Like a lot of other avid PC gamers, I’ve always had a soft spot for AMD. Sure their new CPU’s didn’t quite live up to all the hype (still worth the loot though), but over the years more than a few AMD CPU’s have found their way into my towers. When money is an issue, your not shooting yourself in the foot going with an AMD CPU over an Intel one.
Find out what AMD plans to do for PC gaming after the jump!
With the PC gaming world holding its own, but hardly breaking sales charts these past few years, AMD has come up with a new campaign which will make buying an up to date gaming rig easier at the same time as winning back some of the PC gaming street cred they have lost to Intel lately.
AMD’s Game campaign will put a badge on gaming rig’s and set minimum standards for the PC’s that carry one. The gist of it is that when consumers see the badge, they’ll know they can play current PC games on it, rather than buying some underpowered piece of junk. Integrated graphics processors suck, didn’t anyone get that memo?
The target group is mainstream PC gamers, not the hardcore minority. At the start the specs will only cover desktops, with laptop standards coming later on. Acer, Alienware, iBuypower, Velocity Micro, Microsoft and Logitech will all support the AMD Game campaign.
The PC Gaming Alliance estimates 263 million PC gamers worldwide, with almost $10 billion in PC game (software) revenue estimated for ‘08. That may not be console level sales, but it isn’t chump change either.
Now that AMD owns ATI (making owning one of those video cards actually worth it again), they are now the only supplier in the x86 market that offers quality CPU’s AND high end GPU’s. Hello AMD Phenom X4 9850 processor and Radeon HD 3870 X2 GPU, your both looking lovely (and affordable) this evening.
When it comes to the average Joe (or average Joanna), the distinction between IGP’s (Integrated Graphics Processors) and a true, separate GPU (graphics processing unit) is not very obvious. This trend can be really painful if your the unlucky kid who was looking forward to playing games on Dad’s new computer or if you bought a computer for gaming but failed to do any research.
Brent Berry, the product marketing manager for AMD said “Consumers are not getting a great gaming experience with IGP (Integrated Graphics Processors),” and “In North America, about 60 percent of consumers say they plan on using their PCs for video games,” followed by “But when you do a check on what people actually did on their PCs, you find out that 80 percent actually played games on their PCs.”
The standard AMD Game badge “user experience” target will be a rig with 1280×1024 (HD) resolution that can hit 30 frames per second. The AMD Game Ultra badge will aim for 1600×1200 pixels, again with the ability to hit 30 frames per second.
All I can say is “it’s about time!” I can see this campaign actually making it a bit easier for the mainstream PC gamers out there to buy a rig without having to worry they bought a lemon or bug their tech savvy friends on what to buy. Sure neither of the standards are “bleeding edge”, but they are current. Which is more than I can say about 80% of the computers I hear some of the aerosol huffing sales reps at local electronic stores tell customers are “good enough to play games.”
AMD Game minimum requirements: AMD Athlon 5600+ X2 processor, ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics, and an AMD 770 chipset or Nvidia nForce 500 series chipset.
AMD Game Ultra minimum requirements: Phenom X4 9650 processor, ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics, and an AMD 770 chipset.
Source: Game.AMD.Com & GameSpot
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Kiltman67 // May 22, 2008 at 10:55 am
I’m not sure about this. It’s certainly a step in the right direction, and I’m glad they’re including resolution and framerate in the standard but I can see the badge getting slapped on rigs that can only run games on the most basic of settings. I want to know what the benchmark is actually going to be and whether they’re seriously committed to using new ones as the technology progresses.
Anyway, they need to get the rest of the PC Gaming Alliance onboard for this to seem anything other then gimmicky. Perhaps even on the developer’s side. Obviously, unlike consoles, you couldn’t force every developer to obey standards, but it would help to get some big names involved.
2 PacManPolarBear // May 22, 2008 at 11:05 am
^ True, they will need to update the standards as time passes, but that seems doable to me. At least I hope so.
If you look at the two standards they have right now, both are pretty good. Either of those badges, with their current standards, will allow you to play current gen PC games with all the recommended settings, maybe not maxed out (depending on the game) of course, but far far from basic.
If they update the standards as time passes, their shouldn’t be any worry about buying a PC with an AMD GAME badge that only runs on min settings.
Having Alienware/Dell, iBuyPower, Velocity Micro and Microsoft onboard helps too.
3 balaamsafe // May 22, 2008 at 11:11 am
i just want one with a sticker that says “plays crysis, farcry 2 and gears for under £500″
yes i’m an obnoxious console gamer
4 David // May 22, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I agree with Kiltman67. I hope the reference standard is well defined enough that consumers don’t get cheap-shotted because of a rig that meets their standard but still won’t play games well.
They’ve already made a mistake with the “Game” or “Game Ultra” badging. If badging like this is going to work, it will need to continue for a long time. “PS1->PS2->PS3″ “Xbox->Xbox360″, I wish they would have done “Game2007″ “Game2008″ “Game2009″. The standards could target the hardware for a $500PC gaming experience that year. Hardcore gamers would be playing “Game2011″ today with their $4000 rigs.
5 FlintSteelton // May 23, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I like this idea. Most of the omputers I see at Best Buy, WalMart, Frys, Circuit City, etc. have crappy gaming capabilities but still cost $1000. Having a minimum standard for gaming rigs was one of the objectives for the PC Gaming Alliance. I’m pretty sure this won’t get :slapped on any rig” as you will need to have your machine verified to wear it, otherwise a lawsuit.
I think it’ll be a few years before this catches on and people start recognizing the gaming symbol. I’ll be updated with a different seal name like David mentioned (Game2009 and on). Now if Microsoft can fix how slow their OS is then PC gaming might become mainstream again.
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