AMD’s CPU department is having a rough time as of late, but the AMD graphics department is doing a great job to hold AMD afloat and Bob Feldstein was a very important part of this graphics led survival for AMD. So it is rather sad news for AMD that Feldstein has departed to start working for their main rivals Nvidia. He makes a competent candidate for the new job after having significant experience and impact at AMD.
Bob Feldstein was the man that managed to get AMD contracts to be inside the next generation of 3 major gaming consoles – having signed a deal to feature in the next Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo consoles. Feldstein secured a staggering amount of much needed business for AMD.
Out of the three next generation consoles, AMD GPUs will feature in all 3 and one will feature an AMD CPU too. Not a bad turnout for the books considering previous generation consoles have been split between AMD(ATi) and Nvidia with regards to the GPU, whilst the CPU has always been a mixture between IBM, Intel, AMD and others.
This move could be devastating for AMD, given the reason AMD secured most of this business wasn’t because of superior hardware but because of a more friendly and competent business package that they offered over Nvidia. As many have pointed out (including us!), working with Nvidia isn’t always the most pleasant experience. With Feldstein now at the green camp, a repaired reputation for Nvidia could lead to Nvidia taking back some of the console contracts for the “next-next-generation” consoles which would only hit a very weak AMD even more.
who’s the winner? 😀