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Interview with ATI's soon-to-be CEO Dave Orton

Posted by michael on from the purty-pictures dept.

wolfgang writes "Tom's Hardware has published an interview with Dave Orton, who will become ATI's next CEO in June. Orton talks about the transformation of the company within the last three years, the current competition with Nvidia and what can be expected from graphic chipsets in the near future. Orton believes that ATI can grab more than 50 percent market share in the desktop market in the short term."

17 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. My money's on embedded devices by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Powering those little cable boxes and HDD recorders is where the money lies in the near to mid-term.

    The desktop is for all intents and purposes a locked up market. Get a deal with Intel to fry your chip onto the mobos and you're home free.

    But the embedded world is still the Wild West of technology.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    1. Re:My money's on embedded devices by TrueBuckeye · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would disagree that the desktop is locked up. Over the past 7 years I have bought 5 video cards, only 2 of them from the same company. 2 of the makers no longer exist at least in the market (Sierra and Voodoo) and I have gone back and forth over the past few years between Nvidia and ATI depending on who has the better product at the time.

      And as mentioned in the article, the desktop market is now decided in large part by who controls the high end segment, which is a constant battle between the two (although ATI has had the advantage for the past 12-18 months).

      It is far from decided yet. Remember Voodoo went from market leader to bankrupt in about a year and a half.

      --
      Was that night on the marge of Lake LaBarge I cremated Sam McGee...
    2. Re:My money's on embedded devices by TrueBuckeye · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, sorry...3dfx. Need more coffee.

      I attribute the top-dog buying to the hardware geeks (I include myself in this category somewhat).

      What I have seen, unsupported by anything but anecdotal evidence, is that a geek goes out and gets a top-notch video card, say the ATI 9800XT a month or so ago. For every geek who knows hardware in and out, there are probably 5 normal people who rely on geeks to suggest hardware to them. Whether it is due to brand loyalty or a desire to support hardware that they are familiar with, many geeks will then recommend if not the same card they have, then often the same brand. So the geek who has a 9800XT will often recommend a 9600 or some other ATI product.

      By pleasing the geeks with good hardware, support, and drivers, the manufacturer can sell many more products due to this effect. AMD saw the same thing when they released unlocked, powerful, and cheap cpu's 4 or 5 years ago while Intel was locking theirs down tighter and tighter. The geeks started supporting AMD more and more, so non-geeks began to buy non-Intel cpu's.

      --
      Was that night on the marge of Lake LaBarge I cremated Sam McGee...
  2. Well... by Bishop,+Martin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What they really need to do is release better Linux drivers, and care more about Linux support in general.

    --
    Setec Astronomy
    1. Re:Well... by Kenja · · Score: 4, Insightful
      "What they really need to do is release better Linux drivers, and care more about Linux support in general."

      Why? What's the benefit to them? Not a troll, just playing devils advocate.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    2. Re:Well... by kidlinux · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How about more sales, and a greater share of the market?

      It seems ATI has only recently begun to release Linux drivers (no they're not open source, but there's no reason everything has to be.) Whereas NVidia has been supporting Linux for much longer. Recently my ATI card toasted, and I can't get it covered under warantee so I'm looking for a fairly decent but inexpensive card - and this time I want it well supported under Linux. NVidia seems like the only choice for me, since only ATI's most recent line of products (ie: expensive products) are supported.

      Anyhow, the Linux marketshare is obviously expanding, and if ATI wants a piece of it, they'll have to do as the parent suggested - support it. It would be nice, because I prefer ATI products for their design, innovation, and the fact that they're Canadian.

      --
      -kidlinux.
    3. Re:Well... by Daemonik · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For one, the consumer electronics market is wide open.

      Most CE products are made in Japan, Korea and China, all countries with a healthy distrust of Microsoft.

      They just agreed to jointly develop Linux for their markets.

    4. Re:Well... by lspd · · Score: 4, Interesting

      NVidia seems like the only choice for me, since only ATI's most recent line of products (ie: expensive products) are supported.

      DRI covers virtually all of the ATI chips up to the 9200.
      FGLRX covers everything from the Radeon 8500 to 9800.

      The only remaining problem is that some commercial developers just assume Nvidia is the standard. DRI in particular has come a long way. I've been using a Radeon 8500 with Michael Daenzer's DRI packages for Debian with few problems. Out of 30 commercial Linux games I have, 3 don't work properly: Descent 3, Savage and Heavy Gear 2. Savage's problem is trivial to fix, the others I'm not sure about.

      I'd rather see ATI release the 3D specs on the R300 chips than see further improvements in the FGLRX driver.

  3. He'd better get busy by Neil+Blender · · Score: 5, Funny

    He should start now on that graphics card that longhorn will need.

  4. NVidia by gilgongo · · Score: 4, Funny

    As somebody who has just upgraded their RivaTNT 64 drivers to the latest version (all of about 5 mins before seeing this /. post) I don't think flattening NVidia is going to be much trouble...

    --
    "And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
  5. I agree by kneecarrot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ATI does look well poised to capture the majority of the desktop graphics card business. They have had excellent competitors since the 9700 and their newest generation gives superior performance to nVidia cards with less cooling and power requirements.

    --

    I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.

  6. Right. by AugstWest · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Orton believes that ATI can grab more than 50 percent market share in the desktop market in the short term.

    That's exactly the kind of BS that CEOs are paid to spew. Does he honestly believe they'll capture more than 50% of the market, or is that the line he's feeding to the board of directors to get the CEO position, which he'll lose when the board gets sick of the BS?

    One video card company cannot gain more than 50% of today's market. It's just not possible.

  7. What's the rush? by Fearless+Freep · · Score: 3, Funny

    Longhorn itself doesn't exactly seem to be in much of a hurry to get out the door

  8. Goodwill by wawannem · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Goodwill with the tech crowd will go a long way. There are some companies that play nice with our crowd and prosper from it... Apple for one has tried to deliver what we want and now they are doing better than they did 4 years ago.

    Although, I think we're both just feeding the troll.

  9. Exactly. by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why? What's the benefit to them?Yes, exactly. What I think will drive ATI to release better Linux drivers is seeing more *commercial* applications that run on Linux and require the cards that ATI makes. There is no point to ATI to invest lots of time / money in developing drivers for a non-existent market. Translation: Games, we need to see more *commercially* released GAMES for Linux.

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  10. Can't.....help....it....trying....to....resist by Neil+Blender · · Score: 3, Funny

    Longhorn will require a card that's at least ten times as powerful

    and 1000 times larger and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own one.

  11. Why my next Card will likely be a Retail ATI card. by guidryp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I generally shift like the wind when buying tech. The best bang for the buck in current reviews is what I look for. About 3 years ago I bought a Retail ATI 8500. Decent card but, in hindsight, my system crashed quite a bit more than it should have. People were point finger at my Antec 350W PS. Finally I started getting consistent crashes in a game I wanted to play (NWN). This lead me to an exhaustive diagnostic process that eventually proved my card was at fault. AT this point my Card was 2.5 years old. I sent it back to ATI. They replaced it with a 9700 Pro free of charge. Now that is what I call customer service. The kind of move that wins customer loyalty. That ATI warranty is worth a premium to me. I fully realize you are not often likely to get that kind of free upgrade, but a nice long warranty with fast replacement is much appreciated. I realize a lot of people here are complaining about past grief with ATI product, but they have made dramatic strides in the last 2 years. Now releasing drivers monthly. Performance, Image quality and reliability are all top notch. They lag in Open GL a bit, and moreso on Linux though. So I can see lots of folks here passing them by. One last point is I like buying my card from the company that also made the chip.