As for competing with Intel, if you look where Intel is going in terms of GPU investment and the selection of an APU by Sony [for the Playstation 4], all that reflects the fact that heterogeneous system architectures [google it, folks] are the future.
RPS interview with some AMD dude.
It is the future and always has been. It’s probably the most consistent trend in home computers that for some reason, no journalist is paying attention to (except RPS).
The heterogeneous system took the fuck over every single homogeneous system in the past thirty years.
How many soldiers down? C64, Atari ST, Amiga, consoles… I can play, emulate all of them on my inexpensive Windows laptop and when I upgrade it, even more things will run from 1986 DOS RPG to the last AAA with few to no friction. Just ten years ago, Windows as a dev platform was crazy complicated. At that time laptops barely did any 3D now a 500$ one can do Crysis in 1080p. Hardware is still not homogenous but it is powerful enough so that even the least powerful can deal with games that need big teams to be made. That’s a big shift.
Of course heterogeneous wins. It brings choice and freedom. If you look at the game market on Windows, it’s thriving and the humble store will make even more viable. So many things, so many different games, just subscribe to RPS and Freeindiegam.es and witness this great, unique diversity. Even Metal Gear Solid is coming to Windows! Absolutely unthinkable ten years ago. That’s a big shift.
People are not stupid, they know they kind of get fucked with a small Ouya, it’s just that the price is not so bad so why not? That’s not a good sale argument though. And they know that to do media center stuff, consoles are definitely not easier (this video file doesn’t work on my ps3 why?).
Developers whine in heterogeneous environments but closed systems are far from perfect either and barely make sense financially for manufacturers now that we’re talking in billions of transistors. The risk is ridiculous.
So bring it on AMD, embrace diversity and put those good APUs you have in all tablets and computers of all sizes and all brands. That’d be sweet as hell.