14 DAY TRIAL // Even if it doesn’t have the most powerful x86 computing architecture, AMD seems to be the top choice when it comes to gaming and especially game consoles. The company has just announced that its processors are now powering the new Nintendo game console.
It’s no wonder that AMD’s GPU is inside the new Wii U as the two companies have collaborated for almost a decade on Nintendo’s hardware projects.
The interesting bit is the fact that most reports say that AMD is the main choice for SONY and also for Microsoft and, most importantly, their CPUs are supposed to be in the design plan as well.
Back when AMD’s Athlon, Athlon64 and Athlon X2 dominated the performance PC market for 7 years in a row, Intel used its huge marketing funds to steer buyers away from the Texas-based chip maker and managed to keep its 80% market share through various and less honorable methods.
Despite Intel’s Pentium 3 being net inferior to AMD’s Athlon series, Microsoft went to Intel for their first Xbox console.
Now it will be quite ironical if AMD is chosen by the top console makers although it has been trailing Intel in performance for quite a while.
On the GPU side of things, the fabless CPU and GPU designer is clearly the best choice at the moment.
It will be interesting to see how things will develop and many PC games have been Nvidia-optimized especially because it is an Nvidia GPU that's powering the SONY PlayStation 3 console.
When SONY decides on the GPU for its next-generation console, if that chip will be designed by AMD, you can be sure that the number of Nvidia-optimized games on the market will shrink and the number of AMD / GCN-optimized games will rise.
