AMD is finally reaping the profits of its $5.4 Billion ATI buyout with its lead over Nvidia in graphics sector and the eminent release of its Fusion chip which includes both CPU and GPU on the same chip. It seems however that Intel doesn’t intend to let its rival’s plans go undisturbed.
According to Bloomberg, Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini will demonstrate the company’s first product to include both CPU and GPU on a single chip next week at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.
Intel’s chip is codenamed “Sandy Bridge”. It will go into production next quarter and it will be the basis for Intel’s entire lineup. AMD’ Fusion is scheduled for launch early in 2011.
I think that this move is much more of a threat to Nvidia than it is to AMD. We don’t expect GPU+CPU solutions to replace discrete graphics cards in the near future. However, having both AMD and Intel offering GPU within the CPU chip will deter motherboard makers from adding integrated graphics chips to their boards, effectively kicking Nvidia off the low end graphics market (the largest sector of the market by numbers).
Right now AMD has a definite advantage over Intel on the GPU front, but Intel’s CPUs enjoy better performance per dollar.
