AMD is trading sideways this week after moving from $4 to $5.90 since the start of the month. The reason for the run up? Second quarter chip shipments rose, even in this slow economy. Both Intel and AMD have quad core processors out and both are pretty much the same in terms of performance. The real problems plaguing AMD stem from their acquisition of ATI.
Even more than the Intel/AMD debate is the disagreement between users of ATI and Nvidia products. Nvidia has long held the attention of gamers for their GeForce chipsets, a market ATI has had trouble competing with in the past. Those frustrations may soon be over however as AMD shifts their focus from competing in the gaming industry to the home entertainment business.
AMD is putting out HD cards now to tap into the growing business of home entertainment. Large Plasma and LCD monitors have come down in price to the point where most people find them affordable. I’m willing to bet that a lot of people spent their “economic stimulus” money this year on a new HD tv. AMD plans on taking advantage of this by having HD cards power these behemoths. Imagine playing World of Warcraft on a 60 inch plasma screen in crystal clear HD.
It’s a high-end market but one that is getting more attention these days, especially with the new digital broadcast mandate coming next year which will eliminate analog broadcast signals from the airwaves. This means televisions that currently use “rabbit ear” antennas will no longer receive signals unless owners upgrade their televisions or buy set top converters. Cable subscribers of course remain unaffected by this mandate. While those upgrading their televisions to HD ready may not be gamers, the allure of being able to watch movies stored on your PC in HD is there and this is the market AMD is hoping to get a foothold on.
The acquisition of ATI also created a divide in the gaming world when the decision to no longer support SLI in favor of using ATI’s Crossfire technology which is similar. SLI allows the use of two video cards simultaneously which speeds up graphics processes making games and video much smoother. Crossfire does the same thing but it’s native to ATI cards while SLI is native to Nvidia’s architecture.
There’s no doubt that AMD has ground to make up here. As far as the stock is concerned, resistance seems to be holding at $5.90. If it can crack $6 then it’s going to $7 quickly. Although earnings projections are negative for the year, investors feel there is an opportunity to profit and that’s the action we are seeing.
