AMD has acquired California-based HiAlgo, a software company that develops PC gaming technologies. For example, HiAlgo has built software to help raise GPU efficiency, and to improve the gaming experience without overclocking. AMD says that the acquisition lays the groundwork for future gaming innovation in Radeon software.
Analyst Comment
Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research had some insightful commentary into AMD’s acquisition. HiAlgo’s apps, he writes, are plug-ins that boost the performance of hardware. They use code injection technologies that attach to the game, but are not cheating tools. HiAlgo has introduced three gaming tools: Boost, Chill and Switch. All of these are focused on smoothing gameplay, by manipulating either rendering resolution, frame rates or display resolution.
Peddie calls AMD’s acquisition an “acqui-hire”. HiAlgo’s software will make AMD’s own Radeon software more robust. Providing software tools for developers and apps for end-users is now a major GPU product differentiator. Nvidia does this well with its Geforce Experience suite; AMD has never been able to match its main rival’s software investment, but has done a very good job of matching and even surpassing Nvidia with several developments (Mantle, EyeFinity, LiquidVR). However, Nvidia remains ahead in software tools, and this is the main reason behind AMD’s move. (TA)
