Industry Update - Q2-2005: Chipset wars, AMD's growing market share and more...
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 13, 2005 4:34 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Chipsets
With ATI, Intel, NVIDIA, ULi, SiS and VIA all competing for market share, the chipset business is particularly interesting right now.The AMD Chipset Battle: NVIDIA vs. VIA
The battle for AMD platform market share continues to be between NVIDIA and VIA. VIA was largely responsible for the success of the very first AMD Athlon, as they were the only mainstream chipset provider for quite some time. However, since then NVIDIA has stepped up to be a very serious competitor. All of the manufacturers we have talked to have said that in the past year, NVIDIA has grown extremely quickly to take control over virtually all of the high end K8 chipset business.Despite NVIDIA's incredible growth, VIA is still found on quite a few AMD motherboards for three reasons in particular: 1) Socket-A, 2) Socket-754 and 3) K8 Integrated Graphics solutions.
The K7 market continues to be dominated by VIA, but as a dying market, it isn't one that we normally focus on. The Socket-754 and K8 Integrated Graphics solutions are also dominated by VIA however. The Socket-754 market is very price sensitive right now, which is where VIA wins over NVIDIA. Ironically enough, NVIDIA, the graphics manufacturer, does not have a K8 chipset shipping with integrated graphics and thus, gives up a large portion of K8 market share to VIA.
NVIDIA has been working on an integrated graphics solution for both the Intel and AMD markets: the C51 and C60 (AMD and Intel platforms respectively). Motherboard manufacturers have received these new chipsets with relatively mixed response. Both the C51 and C60 implement a much larger graphics core than the integrated S3 graphics that VIA offers in their chipsets.
The problem is that NVIDIA's cheapest integrated solution is still more expensive than VIA's offerings, which are currently priced at the $13 - $14 price point. The OEM markets will gladly pay the added premium to be able to use the NVIDIA name in their marketing, but the rest of the markets are simply looking for the cheapest overall solution, and NVIDIA's approach won't provide that. So, it appears that although NVIDIA will be eating a bit of VIA's lunch, they will still leave a big hunk of it for VIA.
If you're wondering why NVIDIA doesn't simply stick a small DX7 graphics core in their chipsets to compete with VIA, it comes down to profit margins. NVIDIA needs to keep their profit margins high, and by going after the ultra low end integrated graphics market, they cannot maintain high enough profit margins to justify spending so much time and resources producing cheap enough chipsets to compete with VIA. It would surely bring hard times to VIA, but with NVIDIA dominating the high end market, there's simply no economic reason to go after VIA's share of the AMD business.
Motherboard manufacturers that we've talked to all expect the high end AMD market to be dominated by NVIDIA and ATI based solutions, while the integrated graphics offerings will be dominated by VIA. Ironic, isn't it?
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ceefka - Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - link
Can somebody remind us why BTX was so much better than ATX?It doesn't look like Intel is throwing its weight about either. Having that strong partnership with Dell you wonder what's keeping them from flooding the world with BTX boards in BTX cases. My guess is Dell is holding back because their profits would suffer because of the high costs of implementation.
If I remember right BTX was also introduced to battle a few heatproblems. Now that Jamie Oliver cooks meals on a 3.0GHz Prescott, Intel is working on the problem at the source. Sorry about that, Jamie. Much better than throwing a new standard at it.
Gooberslot - Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - link
I hope BTX takes a long time to take off or better yet that it never does.tygrus - Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - link
31 - Posted on Jun 13, 2005 at 5:13 PM by Nayr"You can see DDR3 anytime you want. Just put any current Gen Mid-High end Graphics card in your computer...=P
As far as Desktop use...who knows.
"
As explained elsewhere.
GDDR2 not= DDR2.
GDDR3 not= DDR3.
The GDDR3 chips used by 3D graphics card manufactures is not the same as what might be used for desktop DDR3 modules. DDR3 will be by the same commitee as SDRAM, DDR and DDR2. GDDR from 1 to 3 were boutique/custom designs by mem makers with assistance from 3D graphic card manufactures and each design (GDDR, GDDR2, GDDR3) were by different people.
Quanticles - Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - link
I want my k8 to have pcie!Nayr - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
YOu can see DDR3 anytime you want. Just put any current Gen Mid-High end Graphics card in your computer...=PAs far as Desktop use...who knows.
Icehawk - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
So are we ever going to see DDR3? :(Aenslead - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
I say its a great win for AMD. I am glad that they are advancing as much as THAT in just a few months, and I hope that VIA nor SiS die over us... otherwise, that'd leave the market to nVidia only, and we know monopoly is NOT a good thing.However, OEMs love VIA chipsets. Heck, we integrators love them too. The warehouse where I buy stuff sells like mofo the Biostar U8668-D, and, as you can guess, its based on the ANCIENT PM400 Pro... but hey, its *cheap*; models for 800Mhz use P4M800 chipset; same goes for AMD K7 and K8 markets: the KM400 is the best selling chipset here in Mexico, suported by ECS/Pc-Chips, and K8M800 is having a real nice penetration in this market. I have not seen a single fellow integrator asking for an nVidia chipset.
As the article said: costs rule.-
Son of a N00b - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
great arcticle Anand! Keep up the awesome work!SilthDraeth - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
In Sov...Anyways, when I read the tidbit about AMD building on die graphics into a new K8 core, I got goosebumps all over my body. Let the fantasy commense:
I have visions of them also incorporating that PPU (physics processing unit, if I am not butchering the abreviation).
Imagine, 2008, which means from now till then, 3 years, at least before those first chips become available, which in my eyes means AMD is already working on said chips...
AMD Dual Core 65nm,
On die mem controller supporting DDR2,
On die gpu
On die ppu
All operating at full processor frequency.
I can't help but think, and I may be dreaming but AMD will put out kick ass graphics...
xsilver - Monday, June 13, 2005 - link
I dont care what the name of the chip isas long as the VIA socket 939 boards support dual core -- everybody will be happy
(except for the s754 owners... but they are probably using wishful thinking:P )