AMD Dropping the ATI Brand Name

The Tech Report has confirmation that rumors that AMD was planning on dropping the ATI brand from their products is indeed true. As a result you can expect that the next generation of Radeon cards will be AMD branded, without any mention of ATI at all.

The long and short of it is that, according to AMD's own survey results, consumers savvy enough to know something about discrete graphics cards tend to know the Radeon name, they tend to like AMD, and they don't mind seeing the AMD name on graphics cards once they realize AMD merged with ATI. The folks at AMD read those results as "permission" to jettison the ATI brand name.

The plan, then, is to replace "ATI Radeon" and "ATI FirePro" with "Radeon" and "FirePro", along with a sprinkling of AMD corporate identity. The badges you see above will be used for systems with discrete Radeon and FirePro graphics cards. The lower row omits the AMD logo, so PC makers shipping Intel-based systems will be able to avoid the oil-and-water combo of Intel and AMD branding, if they wish.

If you just bought an "ATI Radeon" and are proud of that fact, fear not. Existing products, including the Radeon HD 5000 series, will not be renamed. Instead, AMD says the first products to carry the "AMD Radeon" label will be introduced later this year.