot better back when I built my first custom build (I went with a ATI Radeon 9200 SE) and nowadays ATI performs better than nVidia without having a ridiculous power draw.

The only nvidia video card I've ever had was the 8600m GT that was in my MacBook Pro. Needless to say, I will avoid nvidia.
 
Fortunately, it's just the name that is going away.

I've used ATI products ever since the Rage Pro in my 266Mhz iMac. I've also used 3dfx and nVidia products (my PowerMac is still going strong with its flashed 6800GT).

It's easy to forget that ten years ago there were more than half a dozen dedicated GPU manufacturers out there - now only nVidia remains on its own. But ATI's products are still going strong, so that's great news for the consumer.
 
TSE said:
From day one I've always preferred ATI. Their drivers were a lot better back when I built my first custom build (I went with a ATI Radeon 9200 SE) and nowadays ATI performs better than nVidia without having a ridiculous power draw.

The only nvidia video card I've ever had was the 8600m GT that was in my MacBook Pro. Needless to say, I will avoid nvidia.
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Oh I dunno. Not everything is so great with ATI. ATI has never supported Linux very well, for example whereas Nvidia has provided quality drivers for many years now. ATI cards I had in the past for my PC often had graphic glitches that Nvidia cards did not have (e.g. Visual Pinball had glitches for years that only occurred on ATI cards). Performance-wise, they've played leap-frog for years. NVidia supports professional OpenGL features that ATI does not support (important to many Professionals). Apple should always offer options for both, IMO. It's never good to be stuck with one brand, but then I say the same thing about OSX hardware in general. I'd rather see more companies allowed to make it since if Apple decides they don't want to offer matte screens for notebooks, you're screwed.
 
Agreed. ATI isn't the best in every category. Linux support is the biggest area, but I never use Linux and never will.

I definitely think this was bound to happen.
 
MagnusVonMagnum said:
Apple should always offer options for both, IMO. It's never good to be stuck with one brand, but then I say the same thing about OSX hardware in general. I'd rather see more companies allowed to make it since if Apple decides they don't want to offer matte screens for notebooks, you're screwed.
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I wish we could see support for all the thousands of retail GPUs on the market, but there just isn't anywhere near enough driver development on the Apple versions of video cards.
 
AMD To Drop ATI Branding



AMD announced yesterday (via IDG News/Businessweek) that it will be dropping the ATI brand and will attach the AMD name to the Radeon, FirePro and Eyefinity offerings.

ATI's graphics products have long been used in Apple's Macintosh line, most recently with the 2010 Mac Pro and the Radeon HD 5870 Card. AMD acquired ATI in 2006, but has kept the ATI brand until now.

The company says the change in brand name won't affect any graphics product offerings or plans. The brand transition should be completed by the end of the year.

Article Link: AMD To Drop ATI Branding
 
MacRumors said:


AMD announced yesterday (via IDG News/Businessweek) that it will be dropping the ATI brand and will attach the AMD name to the Radeon, FirePro and Eyefinity offerings.

ATI's graphics products have long been used in Apple's Macintosh line, most recently with the 2010 Mac Pro and the Radeon HD 5870 Card. AMD acquired ATI in 2007, but has kept the ATI brand until now.

The company says the change in brand name won't affect any graphics product offerings or plans. The brand transition should be completed by the end of the year.

Article Link: AMD To Drop ATI Branding
Click to expand...

Typo in the article, AMD acquired ATI in 2006. To be precise, the merge happened on October 25, 2006.
 
I'm quite saddened to see the ATI name disappear, I've been an ATI fanboy for quite some time. And isn't it a bit confusing hearing that your intel mac has an AMD inside? 😱
 
MacRumors said:

The company says the change in brand name won't affect any graphics product offerings or plans. The brand transition should be completed by the end of the year.
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"AMD reports that the brand name should only affect the speed of the cards by about 10%, and promises to make up for that loss in the following generation of graphics products."
 
There's a graphics sticker for OEMs that just says "graphics" below the graphics brand instead of "AMD".

The idea is that they have this alternative for use on Intel CPU computers.
 
Been using ATI cards on and off since I bought an 8MB Xclaim (I think) card for my 6500, so I'm a little sad to see the classic name go, but this isn't much of a surprise.

While currently I'm preferring ATI, I've always switched back and forth depending on who was ahead in terms of software or hardware at any given time; I remember somewhere a couple of generations into the G4 era Nvidia had significantly better drivers, while at least on the Mac the opposite seems to be true now.

The only ATI product I've ever been (relatively) unhappy with was the 128 in my 1st gen G5, which had a ridiculously whiny fan, and failed twice (thank God, under warranty both times), and even that wasn't so bad.
 
nVidia

I always thought nVidia was the best for years, and now ATI seems to have made strides (or was nVidia never that great?). Isn't there a lawsuit between nVidia and Intel? I thought there is which is why Apple has been leaning towards ATI cards more recently.
 
bedifferent said:
I always thought nVidia was the best for years, and now ATI seems to have made strides (or was nVidia never that great?). Isn't there a lawsuit between nVidia and Intel? I thought there is which is why Apple has been leaning towards ATI cards more recently.
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Back 2002 ATI absolutely clobbered nVidia (And everyone else in the business) with the Radeon 9700 PRO. Quite possibly the best video card ever made in terms of its performance gains over the competition, reasonable price and longevity.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Back 2002 ATI absolutely clobbered nVidia (And everyone else in the business) with the Radeon 9700 PRO. Quite possibly the best video card ever made in terms of its performance gains over the competition, reasonable price and longevity.
Click to expand...

Built my first computer with a 9800 and a 2.8 GHz P4. Only problems I ever had over 4 years was a dead DVD drive and a power connector coming loose. Wish I could build another.
 
So does this mean that AMD Video Cards only work with AMD Computers?

(like in the beginnings of videogames when people thought Magnavox's Odyssey would only work with Magnavox TV's... 😉 )
 
Just my humble opinion, but I think this has the potential for consumer confusion. (maybe that's part of what they're goin' for?) and I have to wonder if it will really help the AMD name by bringing it out more, or if this move will just dilute AMD's offerings and kind of unintentionally hide the graphics products. I think AMD will just about need to pull a rabit out of their hat and release an amazing graphics card to help bring attention to "AMD graphics" since they are closing a well established name, both with geeks and with people that just have seen the ATI name on all kinds of things (like the Wii, Computers, etc...)
 
Says they're going to have a CPU with an integrated GPU. Sounds like Intel, except obviously ATI (or AMD or whatever) is obviously better at the whole graphics thing. Anybody else thinking this could wind up in a future Mac product? I know there have been the rumors for a while but AMD mobile CPUs are still kind of a lagging a little behind Intel.
 
arkmannj said:
Just my humble opinion, but I think this has the potential for consumer confusion. (maybe that's part of what they're goin' for?) and I have to wonder if it will really help the AMD name by bringing it out more, or if this move will just dilute AMD's offerings and kind of unintentionally hide the graphics products. I think AMD will just about need to pull a rabit out of their hat and release an amazing graphics card to help bring attention to "AMD graphics" since they are closing a well established name, both with geeks and with people that just have seen the ATI name on all kinds of things (like the Wii, Computers, etc...)
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AMD will be integrating the GPU into their CPUs next year with Fusion lineup. I think they dropped the ATI name to avoid the confusion as saying "AMD CPU, now with integrated ATI GPU" would sound quite...weird. Technically it's an ATI GPU as it's based on Evergreen GPU but seriously, having AMD here and ATI there would make it a huge mess.

And BTW, AMD released a press note about abandoning the ATI name over a year ago though the time line was not specified. Now that Fusion is coming, I think it's the main reason why AMD dropped it now
 
I'd rather they stick with ATI. It's not confusing at all. In fact, it's confusing as to why they think it's confusing. 😕 I'm so confused now. 😕
 
I don't think it will confuse people, because those who follow the video card industry will know what's going on, and those who don't won't know the difference. IMO.
 
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