“This time they’ve executed”
Talking to AMD/ATI’s key channel partners at the launch event for the new ATI Radeon HD 4800-series, and even allowing for their vested interest in the success of any AMD GPU launch, there was no escaping the sense of eager anticipation and confidence. Something which we feel had been somewhat lacking during the recent previous AMD/ATI product launches.
A lot of this may be down to their expectation of a superior HEXUS.bang4buck when compared with NVIDIA equivalents, but we will reserve judgement on that until our colleagues at HEXUS.net finish their assessments. However, what appears to be almost unique in the history of AMD/ATI GPU launches is the immediate availability of product.
We had a chance to speak to Steve Morgan, the sales director of AMD/ATI’s premier board partner Sapphire, in Malaga yesterday to find out what the channel thinks about the launch. “This time they’ve executed. Let’s see how it goes but I think this will be the best launch ATI has had,” he said. “Everybody’s buzzing about this launch.”
Of course a truly ‘hard’ launch, i.e. one where there is full availability on day one, means that there has to be product in the channel well in advance of the big day. As we saw yesterday this opens up the risk of some retailers jumping the gun, but it may turn out to have been a risk worth taking.
Morgan appears to be a fan of the strategy of producing a mid-range rather than top-end part. “Due to the overall economic climate a $600 card won’t sell as well as it would have a year ago,” he said. “The whole point of the 4870 is that it’s scalable. They’ve done it right.”
Asked what obstacles he thinks might stand in the path of success for the 4800-series, Morgan said: “Some people might question the importance of DirectX 10.1, but at the very least it future-proofs the card and comes at no extra cost.”
Perhaps of greater significance, Morgan added: “AMD is putting loads more money into ISVs than it did a couple of years ago.”
HEXUS.channel would like to hear from any of the channel about this exciting phase of GPU launches and how the market is responding to it.
