Intel: AMD is Still a "Serious Competitor" ... on Price

In a third interview with Nordic Hardware, Pat Bliemer, the Managing Director of Intel Northern Europe, discusses AMD's Llano, Integrated Graphics and how it can compete in the market.

Nordic Hardware asked Mr. Bliemer if AMD gaining in any segment thanks to the performance of Llano, which has been very successful for AMD. In his comments, Mr. Bliemer acknowledges (in a roundabout way) that AMD has the lead in the Llano & Brazos market segment. Intel still sees AMD as a serious competitor, but more in the price-to-performance arena versus pure performance power. This is interesting giving that AMD plans to shift its focus away from competing with long-time processor rival Intel starting in 2012.

"AMD is and will always be a serious competitor of ours. I do think that based on where we started this discussion, particularly on the manufacturing side and the lead that we have with architecture and manufacturing that it has been alot [sic] harder to them to compete effectively against us. So therefor [sic]most of it is price driven, so I would say if there's an area - we have to always continue to make sure we will remain competitive in the low end of notebooks right now, which is largely fueled by their Llano and Brazos products that actually go into that segment. So it's a pricing game but I think that from a performance and experience point of view it is not much for them right now to really pleased about I think. But they will always stay competitive."- Pat Bliemer, the Managing Director of Intel Northern Europe

Mr. Bliemer discussed the future of integrated graphics and how it can compete in today's market with discrete graphics solutions. Being a PC enthusiast and gamer, I find it hard to believe that integrated graphics solution has any value for the end-user. It is not until I take a step back and realize that I am not the majority but a very low minority in the grand theme of needs / usage. This is the battle Intel and AMD alike have to battle on how to convince consumers that integrated solutions are sufficient. With AMD's Llano and the changes coming to the integrated graphics on Ivy Bridge (HD 4000), we are seeing how the integrated graphics solution is capable of playing HD content, games or accelerating applications better than ever before.