Rick Bergman, AMD Senior vice president in charge of the graphics group got cocky. He is not afraid to call out Intel and he pulled out trademarked Jen Hsun Huang move known as “Intel rant."
He told his investors that Intel’s "good enough graphics" strategy is not going to fly. Bergman believes that people want the best and he compared Intel’s good enough graphics with a man looking for a good enough lady. He implied that most people won’t dare and tell their better half „honey you are good enough“. At least seven people who report to Bergman though that this is funny.
In the real world most of people only use Facebook, Office applications, media player and browser and for all these application graphics are not crucial. Casual gamers are playing Farmville or other titles that require a S3 Virge 4MB graphics card, the best of 1996, while people who play Call of Duty and other proper games won’t go for anything integrated, as they need better graphics.
Ontario dual-core and Zacate, single core Fusion APUs should provide just enough computing power for entry level users, but AMD will have hard time convincing people to go for its solution as Intel's lowest end Celeron offers enough computing power for people who are playing with Twitter, Facebook and browser, they can even watch HD movies, all on Intel integrated graphics.
Both Zacate and Ontario will have much better graphics than Sandy Bridge, but remember there will be quite inexpensive parts based on Sandy Bridge, and Sandy Bridge graphics should be good enough for most end users. By the time AMD ships Llano in volume, Intel will be at dawn of launching Ivy Bridge, a Fusion CPU that has two times better graphics core than Sandy Bridge. It will be tough for AMD to score a huge marketshare win.