Current State and Future of AMD Radeon Graphics: Teleconference Transcript

[OneCool]

ATI tooting its horn on a card ASUS made, strange.
Show me the reference 7990's please.

I find it silly that their answer to the Tiatan is a card made by only ASUS and costs 1500-1600US and is dual GPU vs single GPU

Would two of the very best 7970GHz edition cards do about the same as the Ares? For a lot less?

Yes I'm a nvidia fanboy, I'm also a ATI fanboy as I love both companies equally, my current gpu is by ATI.

Who is this "Ati" your speaking of?

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

I don't think they read any of the reviews for ARES. The driver scaling, or lack there of, crippled it.

 

[Jorge]

What a bunch of ignorance.

If you want the executive summary of this farcical media field day, check out the link below.

http://semiaccurate.com/2013/02/18/please-let-the-stupidity-surrounding-amds-sea-islands-ci-end/

 

[HumanSmoke]

I don't think they read any of the reviews for ARES. The driver scaling, or lack there of, crippled it.

PR flacks. I'm pretty sure the only driver they know about is the guy that holds the sign with their names on it at the airport.

 

[Widjaja]

Looks to me like the biggest takeaway of this all is that they're focussing a lot more on the software side these days. The most recent iterations of their driver also reflects this and I can only applaud this development.

This is exactly what they should be doing anyway.
The drivers may show great numbers right now but they are flaky depending on game or application being run with which 7xxx series card you are using.

All in all I am happy to hear this appears to be the direction AMD is going in with it's graphics department.

 

[ThunderStorm]

Their response to Titan is the $1600 ARES II?

Cool.

What would they do? What can they do? I mean there is a GCN GPU just suddenly POPs up against the Titan, and just like that, snap ?

I think AMD is making a wise move here, continuing to bundle games and working on the drivers. The only real problem for AMD is money imho. They have the talents, they have the schematics, they have the loyal customer/fanatical fanboys, they have the brand., just a little short of couple of billions of dollars.

 

[Fluffmeister]

What would they do? What can they do? I mean there is a GCN GPU just suddenly POPs up against the Titan, and just like that, snap ?

I think AMD is making a wise move here, continuing to bundle games and working on the drivers. The only real problem for AMD is money imho. They have the talents, they have the schematics, they have the loyal customer/fanatical fanboys, they have the brand., just a little short of couple of billions of dollars.

You're right, what can they do? Absolutely nothing. I guess they could be a bit more gracious in defeat, but hey I'm sure nVidia had a laugh or two regardless.

I agree their best bet now is to consolidate what they have and go from there. The 7970 clocked to hell and back bundled with countless games is good value, and with the impending release of the new consoles they will receive a welcome boost in revenue.

Don't fret guys, they aren't done yet.

 

[NeoXF]

I still don't understand why everyone is talking about this ARES II card (even AMD :|)... you guys know there are 4-5 other custom R7990-like cards, right? And for half the price of it... jeez...

 

[btarunr]

I still don't understand why everyone is talking about this ARES II card (even AMD :|)... you guys know there are 4-5 other custom R7990-like cards, right? And for half the price of it... jeez...

After sitting with the audio recording to stenograph it for hours just before bedtime, I had the most bizarre dream.

I had practically everyone from my family, my friends and colleagues, the traffic cop, the pizza guy, and w1zzard (freaking w1zzard!) parrot just one line: "ASUS ARES II will continue to be our fastest graphics card."

My friends huddle around me and parrot that line. At a traffic stop, the cop comes over, makes me lower the window, and parrots that line. Everything I type in my IM box with w1zzard gets an auto-reply (that freaking line). The pizza guy hands over a Domino's large box with an ARES II in it, saying "our fastest graphics card, sir." In the dream scream like a little girl as I wake up.

 

[renz496]

me to AMD: don't you dare talk about ARES 2 being the fastest gpu in the world when you dont even dare to release reference 7990. most of the credit should be given to Asus and other partner that work hard to make 7990 as a real product.

c'mon dont play words with us. unleash the Kraken already

 

[btarunr]

I highlighted the wtf parts.

 

[HumanSmoke]

I highlighted the wtf parts.

I'll go you one better - Two WTF's producing a WTFF !

From the Devon & Darren Show:

Darren: the GK110 has been known about for a long time. Our roadmap stayed, once we knew about it. We didn't need to react.

Devon : but we definitely do have more 7990 goodness for you guys

So,..No reaction actually means putting out a reference 7990 SKU as a reaction.

 

[Recus]

Ohh AMD talks about having the best single gpu card (even though reviews say the green camp has that crown) and ofc the best graphics card with the asus ares. Also they talk about how they have game developers in their pockets optimizing games for their graphics cards (like they optimized benchmarks to get better scores?). You know the usual.

It's so Roberto Mancini.

 

[arterius2]

LOL AMD!!
pretty sure Team Green has the fastest graphic card on the market, let me have some of what you're smoking there.

 

[Aquinus]

LOL AMD!!
pretty sure Team Green has the fastest graphic card on the market, let me have some of what you're smoking there.

Not yet they don't. Trolls smell bad, that's how you can spot them from miles away.

 

[phanbuey]

Not yet they don't. Trolls smell bad, that's how you can spot them from miles away.

trolls or no, they definitely don't have the 'commanding lead' at every price point that they make it seem on the teleconference.

The news that the 7970 is it for the rest of the year is not good for them at all... We are talking about a company that used to release cards like the 58xx series when nv had nothing but the gtx 285, and released the 7xxx series way ahead of the game.

Now they are behind nVidia, who isn't even focusing on building freaking graphics cards. The titan is basically a side effect card from their GPGPU research/push, and it's gonna beat the crap out of anything AMD has for the next 12 months.

Also they are playing renaming games with the laptop series cards... it all smells of a frozen research budget and marketing spin (which AMD is GREAT at).

 

[Aquinus]

The news that the 7970 is it for the rest of the year is not good for them at all... We are talking about a company that used to release cards like the 58xx series when nv had nothing but the gtx 285, and released the 7xxx series way ahead of the game.

It's been out for how long and it's been selling how well again? They haven't needed to release a new product because AMD is in a fiscal situation to only react to changes in the market, not command it. The 7970 competes with the GTX 680 very well and anyone who says it doesn't should check those benchmarks again. As far as Titan is concerned, the market share for a $1,000 USD video card is tiny. I'm sure AMD would rather have a better bang-for-your-buck option that more consumers (or OEM manufacturers,) are likely to buy.

Now they are behind nVidia, who isn't even focusing on building freaking graphics cards. The titan is basically a side effect card from their GPGPU research/push, and it's gonna beat the crap out of anything AMD has for the next 12 months.

It's only that Tesla card that came out a while back. You have it backwards, and the performance for such an expensive card is underwhelming. Also Tegra 4 isn't exactly something is bragging about so I would be careful with the "who isn't even focusing on building freaking graphics cards" argument.

Also they are playing renaming games with the laptop series cards... it all smells of a frozen research budget and marketing spin (which AMD is GREAT at).

Yes, but it's not like there is anything better for a reasonable price so even if this were true it would have happened like this anyways even if AMD had money.

 

[xorbe]

I think I agree with an earlier poster in this thread ... anything above $300 (or some) price point is a tempest in a teapot, because the product volume is probably relatively low.

What we have here is both companies throwing expensive brute force solutions at the market (dual gpu or huge dies). A sign that GPU progression is slowing down, much like CPUs have suffered (and hence starting stamping out more cores and fancy SIMD instructions.)

 

[SIGSEGV]

LOL AMD!!
pretty sure Team Green has the fastest graphic card on the market, let me have some of what you're smoking there.

lol. 999$ card is obviously no real threat for AMD.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

lol. 999$ card is obviously no real threat for AMD.

Not really as they have a dearer more extreme card ish but that ish is going to count in the coming fastest Card debate who knows, Amd might well have a 1ghz 2336 shader 7995 gpu in there top bin all sneaky like.

 

[Fluffmeister]

lol. 999$ card is obviously no real threat for AMD.

If you were a true AMD fan you'd obviously own the ARES II.

But you are of course right, nVidia are perfectly happy selling more 680's with still lovely margins.

The Titan is just the icing on the cake.

 

[Xzibit]

trolls or no, they definitely don't have the 'commanding lead' at every price point that they make it seem on the teleconference.

I asume you never read or listen in to Nvidias Conference Calls either. Marketing is marketing but If you go back to Q1-Q3 2012 conference calls from Nvidia. All they kept saying about Kepler is yields are good.

Its obvious now that they meant little Kepler GK104 not GK110 because they havent been able to produce a fully working Kepler as they outlined in there Kepler architecture paper going into 1yr plus and its still not here.

Talk about false advertisement if you cant deliever on your own desing. Kind of makes marketing talk sound devine.

S/A article back in Oct 2012

Now they are behind nVidia, who isn't even focusing on building freaking graphics cards. The titan is basically a side effect card from their GPGPU research/push, and it's gonna beat the crap out of anything AMD has for the next 12 months.

Also they are playing renaming games with the laptop series cards... it all smells of a frozen research budget and marketing spin (which AMD is GREAT at).

Maybe you miss this aswell but overall out of the 2 companies one seams to be holding its ground better then the other even with all the doom and gloom forecasting and restructuring.

During the holiday season the highest selling Quarter for both companies.

GPU divisions Q4 2012 Holiday shopping season included
AMD
-5%

Nvidia
-6.5%

Just makes me wonders if you think AMD is doing so bad. Why is it holding on better to its sales and market share?

 

[tastegw]

ABD (American Beef Distibuters) announced today in a press conference that they have the worlds best burger. The Area II Double Decker by Burgers-R-Us.

ABD makes the burger patties, ships them to restaurants around the country, and at $4.00 a patty, they alone are quite a great burger patty, not the best, but very close.

The new burger by Burgers-R-Us (a leading chain of high quality burgers) has stated the new Area II Double Decker (two patties on the burger) will start out at $15 a pop and limit customers to at most two burgers per person (due to stomach size limitations)

So there you have it, ABD makes the best burgers in the world.

Meanwhile NVBaDA (New Vision Beef and Dinner Accecories) has announced an up and coming beef patty, the Bison. Featuring over 2600 vitimans and nutrients (no real scientific data yet) will be the single highest nutrient and best tasting patty in the world, said to hit burger joints in a few days starting at $10 a burger, up to 3 burgers per person.

ABD's response was this:
"We still have the Area II Double Decker by Burgers-R-Us, it's the best burger in all of time"

 

[HumanSmoke]

Maybe you miss this aswell but overall out of the 2 companies one seams to be holding its ground better then the other even with all the doom and gloom forecasting and restructuring

The devil is in the details. Both Intel and AMD "double dip" with CPU and GPU numbers as far as JPR are concerned. A CPU with iGPU counts as two units. While overall GPU numbers tell one story, and remember that AMDs increases are largely built on an expanding base of sub-$100 APUs...

Discrete graphics (with higher margins) is another story...

Just makes me wonders if you think AMD is doing so bad. Why is it holding on better to its sales and market share?

Yeah. Whatever. Most people with at least half a functioning brain would realize that Nvidia's overall market share has been in decline since the demise of their low-end chipset business. Fewer units sold but higher ASPs. Spin the numbers however you want, but common sense should tell you that you have to sell an awful lot of $50-100 APU's and low margin console chips to realize any substantial profit- Intel and Nvidia have higher margins on more expensive product.
Now lets check the highest margin professional market:

Where Nvidia enjoy 85% market share to AMDs 15%

So, you could look at overall units sold, or you could look at a more telling factor for both CPUs and GPUs - average selling price- which is more indicative of the relative fortunes and financial status of the vendors