AMD makes it simpler to buy PCs and laptops with Vision branding

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Posted on 12 May 2010 at 11:20

At a press conference in Cannes, AMD has announced new Vision branding for PCs and laptops. The aim is to make it simpler to buy a new computer without worrying about specifications and jargon.

While Vision was launched in London around seven months ago along with the company's first DirectX 11 graphics cards, it was limited to laptops. Now, the branding has been expanded to cover PCs, and you can expect to see far more computers with Vision stickers when you visit retailers.

Vision is similar to Intel's Centrino branding, but the new subcategories announced today provide a tiered system that AMD hopes will make it easier for consumers to buy computers. At the bottom of this scale is Vision, for relatively undemanding users that want HD capabilities. Next is Vision Premium which adds more power for users that might want to edit photos, watch HD movies and play games, while Vision Ultimate is said to be best for editing HD video. Finally, Vision Black is for the enthusiasts who want the best possible performance for gaming and other demanding applications, and will most likely come with top-end Radeon HD graphics cards and AMD's new six-core Phenom processors.

In his presentation, Nigel Dessau, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of AMD, said that buying a computer with Vision will give you twice the frame rate of competing systems, allow you to rip and share movies 30 per cent faster, categorise photos 40 per cent faster with facial recognition and create slideshows in half the time. Overall, you get '2x' the video experience of equivalent rival systems.

Only time will tell whether any of this is true, as we'll have to wait until we can test the performance of these laptops and PCs and find out their prices. Currently, our tests show that Intel-based machines are generally better value than AMD's at the higher end, but when AMD-based machines are priced right, they can be very good value.

What's important is that many more manufacturers will be selling PCs and laptops with AMD processors following the settlement all of the antitrust and intellectual property disputes between Intel and AMD back in November last year. Whereas Intel had a tight grip on manufacturers and incentivised them not to sell computers with AMD chips, those days are gone. AMD announced that plenty of major manufacturers would be launching new Vision-based computers imminently including Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, HP, MSI, Asus and Acer. Dell's lineup includes the Studio XPS 7100 multimedia PC and Inspiron M501R laptop.

We'll bring you reviews of the new models, many of which will have AMD's brand new mobile Phenom processors, as soon as we can get our hands on them.

Author: Jim Martin in Cannes