Not gonna happen any time soon. The barrier of entry is massive.
Making decent drivers alone is a humongous undertaking: You have to catch up to the work of several decades - and it’s a moving target. That’s on top of just how difficult it is to design good silicon. Just look at how Chinese GPU manufacturers are struggling to match low-end cards from 10 years ago (even though they are lying and claiming they are matching high-end cards from one generation ago) with cards that have many times the power draw and cost - and all of that with far worse games compatibility.
Hell, even the giant that is (soon to be probably: was) Intel failed to leave a mark in the dedicated GPU business and they actually have decades of experience making (pretty shitty) integrated GPUs and (even shittier) drivers for them.
Will these data center only companies continue need those big driver design and implementation departments if they are narrowing their focus like this? Maybe there will be a batch of experienced devs looking for a new place to hang their hats?
Good point. Wouldn’t be the first time, but then again, this is much more difficult today then a few decades ago. Still, if it happens, this is the most likely scenario, not some Chinese company somehow coming up with a decent home-grown GPU.
Not gonna happen any time soon. The barrier of entry is massive.
Making decent drivers alone is a humongous undertaking: You have to catch up to the work of several decades - and it’s a moving target. That’s on top of just how difficult it is to design good silicon. Just look at how Chinese GPU manufacturers are struggling to match low-end cards from 10 years ago (even though they are lying and claiming they are matching high-end cards from one generation ago) with cards that have many times the power draw and cost - and all of that with far worse games compatibility.
Hell, even the giant that is (soon to be probably: was) Intel failed to leave a mark in the dedicated GPU business and they actually have decades of experience making (pretty shitty) integrated GPUs and (even shittier) drivers for them.
Will these data center only companies continue need those big driver design and implementation departments if they are narrowing their focus like this? Maybe there will be a batch of experienced devs looking for a new place to hang their hats?
Good point. Wouldn’t be the first time, but then again, this is much more difficult today then a few decades ago. Still, if it happens, this is the most likely scenario, not some Chinese company somehow coming up with a decent home-grown GPU.