AMD the Likely Winner in Intel’s UltraBook Game

After HP’s marathon product launch of the last week we were left with some interesting data to analyze. As HP’s SleekBooks manifest mostly the same battery life and thickness, Intel’s UltraBook don’t seem so appealing anymore.

As much as we like Intel’s new development direction, it seems that most of the goals the Israeli-American company is setting are much easier to reach for AMD. There seems indeed to be a change in the way of doing business at Intel and, like we’ve said: 

“it may seem like Intel has become a forward-looking, trend driving, consumer enthusiast company like Apple is.”

They’re asking for SSDs, thinner notebooks, longer battery life, lower prices and higher resolutions. But on every such challenge, their own company seems to be on the loosing side. The best SSDs are now developed by OCZ and Marvell, an the best results are achieved by OCZ, Crucial, Plextor and Corsair using Marvell’s controllers.

Historically, Intel has ruled over 80% of the compound PC market; maybe less in the desktop side, but much more in the mobile and server segments. To ask notebook manufacturers to use SSDs in their products is like encouraging companies to buy products and give money to companies like OCZ and Marvell that are direct competitors to Intel’s own SSDs. Sure Intel will offer bundles with its own CPUs, chipsets and SSDs, but not all the notebook makers will go for those. Some might just want better performance for their products or will be able to get a better deal from OCZ or some other company.

Thinner notebooks are those notebooks that are able to provide enough performance without requiring a complex and bulky cooling system. Nvidia was the company that taught us that you get more design wins if you’re able to produce an efficient GPU that doesn’t require bulky cooling and kept the weight, thickness and cost low.

Well, AMD’s Trinity is able to offer 3D performance comparable or better than Nvidia’s GT620. An Intel UltraBook with Ivy Bridge will most certainly be heavier and thicker than an AMD powered Ultrathin as Intel needs Nvidia’s GT620 to compete with AMD in the 3D arena. When battery life is concerned, HP lists the same amount of battery life on their SleekBooks when compared with the company’s UltraBooks. 

Even if Ivy Bridge is winning on the CPU side, it is hopelessly loosing on the graphics side and this imbalance is very obvious in the eyes of the user that won’t be able to even open some games or decently play others. You’ll live if archiving your files will take 11 minutes instead of 8, but you might not be able to stand the fact your favorite game is unplayable on your new UltraBook.

AMD already proved that graphics matter a lot in the desktop market. Why would Intel believe otherwise about the mobile users? Bottom line, the combination between an Intel Ivy Bridge processor and a low GPU from Nvidia will never be able to achieve better battery life than AMD’s Trinity.

On low prices, AMD is the de facto winner and this is again proved by HP’s recent product launches and when UHD high resolution screens come into play, who do you think will be better equipped to run them? 

We dare to believe AMD’s graphics will also be superior to Intel’s Haswell. Surprisingly, Intel, although the company that’s setting the rules and the one having enough money to enforce them, is actually tailoring the rules for AMD’s strong points. When asked by Dailytech, 35% of their tech savvy users said they prefer an AMD Ultrathin over Intel’s UtraBook, but most importantly, 83% of the pool participants said they want nothing to do with Intel’s Ultrabooks.

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