ATI Brand Discontinuing August 31, 2010

AMD has confirmed to several media outlets that it will no longer continue to use the ATI brand for its graphics processors, opting instead to continue with the AMD name for them.

Around the time of the shut down of 3DFX (at the time the primary graphics accelerator), many manufacturing companies that built hardware around their graphics api went down with them, leaving only Nvidia and ATI left in the graphics arena, who have been chief rivals ever since, and each had a dedicated fanbase devoted to their side.

AMD purchased ATI several years ago, and owns the company, so they can do this.  ATI’s chief (and by all accounts only) rival Nvidia is still independent.  No other company who produces graphics (including Intel) are even close technologically to the hardware either of these companies are producing.  In fact the stuff Intel made yesterday is pretty much on par with what Nvidia and ATI were making seven years ago.  There’s no comparison, and most modern PC games won’t play on your computer unless you’re using an Nvidia or ATI gpu.

To me this is the end of an era, but it has been coming ever since ATI’s purchase.  The ATI vs Nvidia wars were a staple of PC Gamers between 2000 and 2010 and likely will continue under the new name, but just will not be the same.