AMD Bulldozer - AMD Needs to Rethink Their Strategy or Else

If you are into PC gaming then you probably heard about AMD's much awaited Bulldozer platform. A platform years in the making which touted to be the one chip, the one platform that can outmatch Intel's dominance in the chip market. I was excited too and why not? I'm an avid supporter of AMD since the Athlon XP days and simply put, the chip market is on a stand-still and the market seriously needs a huge shake-up. Intel for example hasn't changed their platform in around 2 years and yet, they have the fastest chips around. If Bulldozer is a success then Intel would need to hasten Ivy Bridge. In my opinion, stagnancy is in part destroying PC gaming. Whereas a decade ago, PC gaming was always bleeding-edge in terms of graphics performance, it is at a point right now where games haven't evolved as fast as before. Better for my wallet but bad for our gaming pleasure.

Just this past week, the AMD FX-8150 was officially announced, released and reviewed by various PC enthusiasts sites. On paper, the thing is a beast. It's the world's first octa-core chip (yes, 8-cores in a single die!) But its performance real-world was a huge disappointment. The Bulldozer platform was supposed to "bulldoze" Intel's line-up into oblivion but that expectation was far from reality. The flagship model was performing on-par with Intel's midrange offering with a price tag a little bit higher.

Now it's pretty obvious what AMD's strategy is. If you cannot compete pound-per-pound then at least give more value to the consumer. An 8-core chip for $250? That's value right? But do regular consumers know what an 8-core chip is? I know a lot of people who don't even know what a multi-core CPU is or is capable off doing. For the regular consumers out there, a computer is just a box, not really composed of separate parts that need careful thinking when buying. As long as the PC works as expect then they won't mind what's inside. AMD should realize that regular consumers are not swayed by tech specs alone. Marketing is king and I bet my money that Intel is way ahead of them in terms of brand recognition and all. They really need to ramp up their brand identity soon.

Second, on the enthusiasts side, an 8-core chip is damn exciting but if you give enthusiasts a chip way below expectations then they would shut their doors in an instant. Worse, pricing it a little bit higher for the mere fact that it has more cores won't justify the slight difference. Performance matters over money for enthusiasts and I'm sure AMD knows that. For the previous generations, they did give processors that perform lower what Intel is offering but at least if you can "up-the-ante" by overclocking then things do get even somewhat. In the first place, few games or applications utilize more than 4-cores. AMD should concentrate on performance for now - not the number of cores they can insert in single silicon die.