Farewell to ATI, AMD to Retire the ATI Brand Later this Year

[Tech Star]

Four years ago AMD did the unthinkable: it announced the 5.4 billion dollar acquisition of ATI in a combination of cash and stock. What followed was a handful of very difficult years for AMD, an upward swing for ATI and the eventual spinoff of AMD’s manufacturing facilities to GlobalFoundries in order to remain profitable and competitive.

In the years post acquisition, many criticized AMD for blowing a lot of money on ATI and having little to show for it. Even I felt that for $5.4 billion AMD could’ve put together its own competent graphics and chipset teams.

Despite the protest and sideline evaluations, good has come from the acquisition. The most noticeable is the fact that AMD’s chipset business is the strongest it has ever been. AMD branded chipsets and integrated graphics are actually very good. And later this year, AMD will ship its first Fusion APUs (single die CPU/GPU): Ontario using Bobcat cores and an AMD GPU. Ontario will be the first tangible example of direct AMD/ATI collaboration since the acquisition.

Just as we’re about to see results from the acquisition AMD is announcing that it will retire the ATI brand later this year. Save those boxes guys, soon you won’t see an ATI logo on any product sold in the market.

The motivation behind the decision to retire the ATI brand comes from AMD’s own internal research. Unfortunately AMD isn’t sharing the details of this research, just the three major findings from it:

1) AMD brand preference triples when the person surveyed is aware of the ATI-AMD merger.

2) The AMD brand is viewed as stronger than ATI when compared to graphics competitors (presumably NVIDIA).

3) The Radeon and Fire Pro brands themselves (without ATI being attached to them) are very high as is.

The second point is really the justification for all of this. If AMD’s internal research is to be believed, AMD vs. NVIDIA is better from a marketing standpoint than ATI vs. NVIDIA. Honestly, AMD’s research seems believable. AMD has always seemed like a stronger brand to me than ATI. There’s little room for ego in business (despite it being flexed all too often) and I don’t believe AMD would hurt its marketing simply to satisfy any AMD executives - the research makes sense.

Meanwhile the third point is the realization that there are very few product lines with the ATI brand left. ATI's chipset operations were quickly absorbed in to AMD and given appropriate naming, while ATI's consumer electronics products such as their Digital TV division have been sold to other companies. Radeon and FirePro are the only two ATI product lines left, and both are strong brands on their own.

Read the full article at Anandtech.com

Sad to see the brand ATi go. :/ My first cards were ATi's (9800 All-in-Wonder) before I switched to nVidia. :(

[Jeston Veteran]

Meh, I probably wouldn't have even noticed.

[Duffydemon]

it cant be true :no: :(

my First graphic card is ATi 4890 :(

[Denis W. Veteran]

Ah well, I'll always refer to AMD's Canadian offices as "ATI." Still sad though :/

[Rudy]

Makes sense....I was expecting them to do it sooner

[Rigby]

I'm surprised it took them this long, but it's a shame to see it go. I've had more ATI cards than any other.

ATI Rage Pro

NVIDIA Riva TNT2

3DFX Voodoo Banshee

ATI Rage 128

ATI Radeon

ATI Radeon 8500

ATI Radeon 9800

ATI Radeon X1600

Geforce 6800 Ultra

[+virtorio MVC]

Shows how observant I am, I thought (and have been calling) their graphic cards AMD <whatever model> since the acquisition.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

I've noticed the ATI branding disappearing from newer systems.

I'm pretty sure AMD's main focus is to have a 'solution' (unlike Intel) so they might as well just have it all under a single banner.

[Raa]

Farewell, fair ATI. It won't make it any better for you though!! :p

[Pupik]

Didn't used AMD when talking about/buying their GPUs after the purchase of ATI, and I don't see myself starting after they'll try to get rid of the name completely.

I just associate AMD to crappy CPUs, more than to good GPUs.

[BoneyardBrew Member]

This doesn't bother me at all. I was also expecting it to happen sooner, honestly.

My first ATI card was an HD 5850 that I bought a few months ago, so it won't be too hard to transition to calling it an AMD HD 5850 (alright, I admit that does look a little strange :laugh:).

[Reacon]

It makes sense. "ATi" still has a bad reputation by people who haven't looked at an ATi card twice since they had a small driver problem 3-6 years ago. And if you think I'm kidding, about half of the stubborn buyers I try to inform still think ATi is utter **** in its driver support and power, and that Nvidia isn't getting a run for its money at all.

The way a consumer thinks is that if the name changes, apparently it is much better (or at least a change from the past). People will take a second look at ATi cards because they are not, well... ATi.

But farewell indeed, old pal.

[bjoswald]

Adios, ATi!

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

sad, i much hate my nvidia products and wish i never switched to them actually didnt have a choice. ive had a few ati cards 7200 8500 9700pro 1600pro

[micro]

Ahh the good old days of ati..

I remember going from my ti 4600 to a 9800 pro, was some 40% faster, it was amazing.

Fast forward to today. New graphics card comes out and you get 10 fps better.. In fact, I havent even changed my graphics card in two years and i'm still playin games in 1080p on high with decent fps.

[FloatingFatMan]

Farewell, fair ATI. It won't make it any better for you though!! :p

Considering they've been giving Nvidia a kicking for the last couple of years, I don't think they need to worry too much about that.

[Vice]

It's just a name. As-long as the products stay competitive that is all I care about.

[McCordRm]

Ah well... I've always been happier with Nvidia card anyhow. <snicker>

[Argi]

Good luck to them - I'll always call them ATI and colour them red. :)

[HawkMan]

It makes sense. "ATi" still has a bad reputation by people who haven't looked at an ATi card twice since they had a small driver problem 3-6 years ago. And if you think I'm kidding, about half of the stubborn buyers I try to inform still think ATi is utter **** in its driver support and power, and that Nvidia isn't getting a run for its money at all.

The way a consumer thinks is that if the name changes, apparently it is much better (or at least a change from the past). People will take a second look at ATi cards because they are not, well... ATi.

But farewell indeed, old pal.

ATi drivers are still ****. and they do weird stupid stuff in them

I'm not sure I'll ever buy an ATi card again just based on their retarded default uderscan/overscan setting, which to top it off is hidden in an almost impossible to find place in the driver CP. and even when you find it, when you launch a game at a different res or refresh, then it's back to the stupid underscan again... which is even more difficult to adjust since as soon as you jump out to the driver, it's back to windows settings. so you need to know exactly what the game runs on then, adjust windows to that THEN adjust it.

[Lee G. Veteran]

It's a logical thing to do, but it's still sad to see the ATI brand go. Farewell ATI.

[c3ntury]

I didn't see this coming :o

[Skyfrog]

[OAKside]

Ah, it's only a rebranding, and ATI will live on under the AMD name.

With just two major GPU manufacturers, I was a bit worried by the headline.

Long live NVIDIA vs ... AMD?!

[bigmehdi]

I prefered the ATI brand ... I've never bought any AMD cpu.