On Mon, 04 Aug 2025 16:04:26 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

So good news if you own AMD stock: according to the latest Steam
hardware survey, AMD now has above 40% of the user market.*

Now, that might not sound like much -it's not even half!- and Intel undoubtedly is still the market leader... but it's a very impressive
showing from a company that had been lagging significantly behind just
a few years ago. These stats aren't the whole story of course -- the
Steam hardware survey is mostly a survey of gaming PCs--, so all those billions of Intel-powered office computers aren't included, and the
actual total percentage is probably even more tilted in favor of
Intel. But it's nonetheless promising news for AMD, which has chased a multi-tiered approach, chasing after not only low-powered mobile but
also high-end gaming consumers.

It's not quite as impressive on the GPU-side of things. There's some
definite improvement there too (17% of the market, up from 11% a few
months ago) but Nvidia still rules the roost there, and Intel's own
ARC gpus are a closer competitor to AMD, at least in marketshare.

Still, given how AMD is actively trying to satisfy gamer needs in both markets, it looks like this tactic is succeeding. Nvidia has more or
stopped caring about anybody except crypto- and AI-bros; the fact that
their chipsets still work with games seems almost incidental to them.
And Intel is just a mess; their CPUs are still powerful and
ubiquitous, but they're increasingly falling behind the technology
curve (at least with their CPUs. ARC isn't too bad).

I don't doubt that the rise of handheld PCs -- SteamDeck and its
various clones-- has helped AMD's numbers; they all use AMD chipsets,
and they're increasingly popular. Sony and Microsoft are also
considering using AMD chipsets in their next Playstation/XBox
iterations. All this will make publishers far more likely to
prioritize AMD compatibility... which in turn will only help further
AMD's rise.

Stuck on Intel/Nvidia like I am, I can't say I'm entirely thrilled
with this, of course, but I also recognize that the industry
desperately needs a shake-up. It needs the competition to make the
current leaders focus on developing products that people actually
want, and not just shitting out the next lame iteration of current-gen technology. I'd still be hesitant to get an AMD video-card, but my
next PC? Unless AMD does something almost criminally stupid, it will
most likely rock an AMD CPU.

[...]

--- --- --- --- ---
* reported here
https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/hardware-survey-july-2025

I love my AMD processor:

Model name: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X 32-Core Processor

...but I have an NVIDIA video card. Sometimes I've regretted that, but
things seem to be fairly stable nowadays.

--
-Scott System76 Thelio Mega v1.1 x86_64 NVIDIA RTX 3090Ti 24G
OS: Linux 6.16.0 D: Mint 22.1 DE: Xfce 4.18
NVIDIA: 575.64.05 Mem: 258G
"The road to success is always under construction."

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Big nope.

Trump is apparently slapping a 100% tariff on non US made (AMD=Taiwan
mostly) chips.

So it was probably kinda fucking stupid on AMD's part to chase
specific game optimizations to please benchmarks, meanwhile Intel
quietly released the Core Ultra which performs better in
*productivity* software. Short-term strategies like that never work
out.

Developers use *productivity* software like Visual Studio to CREATE
games. Which would you use if you were creating games? Re-train your
brain to imagine yourself higher on the food chain Spalls, as a
PRODUCER of games rather than a sheeple-for-the-peeple player of
games.

So most game developers have been buying Intel since the Core Ultra
series came out.

Seems unlikely that they will care how games run on lower cost chips
optimized for very specific game benchmarks (but lower performing in
real benchmarks) after the tariffs hit their mark.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Rin Stowleigh <[email protected]> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

Big nope.

Trump is apparently slapping a 100% tariff on non US made (AMD=Taiwan
mostly) chips.

So it was probably kinda fucking stupid on AMD's part to chase
specific game optimizations to please benchmarks, meanwhile Intel
quietly released the Core Ultra which performs better in
*productivity* software. Short-term strategies like that never work
out.

Developers use *productivity* software like Visual Studio to CREATE
games. Which would you use if you were creating games? Re-train your
brain to imagine yourself higher on the food chain Spalls, as a
PRODUCER of games rather than a sheeple-for-the-peeple player of
games.

And the Developer to gamer ratio is?

Selling 5,000 units to Devs vs selling 1,000,000 to gamers, which is it
again that helps your bottom line? Especially the Bleeding Edge Gamers
who will only buy your most expensive product of every generation.

So most game developers have been buying Intel since the Core Ultra
series came out.

Seems unlikely that they will care how games run on lower cost chips >optimized for very specific game benchmarks (but lower performing in
real benchmarks) after the tariffs hit their mark.

The Gamer Market only cares about game performance, not how well it does spreadsheets or whatnot.

Xocyll
--
I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of
a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably,
Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So
FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 04 Aug 2025 16:04:26 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Stuck on Intel/Nvidia like I am, I can't say I'm entirely thrilled
with this, of course, but I also recognize that the industry
desperately needs a shake-up. It needs the competition to make the
current leaders focus on developing products that people actually
want, and not just shitting out the next lame iteration of current-gen >technology. I'd still be hesitant to get an AMD video-card, but my
next PC? Unless AMD does something almost criminally stupid, it will
most likely rock an AMD CPU.

My latest build, Windows installed on April 1, 2025, is an AMD Ryzen 9
7900X. MSI X870 Gaming Plus Wifi mainboard. Went with an AIO liquid
cooler and 64GB of RAM, which is enough for anyone.

I've fallen in love with MSI's product.

The system has 12 cores split into two banks of 6 (each with their own L3 cache). Total of 24 logical cores. It runs between ~3Ghz and 5Ghz.

MAME compiles in about 15 minutes. Got it up to 88�C today doing that.
All 24 logical cores engaged at 110% (over 5Ghz).

No complaints. After the Intel 14th gen mess, I wouldn't consider buying
an Intel processor.

https://is.gd/MZkgyM

(Sorry, the original link was insane. Promise it's not a Rick roll.)

I got a Fractal Design North XL case, complete with walnut louvers on the front. I could have gone with the normal size, tbh, but my hands aren't
as steady as they used to be.

I'm very happy with the new system. The old one got connected to the
living room TV where I entertain my cats playing Stray.

--
Pope Zaghadka III

````````````````````````````````````````````````````|
Every man, woman, and child on this Earth |
is a genuine and authorized Pope. | `````````````````````````````````````````````````````

As Pope, you are entitled to the following privleges:

1. To invoke infallibility at any time, even
retroactively.

2. To completely rework the structure of the Erisian
church.

3. To baptise, bury, and marry (with the permission
of the deceased in the latter two cases)

4. To excommunicate yourself and others,
To de-excommunicate yourself and others,
To re-excommunicate yourself and others,
To de-re-excommunicate (no backsies) yourself and
others.

5. To perform all rites and functions deemed to be
improper to a Pope of Discordia.

Hail Eris!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)