AMD: Graphics Cards And the Channel

AMD, the chip and card maker recently had a webcast emphasizing the importance of not neglecting that very unique specialized piece of hardware: your graphics card. Touting the performance and versatility of their ATI brand, they shared some knowledge on an otherwise unknown channel strategy.

Through a plethora of slides, the point was clear: ATI graphics cards will improve your overall computing experience on multiple levels. AMD really pushed Direct X 11 along with Windows 7 integration, but it wasn’t  all about pretty graphics and eye candy. The video card is also about productivity and performance.

First up, was ATI Stream Technology,  which basically makes Flash video look better and perform more efficiently. Stream Technology offloads a ton of computing power from the CPU and pushes it to the GPU. The result is actually faster performance and a slight sharping of video quality.

AMD also made some noise on the fact that their video cards can support up to 3 monitors on one chip simultaneously. (Run dual video cards and you can see how this could expand quite quickly exponentially.)  They also made a good point noting that buying three 24 inch monitors often costs less than buying one giant 30 inch monitor.

So, AMD wasn’t really focused on the VAR in the IT / IS sense, but they did talk a lot about system builders and laid out a strategy that AMD has been working on. It’s a four part strategy:

The webcast was short and sweet and nobody asked any questions. AMD didn’t really dig too much deeper about their channel and partner programs, but they hinted at incentives and other goodies for those who were working with them. Below is a picture of their tiered partner programs.

Their overall motto? AMD “Platforms to Products to Programs to Partner Profits.” Dubbed the “5 P’s”, they suggested that building your systems or company on AMD technology is a smart way to efficiently and quickly leverage all the tech in your system and all the software you throw at it. From motherboard to the money-flow, AMD wants to be there.

Anyone interested?