AMD announces 'VISION' guide to buying PCs
By Donald Melanson 
posted Sep 10th 2009 4:46PM
posted Sep 10th 2009 4:46PM
Well, Intel may have been on a bit of a processor rebranding kick as of late, but it looks like AMD is now trying to one-up 'em in fairly big way with its new "VISION" branding strategy, which promises to do nothing short of change the way people buy PCs -- or so AMD hopes. The short of it is that AMD is looking to take the focus off the processor and instead connect "the needs of the consumer to the PC," which, of course, calls for some new logos. As you can see above, new AMD-based PCs (starting with laptops and extending to desktops early next year) will be now branded primarily as either Vision, Vision Premium, or Vision Ultimate, with the processor and other specs apparently tucked away for folks that want to go looking for them. Not ones to keep things too simple, AMD will also later be introducing a Vision Black edition for "high-end, top of the line systems" which, ironically, are aimed mostly at folks primarily concerned with specs.
[Via Technologizer]
[Via Technologizer]
premium and ultimate? Sounds like the MS strategy with Vista!
This got thought up by a 6 figure salary (or a couple of them) that could have been better allocated developing better processors. AMD is gonna learn the same lesson US automakers learned. It's the product stupid!
Can't they just name them differently?!? They aren't microsoft!
It says: "AMD will also later be introducing a Vision Black edition for "high-end, top of the line systems" which, ironically, are aimed mostly at folks primarily concerned with specs."
Does that mean black people are primarily concerned with specs, or am I reading it wrong?
They've been calling their best processors black edition for a while now...
I call their best processors the "your mom" edition, because they are so nice and sweet.
Where's the VISION system for "Downloading and Watching Porn"
Vision would be for streaming it across the next
Premium Vision will let you watch it in HD
And Ultimate Vision will be perfect for you editing your collection so you can share your money shot reel..
Well thats not irratating at all is it.
/sarcasm
Wow I don't think you need a premium processor to Rip a CD to MP3. What a gyp this is obviously for the consumer that can't think for themselves...
Also, Premium only supports "graphics-rich online games", so solo games need not apply! But hey, at least it's good enough for WoW...
If the non-premium is only in netbooks, then yes... you would need a premium.
ugh, if you are buying a computer you should educate yourself enough to know what it is capable of.
Which doesn't apply to Apple consumers, obviously...
...because they only used Intel processor of course.
.
Interesting that nothing here mentions gamers. Oh wait, it's AMD? Who plays games with AMD chips anymore?
The ones that are about to buy the new DirectX 11 ATI Cypress...
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3635
it says games in the middle one?
I do... on a single core A64 3700+ with a 4670 , it's perfectly adequate. What's the issue with gaming on AMD? Enlighten me.
Yeah... cuz gaming cannot be done on AMD chips right? Better shell out for a Core i7 and GTX285 cuz a Phenom II and HD 4800 series cannot play the same games for less money. [/sarcasm]
I am well aware AMD may not have the beefiest chips around, but an AMD rig can save some money for people on a budget at the cost of being on the bleeding edge of the performance curve. My Phenom II X3 and Crossfire HD 4870's make short work out of any game I throw at it, including Crysis at highest possible settings with AA and all that crap at maximum (for no good reason cuz I don't really see a difference between 4X AA and 24X AA Edge Detect blah blah blah).
All I know is I have an all AMD rig, and I can play any game I want at highest settings. If a Core i7 will yield me a few more fps that I cannot see a visual difference in, what do I care? It's more about graphics muscle than cpu muscle anyway.
On a different note, I do shudder to think about any game that can max out the upcoming HD 5800 series, as it looks to be twice as powerful at a HD 4890. Crytek to the rescue!
I much rather just have the specs of all the options. Then I choose based upon my research!
Don't tell me what I need. The last thing I want is to be sold something.
It's nice to see a company helping the uneducated masses for a change.
I must say, had this all happened awhile ago my mom wouldn't have bought a Alienware computer to watch porn on. Did I say that out loud...
unless the basic one is slower than an atom, I don't know why they don't tell people it can rip a CD to mp3, use a webcam or convert videos. IMO this is a complete gip.
i bet your mom's name is michelle. eh?
Well, I think this is somewhat misleading. I don't know where my laptop's Turion RM-70-based, non-64-bit-Vista-running specs stand in light of these new categories, but I've been able to play MMOs, create and mix music, edit photos, rip CDs, and edit some HD video content all without problems..
And I could have done all of that with my old P4 2.4 ghz computer. And I could have podcasted with my older sempron machine. C'mon now. It's a good idea... just implement it correctly.
i got excited that somehow AMD and Kodak had teamed up to make some form of film/digital hybrid with Kodaks motion picture film having been called Vision (1,2,3) for the last 5 years or so...
A good thing, imho. Too many times the likes of my parents have gone out on their own, bought a reasonably powerful computer, only to find it absolutely crippled by integrated graphics (they often buy laptops, so are stuck with them)!
Non-Techy people get blown away by sales-pitch bluff about "gigs" and "cores" etc, which for the most part is fine, but when the likes of my dad actually start getting more proficient using the system and try to - shock horror - play a bloody game, they find it meets all the specs BUT graphics.
At least with this Specs-for-Dummies branding, you know from the outset your machine might be able to handle the occasional Sims session.
Sadly pretty much every computer made in the last year or two can do everything on this list except play the newest games. For trying to dumb this down for people who do now know, this is a disservice. Those that do some of the more computationally/memory/graphics intensive activities on this list already know they can do these things on an older machine, they just can do them faster on a higher spec'd machine...
I just checked all my usual computer retailers and found only one machine available with AMD, so... I'm thinking it's a good thing they bought ATi.
At least is way better than the Dual Core, Duo Core, Duo 2 Core and Centrino, Centrino Core 2 Dual.. also Quack! Core.
:-/
I demand 8 versions to go with the 8 versions of Windows 7!!!
I demand one model of car! No options! Just one!
Instead of marketing BS, they should concentrate on developing capable chips for the consumers since still, the only think they're capable of comparing is the amount of RAM and the CPU frequency.
And the looks, of course.
Actually, AMD needs as much marketing BS as they can get. Even if they have a comparable product, there are a lot more Intel produced. AMD needs to increase awareness of their brand. This can help, but they really need to get some ads on TV, in papers, magazines - just anywhere that more than the tech-saavy like ourselves can see it. If they want consumers to forget the GHz race they need to educate consumers because really, 0.1 or 0.2 GHz doesn't make much of a difference in performance.
I think if AMD was really serious about this they should decrease the models of processors offered for the platform. They don't need 8 or 10 processors, just one for every tier. Place it right in the middle at each tier and they should be fine. If they're concerned about GHz they should include a program or button that allows consumers to get a little boost. There's you extra GHz if it's THAT important.
And again, advertise!! You can't expect people to just walk into the store and ask for AMD if they don't know it exists.
Ummm the the Ghz race has been irrelevant for years since they got off the P4. AMD is being beaten to death by Intel in every category and now with the i5, they are now knocking on AMD's front door in the budget category: the ONLY thing AMD has left.
I personally feel nothing for AMD. They saw the writing on the wall. They new that Intel was working on an integrated memory controller: the only thing that kept them in the lead for years. And yet they did nothing other then sit on their asses.
Reap the whirlwind AMD. Reap it good.
@John Doe
Well I know that it's meaningless, but AMD obviously doesn't really believe it. Instead of some half-hearted rebranding they should go all out in their crusade.
Now if only they could supply a processor that would beat intel..
I know my vision. Its an Intel Core i7 Mobile in a 17" laptop. My vision has nothing to do with AMD, in their current form, other then maybe a GPU.
How's this for some Vision? BUY A MAC AND ABANDON THE MICROCRAP STRATEGY ALTOGETHER! WAKE UP FOLKS! WINDOWS IS GARBAGE COMPUTING!
You seem pretty blind to me.
I just love it when Mac people bash Windows without offering absolutely no good reason to do so.
Hoooold on.
Didn't AMD try this kind of marketing ploy the last time their processors couldn't compete with Intel?
Believe it was the AthlonXP/Sempron/Duron range. They couln't match Intel for speed so they labelled their CPUs with 'Intel equivelant speed' numbering like "2400+".
that was because an 800MHZ duron, knocked the socks off of a 1GHz (1000Mhz) Pentium 3. and a 2.0GHz AMD Opteron blew the BEJESUS out of a ~2.8GHz Pentium 4. And then intel paid millions so OEMs wouldn't put amd processors in their systems and let AMD have money, and now here we are. The end.
If this branding exercise is designed to help the consumer, I found the sub-captions to be more helpful. ie. Instead of Vision, Vision Premium and Vision Ultimate, name them Vision, Vision HD and Vision HD Edit. Unfortunately, those names aren't as sexy as the marketing speak of Premium and Ulitmate, however I find HD and HD Edit to be meaningful names as opposed to Premium and Ultimate.
Interesting. I always thought consumer PC CPU branding was a little bit haphazard. Maybe this will help to change that...or maybe this will just make things even more confusing.
Hmm, I don't know I just reminds me of the old "Multimedia PC" Levels 1-3 standard of long ago.