NVIDIA shows signs ... [2008 - 2017]

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That's merely a facet of the issue. Pro customers also expect extensive support...think engineers on site/ready to fix whatever broke ASAP. They're also far more inclined to stick with what has been proven to solidly work time and again, and bad experiences linger for large stretches of time. ATI clubbered the strong FireGL brand post-aquisition, for whatever reason, and has had a number of mis-steps. For them to be competitive in pro they'd have to invest heavily in software and support, and that simply doesn't seem to be en vogue over there(or within AMD as a whole, if you will). Not to mention that given inertia, it'd take multiple cycles of investment and very good execution on all those fronts to get pro customers to switch.

Isnt the support (the physical one) usualy on the workstation resselers shoulders.(and they change in your card let it be Quadro or FireGL if the problem is there).
 
I wouldn't imply that at all, just that you overstate its importance and that ego issues seem to happen on both sides. Like in the case of Microsoft, not giving in to their attempts to renegotiate the chipset contract just because their Xbox sales happened to be disappointing is just business. Intel's hubris in not being satisfied with just CPUs but also wanting to dominate chipsets and graphics means there's not much to salvage there for the future either. If it's an ego thing to not roll over and play nice just to be allowed a niche in the established pecking order, then good for JHH.
Everyone has an ego, problem starts when one is egomaniac ;) Only few such people succeeded in business, Jobs, Gates and... cant think of anyone else at the moment. You can succeed much better if you allow common sense to rule, not ego. But I digress. Going back to Nvidia, all Intel wanted is some cash, or cross-licensing deal, i.e. Nvidia said Intel infringed some of its patents with Larrabee, its quite possible, therefore Intel would be all ears to make the deal, yet JHH tried to strong-arm freaking Intel and got burned in the process.

Few notes about your examples - yes Microsoft likes to screw partners as well, yet there are better ways to solve disagreements than to burn the bridges. For example AMD also got shafted by MS, but solved it silently behind the doors, and kept close co-operation over many technologies, therefore its highly probable MS will pick AMD again for the next gen Xbox, as well as give initial access to DirectX 12, etc. This way AMD can somewhat influence DX spec, win-win for both sides.

What concerns Intel, Nvidia chipsets were hardly harming Intels business, latter dont have better iGPUs anyway. Even if they sell few MB less, but it moves few more CPUs, which has higher profit margins anyway. IMO Intel would have preferred much more to get cross-licensing deal than to fight, but JHH is who he is, did some brilliant moves in the beginning, but last couple of years his decisions harms Nvidia more than helps.

Oh c'mon, 'nothing both sides couldn't overcome'? AMD has had to seek the assistance of regulators and courts over Intel's anticompetitive practices time and time again. They've brought numerous cases all over the world including in the US, Europe, Japan and Korea dating as far back as 1991, and usually they eventually either won, forced a settlement, or got paid off.
Thats exactly my point, even with so much legal fighting and products competition going-on, AMD has less "bad blood" with Intel than Nvidia.
 
What I fiind a bit telling is that it's only Quadros. If it were Teslas also (ok, that's Nvidia not PNY, but anyway), then i could be inclined to think it has something to do with upcoming heavy competition from the outside.

Kitguru didn't discuss all the details. This offer is limited at 1 piece per official reseller or distributor (= PartnerForce members). It's more like a "discover the new Quadros" offer.
 
That makes a lot more sense.

@Harison, I think you're quite mistaken if you think Jobs and Gates are the only examples of successful businessmen with an ego. Are those two even in the same category? In any case I don't know what you're using but by any reasonable measure Huang and nVidia have both been very successful as a CEO and a company.
 
Kitguru didn't discuss all the details. This offer is limited at 1 piece per official reseller or distributor (= PartnerForce members). It's more like a "discover the new Quadros" offer.

Ah, thanks. So it's not a prelude for a GF104-style GTX 580, i was seeing on the horizon, having large geometry but not quite large DP throughput. :)
 
Why doesn't AMD massively slash workstation card prices. Something like if we don't make much on it, we have to make sure Nvidia don't make much on it either type of move.
 
Prices aren't as important for workstations, the primary consideration is that your workstation app (which will cost a lot of money most likely) is supported on the card. No support = no sale.

ATI's OpenGL and workstation support is still far behind NV, although they are improving. But there were a lot of SW vendors that ATI disappointed and they have long memories. A lot of these things just take time (and good execution). Then performance, price, power, etc. start to matter.

David
 
Why doesn't AMD massively slash workstation card prices. Something like if we don't make much on it, we have to make sure Nvidia don't make much on it either type of move.

Interestingly enough a low price can in some cases impact your product image more negatively than a high price. Businesses and professionals will then start to question your level of support, driver developement, product quality, driver quality, commitment to that product segment, etc. all without even trying your product.

As well, lower prices will impact your ability to provide quality support. It's been a while since I did this as a job, but at Microsoft we used to charge 250 USD per support incident for professional and business level products unless you were covered with a service contract. Professional level support isn't cheap for either the company providing the product or the company using the product.

Hell even consumer level support isn't cheap. Support at MS was free during the early 90's but pressure to keep price low and constant forced them to start charging for support calls in the latter half of the 90's after X amount of calls.

Regards,
SB
 
Why doesn't AMD massively slash workstation card prices. Something like if we don't make much on it, we have to make sure Nvidia don't make much on it either type of move.

Because you don't cut off your nose to spite your face...unless you're truly special. And we should all hope ATI's times of being truly special are gone.
 
Every last workstation in my Air Force building has a Quadro in it. If we spec'd out one with a AMD board in it the engineers would rebel.
 
Hexus said:
Mercury Research has just released its “PC Graphics Market Share Update” report for Q3 2010 and for the second consecutive quarter, AMD is the market share leader in discrete graphics. AMD continues to make inroads in the notebook discrete market, capturing an additional 5.6 share points and hitting 61.9% share in notebook discrete graphics.

In other words, NVIDIA's share drops to 38.1%. That's not good.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=27229

Edit: all the numbers:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/..._on_Discrete_GPU_Market_Mercury_Research.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/...ers_Declined_Most_in_Q3_Mercury_Research.html

So NVIDIA is still doing fairly well on desktops, which is reassuring considering the poor notebook numbers. It's a bit odd, though, I know NVIDIA's chips are power-hungry but on the other hand they have Optimus, so why are they selling twice as many desktop GPUs as notebook ones?
 
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In other words, NVIDIA's share drops to 38.1%. That's not good.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=27229

Edit: all the numbers:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/..._on_Discrete_GPU_Market_Mercury_Research.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/...ers_Declined_Most_in_Q3_Mercury_Research.html

So NVIDIA is still doing fairly well on desktops, which is reassuring considering the poor notebook numbers. It's a bit odd, though, I know NVIDIA's chips are power-hungry but on the other hand they have Optimus, so why are they selling twice as many desktop GPUs as notebook ones?

Many an OEM was burned by Bumpgate. See http://www.nvidiasettlement.com for evidence of this. If I were running an OEM, I wouldn't even consider using NV chips in my notebooks.
 
Depends. Some of the decline obviously due to bumpgate but a bit of that has to be simply due to the lack of attractive notebook products until very recently.
 
Nvidia Q3 Results
Revenue $843.9m
Gross Margin 46.5%
Net Income $84.9m
Income 15c per share
Above is almost right on analyst expectations for the quarter. Did very well to keep gross margin so high. Comparing to 1 year perhaps some small issues with increased R&D expense compared to sales, increased accounts receivable and inventory.

Next quarter:
-- Revenue is expected to be up 3 to 5 percent from the third quarter.
-- GAAP gross margin is expected to be flat.
-- GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $300 million.
-- GAAP tax rate is expected to be 18 to 20 percent
 
CC seemed quite upbeat compared with recent quarters. Talked a lot about Tegra, said Tegra revs would crossover chipset revs in Q1. Also said GMs would rise in 2011, and GPU attachment rates for SB notebooks were not indicating any dip.
 
CC seemed quite upbeat compared with recent quarters. Talked a lot about Tegra, said Tegra revs would crossover chipset revs in Q1. Also said GMs would rise in 2011, and GPU attachment rates for SB notebooks were not indicating any dip.

I listened to that CC, it was pretty funny, JHH was spinning faster than a neutron star. Everything was "magical", "fantastic", "stunning", etc. Completely over-the-top, especially the iPad. I really wish corporate folks didn't use these words all the time, it makes them meaningless. He also banged pretty hard on the GTX 580 drum, and I guess that's understandable, but just one month away from Cayman… hmm, we'll see. And I admit I giggled when he said it was a "new generation". Or when he said the GTX 580 had almost 40% higher perf/W than the GTX 480. He also made some pretty bold statements about Fermi being unmatched in geometry throughput throughout next year, I'm not sure that was the careful thing to do.

Edit: Oh and I forgot that bit about "faster wins" with regard to the GTX 580. Something like "yeah it's all about speed in that market, not price, if you're going to spend $199+ on a graphics card, you're going to get the best possible card, it's not about price" even though:

1. $199? The GTX 580 costs $499!
2. NVIDIA itself has been pretty aggressive at the $199 price point, saying that value was as important here as anywhere.
3. RV770 launch anyone? Faster always wins, GT200 was fine at $649?

That was a really big WTF moment for me.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what turns up in Q1'2011 in tablets. NVIDIA has been promising the moon and them some with Tegra for the last few quarters, it's about time they delivered.

What I found to be really surprising was how optimistic he was about notebooks in 2011, saying he expected to gain back a lot of market share. I'm really not convinced they can pull this off, considering that AMD is just about to refresh their lineup and introduce something in the vein of Optimus. Maybe NVIDIA has something else up their sleeve, but since the mobile Fermis are so recent, I don't expect anything new until mid-2011 or so.
 
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Also said GMs would rise in 2011, and GPU attachment rates for SB notebooks were not indicating any dip.

In David White's notes
As a result, our GPU revenue was up 5.7 percent quarter-over-quarter and we gained some share in the desktop segment. While we lost share in a significantly reduced notebook segment, we believe the market is stabilizing and we expect to regain share with the new notebook product cycle late in the fourth quarter or early in the first quarter of our fiscal 2012.

Possibly the dip has happened already, and SB will just maintain the new level.

Also i guess customer preferences might be changing wanting more thin light and cheap products plus more developing market sales all pushing against the inclusion of an expensive gpu.

The notebooks sales are reputed to be generally low margin - losing them might push up overall GM effectively provided other things manage to stay at their current level.
 
This might be the last good quater for gpu sales. I'm sure bobcat and sandybridge (or whatever the portable name is) will start to take chunks out of the low end market there. Nvidia doesn't have anything to compete. I mean what do they put up against a 18w cpu/gpu that performs on par with the lower end igp's from them and amd ?
 
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