Sunday, August 6th 2023
AMD Retreating from Enthusiast Graphics Segment with RDNA4?
AMD is rumored to be withdrawing from the enthusiast graphics segment with its next RDNA4 graphics architecture. This means there won't be a successor to its "Navi 31" silicon that competes at the high-end with NVIDIA; but rather one that competes in the performance segment and below. It's possible AMD isn't able to justify the cost of developing high-end GPUs to push enough volumes over the product lifecycle. The company's "Navi 21" GPU benefited from the crypto-currency mining swell, but just like with NVIDIA, the company isn't able to push enough GPUs at the high-end.
With RDNA4, the company will focus on specific segments of the market that sell the most, which would be the x700-series and below. This generation will be essentially similar to the RX 5000 series powered by RDNA1, which did enough to stir things up in NVIDIA's lineup, and trigger the introduction of the RTX 20 SUPER series. The next generation could see RDNA4 square off against NVIDIA's next-generation, and hopefully, Intel's Arc "Battlemage" family.
Source:
VideoCardz
With RDNA4, the company will focus on specific segments of the market that sell the most, which would be the x700-series and below. This generation will be essentially similar to the RX 5000 series powered by RDNA1, which did enough to stir things up in NVIDIA's lineup, and trigger the introduction of the RTX 20 SUPER series. The next generation could see RDNA4 square off against NVIDIA's next-generation, and hopefully, Intel's Arc "Battlemage" family.
363 Comments on AMD Retreating from Enthusiast Graphics Segment with RDNA4?
Inb4 you try to move the goalposts with "I meant a mainstream GPU": 4060 Ti handily beats my 2080 Ti in RT, that's equivalent RT performance moving from the ultra-high-end to the mid-upper-end in a mere two generations. No reason to expect that to slow down anytime soon. Sure, rasterised games will continue to be made, but rasterisation performance of new hardware won't continue to increase. Because it makes far more sense to spend that precious die space on a technology that isn't on terminal life support. Once games that actually matter (i.e. not indie ones) start using RT rendering exclusively, nobody will care about rasterisation performance every again. Which is why you turn on DLSS.
The list of “path traced” (actual ray tracing), is so infinitesimally small, it’s not even worth mentioning. Last time I checked the 4090 was averaging, what, 12 fps at 4k in CP2077 with overdrive settings (path tracing). So yes, they absolutely need to quintuple if not more. Keep living in some warped green reality.
That's exactly what's happening with Ice this generation.
1litres masquerade as 30's Audi are first but not last with this.
We had bogof, we bought. Tooofers and 3 for 2 deals.
Now marketeer's are literally selling less for more all over.
Meanwhile, for a broader audience, the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and the various other handhelds all run on either custom or semi-custom AMD APUs/SoCs, and AMD can support this as they have a dedicated team who can specifically customize a solution for a buyer, which is also what allowed AMD to win over MS and Sony after both got burned by Nvidia. The PS3 was originally intended to run on Nvidia, but Nvidia refused to design a custom GPU for Sony, causing Sony to seek out ATI/AMD with the PS4, and MS couldn't convince Nvidia to produce a custom GPU for their X360, leading MS to seek out a deal with ATI instead, that was carried over when AMD and ATI merged.
Which brings to mind another point; given that mobile gaming is on the rise now that there's the infrastructure to support it (the PS Vita was too ahead of its time), AMD refocusing for this growing market could be one reason for the supposed rumors that AMD is just aiming for the mid-range. A few months barely goes by before we hear of a new handheld with an AMD SoC, or that AMD's SoCs are now edging into the space where Intel NUCs used to reign, so it does make sense to saturate that market with AMD IP and get more code optimized for AMD, just like AMD has been doing with the Enterprise/Corporate sector via EPYC and Threadripper. Of course, with RDNA3 having proven that MCM GPUs are possible, AMD could now just MCM multiple mid-range chiplets into a high-end product rather than producing a separate line of chiplets just for high-end purposes, and continue to refine the MCM approach that way (moreso if they delve into 3DV-cache or even an FPGA or mini-CPU block as some rumors claim).
Speaking of exploits though, it'd be absolutely hilarious if the PS5 is jailbroken because of the newly discovered Zen 2 Zenbleed vulnerability... of which AMD seems to be having a high degree of difficulty patching, some Zen 2 platforms will only receive AGESA updates next year. I don't see it happening... at least it didn't with Samsung, who already went back to Qualcomm SoCs, even scored a few tailored "Snapdragon for Galaxy" buffed up versions of the 8 Gen 2.... the Exynos 2200 has the RDNA 2-derived Xclipse 920, and it's about 10% faster than the Snapdragon 888's GPU, keeping in mind the 888 was released in late 2020 and is used in 2021 flagships (Galaxy S21, Z Flip 3/Z Fold 3) And that's pretty much it. The GPU is evolving and the hyperfixation on raster is clearly a way to stonewall and deflect from the reality AMD currently finds itself in, more accurately described by:
I *really* do not want to be stuck with only nVidia producing high-end cards.
Full path traced becoming the norm, let alone being able to be played on a relatively affordable GPU, is still several years away. It’s easy to forget tech snobs (including myself) have a massively warped take on the GPU market. 4090/4080/3090/6900xt/7900xtx owners don’t even come close to being popular outside of the tech forum niche.
When DirectX 11 cards finally arrived and unified shaders (introduced 3 hardware generations prior with G80) started to become mandatory because games started using (at the time) advanced GPU computing technologies, it didn't mean that DirectX 9 games suddenly disappeared. Indeed, they were still widely released, with some high profile releases coming out as late as 2014 (Borderlands Pre-Sequel), still fully compatible with Windows XP. By that time it was 13 years old and just out of its quite protracted extended support stage, and Windows 7 and DirectX 11 were well over half a decade old. And by then... a lot of people were still happily gaming on GTX 200 series and HD 4000 cards.
Due to the enormous complexity of undertaking this evolution and market realities (video game fidelity has more or less plateau'd because of the ever rising development costs and the struggle to raise prices to end-users), the recent bubbles of crypto and AI, as well as economic hardships in the wide user base has obviously tremendously slowed adoption, which brings my point yet again full circle: if you don't really care and need the newest graphics technologies, you can happily stay with your Pascal card until something else comes along.
However, if you want to compete at the high-end, where your primary market is technology enthusiasts and people who want to experience the latest and greatest, you must deliver the goods. If AMD retreats to the midrange, and offers their modest support for these newer techs while they build their portfolio, it would prove to be quite the wise move - at the behest of their loyal fanbase, which will be put to the test: will they still buy AMD hardware if they don't place a claim to the upper range?
They're busy is my take.
The narrative is so entrenched even with the launch notification of the 7800XT with 16GB people will still say the 7900XT should be called the 7800XT. The truth is Gaming has never been more enjoyable with nostalgic, high fidelity, unique experiences and new content coming all the time. Balders Gate 3 and Armoured Core 6 are 2 that come to mind but there is also plenty of Games before the age of DLSS like Shadow of War, Grim Dawn and plenty of Racing Games like the Grid Series. to enjoy. If you want to go to the Arcade Everspace 2 and Redout 2 are fun to play but even Red Faction Guerrilla Re Mastered is sweet for Arcade satisfaction.
Rasterization and hybrid ray tracing are here to stay as the main means of rendering for awhile. AMD isn’t “stonewalling” anything.