Intel is reportedly set to announce new mobile chips that use an AMD graphics component

Intel is reportedly set to announce a new mobile chips that uses an AMD graphics component

Intel is reportedly set to announce new mobile chips that AMD graphics

A report from the Wall Street Journal has stated that Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are set to combine their technologies to create a new mobile chip that will utilise an Intel CPU and an AMD GPU, with this product being designed to reduce Nvidia’s market share within the mobile market. 

For decades, AMD and Intel have been rivals in the CPU market, though today both companies see a common enemy in Nvidia, with AMD competing with them in the GPU market and Intel competing with them in the HPC (high performance compute) and emerging AI markets. 

This chip is reportedly designed as a mobile/laptop gaming chip, which is powerful enough to play “high-end videogames”, directly competing with Nvidia, who are currently dominant in the mobile discrete GPU market. 

An AMD spokesperson has reportedly stated that these chips are designed to service a higher-end market than AMD’s upcoming Ryzen Mobile CPUs, with the Wall Street Journal quoting the representative as saying “We’re playing in a complementary market,“, which means that both products will not act as direct competitors. The Wall Street Journal also says that “The AMD unit, which the company expects to ship by the end of the year, is capable of running games, but not specialized for that purpose”.

  Intel CPUs using AMD GPU hardware could launch in 2017

 

At this time only the Wall Street Journal has gone on record to say that this product officially existing, leaving this news as a mere rumour until it is officially verified by either Intel or AMD. 

To most people in the hardware world, this report should come as a massive shock, given how AMD and Intel have been huge competitors in the CPU market for decades and AMD’s recent release of their competitive Ryzen CPU architecture. This deal is almost like cats and dogs suddenly becoming friends or TTL developing a love for untidy “ketchup and mustard” coloured PSU cables.

While this deal does seem very unlikely it cannot be claimed that both companies cannot benefit here, with AMD gaining an opportunity to place their GPU technology on a wider range of products and giving Intel the ability to create integrated graphics solutions cheaply and without expensive research and development.

Right now there is no real evidence to suggest that this report correct, though in a strange way this kind of collaboration does make a lot of sense for both companies, especially when it comes to combating the juggernaut that is Nvidia.  

You can join the discussion on Intel and AMD’s reported collaboration on the OC3D Forums.