AMD Confirms Retreat from the Enthusiast GPU Segment, to Focus on Gaining Market-Share

[AusWolf]

Some companies, like people can get you to the point that hating them is a fair feeling.

Except that you have to put up with those people because of them being family members or colleagues, but nobody forces you to buy a GPU from either manufacturer. These companies don't do anything to "get to you", on the contrary, you get to them when you buy their product. Go for whatever brand you want (I've been avoiding Nvidia myself lately because of reasons), but believe me, life is short, so do yourself a favour, and don't spend it on hating stuff. You'll feel better for it.

 

[Neo_Morpheus]

so do yourself a favour, and don't spend it on hating stuff. You'll feel better for it.

Thanks for the advice, my friend.

My OS and hardware doesn't spend that much time on the “i hate intel and ngreedia” slice.

There are other battles to fight in life.

 

[AusWolf]

Thanks for the advice, my friend.

My OS and hardware doesn't spend that much time on the “i hate intel and ngreedia” slice.

There are other battles to fight in life.

Same here.

As for the original topic, I'll be willing to buy Nvidia again if they come down from their high horse and price their products by their performance, not "features" (99% of which are there on AMD as well) again. I don't hate them, I just don't feel the "premium feel" that people are on about when they choose Nvidia instead of AMD. It's a damn GPU, it plays games, what else is there to it?

 

[gffermari]

Same here.

As for the original topic, I'll be willing to buy Nvidia again if they come down from their high horse and price their products by their performance, not "features" (99% of which are there on AMD as well) again. I don't hate them, I just don't feel the "premium feel" that people are on about when they choose Nvidia instead of AMD. It's a damn GPU, it plays games, what else is there to it?

What we have had the last couple of gpu gens, is plenty of raster performance that doesn't even need to increase in the future and not even close enough RT performance, no matter what lithography we use or how much advanced we are capable to make our architecture.
So practically, it's all about features now because it's the only way to play a game that doesn't look like an Assassins Creed.
If you don't have the features, you don't play the games as they supposed to run as next gen ones. You can play them without having the features, but you see a previous gen game (I'm exaggerating since RT implementation is not always done at meaningful scale).

I understand that you want to pay for performance and not tricks but you realize that in order to increase the raster quality of a game, we just needed to go from 1million calculations to 1.1million (random numbers). The RT requires 100million calcs. So it's either you don't get RT until 2100 or you get it now by using tricks.

These tricks are not easy to be created, so we have to pay for them to R&D them.

 

[Caring1]

I think we all will lose on this. Nvidia has no reason to try that much, as long as there is lead they can keep jacking prices up endlessly.

When will people understand it has nothing to do with Nvidia being in the lead, it is because of the consumers that keep paying the asking price.

 

[RUSerious]

HOW in the hell of a company who is supposed to be a high, premier corporation ONLY made a NET profit of 32+ million last quarter after a tax write off from the government?

R&D cost of keeping up with AMD's rivals is very steep. Other than that, you'd have to talk to a corporate finance lawyer to figure out if 'only' showing a profit of $32M US was a good thing that quarter or not. Some, even larger companies, LOSE money in a given quarter - but are still very healthy from a high zoot wall street analyst's perspective. Most companies are playing the game they need to play, not necessarily the one we think they should.

Deprioritizing flagship gaming GPUs in favor of gaining market share may ultimately be a detrimental strategy for AMD

I agree. I don't think that will win them many hearts and minds. Given what happened in their Graphics division, AMD may have had no choice but to stay out of high end gaming graphics for RDNA4 and probably RDNA5. After that, we'll see.

I'm not a fan of AMD or NVidia in GFX. I've bought mostly NV because the out off the box graphics drivers were terrible on the last two Radeon products I bought. I have no patience for this - but that's just me. I do favor AMD over Intel in CPUs - though I've owned a fairly equal number of both.

 

[AusWolf]

What we have had the last couple of gpu gens, is plenty of raster performance that doesn't even need to increase in the future and not even close enough RT performance, no matter what lithography we use or how much advanced we are capable to make our architecture.
So practically, it's all about features now because it's the only way to play a game that doesn't look like an Assassins Creed.
If you don't have the features, you don't play the games as they supposed to run as next gen ones. You can play them without having the features, but you see a previous gen game (I'm exaggerating since RT implementation is not always done at meaningful scale).

I understand that you want to pay for performance and not tricks but you realize that in order to increase the raster quality of a game, we just needed to go from 1million calculations to 1.1million (random numbers). The RT requires 100million calcs. So it's either you don't get RT until 2100 or you get it now by using tricks.

These tricks are not easy to be created, so we have to pay for them to R&D them.

Except that I don't need those features. RT adds very little to any game, but takes a massive chunk of performance away. I can easily live without it without feeling like I'm losing out on anything, as long as I can turn it off.

When will people understand it has nothing to do with Nvidia being in the lead, it is because of the consumers that keep paying the asking price.

Exactly! Nvidia is in the lead because people pay up, and not because of whatever they offer (or advertise to offer). There's nothing more to it.

 

[Recus]

It's safe to say AMD killed ATi.

 

[csendesmark]

It's safe to say AMD killed ATi.

That is old news

AMD to retire ATI brand

Four years after acquiring graphics card vendor ATI Technologies, the chipmaker is saying saynora to the ATI brand and rebranding the products under its own name.

www.cnet.com

 

[Icon Charlie]

R&D cost of keeping up with AMD's rivals is very steep. Other than that, you'd have to talk to a corporate finance lawyer to figure out if 'only' showing a profit of $32M US was a good thing that quarter or not. Some, even larger companies, LOSE money in a given quarter - but are still very healthy from a high zoot wall street analyst's perspective. Most companies are playing the game they need to play, not necessarily the one we think they should.

I agree. I don't think that will win them many hearts and minds. Given what happened in their Graphics division, AMD may have had no choice but to stay out of high end gaming graphics for RDNA4 and probably RDNA5. After that, we'll see.

I'm not a fan of AMD or NVidia in GFX. I've bought mostly NV because the out off the box graphics drivers were terrible on the last two Radeon products I bought. I have no patience for this - but that's just me. I do favor AMD over Intel in CPUs - though I've owned a fairly equal number of both.

Oh I do I understand R&D costs. My own R&D is at least 5 years of research and I'm in my 2nd year of preproduction work.

Because of my understanding of actual manufacturing costs, distribution and essenually running lean, mean profitable machines, I can certainly express my opinions over what I see are excessive overheads in many of the corporations of today.

This means pretty much lower quality products to the customer base. For the Price of the 7000 series video card at lauch, it was mostly a fail.

To prove my point again with why I Blame Dr. Lisa Su and their management in the mess they are in with this video from Hardware Unboxed.

I was not impressed with this launch AT all.

Of late, I have not been impressed with anything AMD has been producing for the cost they trying to push.

And again you are not going to like the cost of the newest generations of motherboards coming soon.

These are bellweather points on what I think the video card section of AMD might produce in the future.

Increased Costs for less value and performance.

 

[Nhonho]

AMD Confirms Retreat from the Enthusiast GPU Segment, to Focus on Gaining Market-Share​

Malicious "news". It wrongly suggests that AMD will never again develop a high-end GPU to compete with Nvidia's best GPU. Everyone knows that AMD will return to releasing high-performance GPUs to compete with Nvidia's best GPUs to not to leave the highly lucrative HPC market only for Nvidia.

 

[Minus Infinity]

Deprioritizing flagship gaming GPUs in favor of gaining market share may ultimately be a detrimental strategy for AMD. First, by stepping back from the high-end segment, AMD risks losing its brand prestige and technological leadership in the highly competitive gaming market, which can have long-term effects on consumer perception and loyalty. High-end GPUs often serve as a benchmark for performance and innovation; without a strong presence in this space, AMD may struggle to attract enthusiasts and developers who push technological boundaries. Additionally, flagship products can drive profitability—premium prices yield higher margins, which help fund research and development for future innovations. Furthermore, if AMD solely focuses on mid-range products, it could leave the door open for Nvidia to consolidate their dominance in the high-end sector, ultimately stifling AMD’s potential for disruptive breakthroughs and long-term growth in the overall market. In essence, neglecting flagship offerings could undermine AMD's ability to compete effectively across all segments and may limit its potential for enduring success.

Yet again, stop spreading nonsense. They are only abandoning enthusiast class gpu for RDNA4. RDNA4 is only a minor update of RDNA3, so no way could they compete against 4090 let alone 5090. RDNA5 is a clean sheet architectural update and they are definitely offering enthuisiast clas with that. AMD can't win. Even with the 7900XTX which is 50%b cheaper than 4090 and only 5-20% slower in raster it gets hammered. Everybody laughs about their RT and yet all the commenters say they don't use it much anyway even on Nvidia cards.

 

[Easo]

When will people understand it has nothing to do with Nvidia being in the lead, it is because of the consumers that keep paying the asking price.

When you have no choice left you will pay whatever for what is available.

 

[Kyan]

RDNA4 is only a minor update of RDNA3 [...] RDNA5 is a clean sheet architectural update ...

I'm genuinely curious and a bit clueless, but how RDNA 3 and 4 can have a similar architecture if RDNA 3 is MCM and RDNA 4 is monolithic ? Dosen't MCM and monolithic change everything in the design of the architecture ?

 

[AusWolf]

I'm genuinely curious and a bit clueless, but how RDNA 3 and 4 can have a similar architecture if RDNA 3 is MCM and RDNA 4 is monolithic ? Dosen't MCM and monolithic change everything in the design of the architecture ?

RDNA 3 isn't entirely MCM, either. At least Navi 33 (RX 7600) isn't. You can put the memory controller and last-level cache onto the same die, or a separate one, it doesn't change the architecture (that is, the internal working of the compute units).

 

[Caring1]

When you have no choice left you will pay whatever for what is available.

Maybe for necessities, not for things that aren't required.

 

[RUSerious]

This means pretty much lower quality products to the customer base. For the Price of the 7000 series video card at launch, it was mostly a fail.

To prove my point again with why I Blame Dr. Lisa Su and their management in the mess they are in with this video from Hardware Unboxed.
I was not impressed with this launch AT all.

Of late, I have not been impressed with anything AMD has been producing for the cost they trying to push.

And again you are not going to like the cost of the newest generations of motherboards coming soon.

Fair. The 7000 series GFX missed the mark - efficiency was too low. Somehow, AMD screwed up (I guess they fixed it for RDNA 3.5). 9000 series CPUs also missed the mark. Even after updating to the 'correct' patch for Win11, the delta between the 9000 series and the 7000 series isn't what AMD predicted (the patch helps both processors, so no win there). AMD is hitting it's marks on Server CPUs (Turin) and GPUs (MI 300 series). No help for DIYers. I believe that fundamentally, AMD knows the big $$s are in Servers (Hyperscalers in particular) and potentially massive AI cluster build outs. That's their main focus. We are, maybe, third tier after Server and laptop (maybe 4th after consoles, but that's lower margin).

To the last point, the new Asus Crosshair ROG Hero 870E has become unobtainium for me . Not planning upgrading for another ~1 & 1/2 years; hopefully overall prices will be better (except GFX, which will be even worse).

 

[Super XP]

Yeah, AMD split off some % of their RDNA team to work on CDNA for the Instinct AI/ML/HPC product line. That was a while ago (don't know exactly when). Seems likely that once RDNA5 is done, the teams will be completely merged into a new UDNA development team. Since Instinct GPUs are chiplets already, it would seem that consumer GPUs would be based off one or more of those chiplets. Interesting times.

I believe AMD already mentioned doing this so they can crank out Discrete + Integrated GPUs more efficiently.

 

[Godrilla]

Yet again, stop spreading nonsense. They are only abandoning enthusiast class gpu for RDNA4. RDNA4 is only a minor update of RDNA3, so no way could they compete against 4090 let alone 5090. RDNA5 is a clean sheet architectural update and they are definitely offering enthuisiast clas with that. AMD can't win. Even with the 7900XTX which is 50%b cheaper than 4090 and only 5-20% slower in raster it gets hammered. Everybody laughs about their RT and yet all the commenters say they don't use it much anyway even on Nvidia cards.

The ray tracing party will begin after PS6/ pro when the the hardware will be more affordablish for the masses and developers can squeeze out efficiency from a fixed hardware. Ps5pro should start to improve things and scale accordingly on pc hardware as well.

Update on AMD not having the crown and pointing to past market behavior without reflecting market share gains.
AMD never held the crown for both CPU and GPU at the same time. So the past behavior wouldn't necessarily reflect the mind share gain they would by holding both. It's pretty sad that AMD has to beg developers for support when they hold significant hardware in the consoles, pc handhelds and summation with PC mobile/ desktop parts. It seems that AMD doesn't take themselves seriously and forgot how to be competitive imo!

 

[RUSerious]

I believe AMD already mentioned doing this so they can crank out Discrete + Integrated GPUs more efficiently.

Well, clearly it's not their highest priority anymore. Efficiency for AMD, and all profitable companies, is about the $$s. They will be focusing on iGPUs for the laptop CPUs - those have higher margins. On discrete, they've said they are aiming for 'mainstream' market. AMD is probably going to target lower cost silicon designs so they can get slightly higher margins in the performance ranges they want to compete in. That will provide them with a better cost structure after RDNA5 under UDNA6, etc. I hope that there will be the equivalent of 7800XT performance range as their top product - but we will see. UDNA will be focused first on CDNA silicon, just as Ryzen CCDs are designed for EPYC server needs first.

Huynh, has to demonstrate maximum enthusiasm for a DIY site like TH, it would be marketing suicide not to. We will see what the reality is.

 

[orales_]

What AMD must do is fix their software/drivers. I ve been struggling with my 7800xt to make it work .Constant black screens many driver issues that we have to neat pick the best stable driver by trial and error to make the gpu run smooth.That has been so frustrating so far. If you go through amd forums you can see easily what the problem has been .You produce a great value for money gpu/hardware like 7800xt and you destroy it with the software that comes with it.Thats the main reason people give up on team Red .Fix that sector and you will be fire .

 

[azrael]

Slightly off-topic, but is it just me or does HUB seem to have it in for AMD recently? It's either "Zen 5 underperforms", "Zen 5 is too expensive", "Zen 5 sales are terrible" or, now, "AMD admits defeat", just because they're trying a different approach. Makes sense, because the previous one hasn't really worked out for them.

 

[AusWolf]

Slightly off-topic, but is it just me or does HUB seem to have it in for AMD recently? It's either "Zen 5 underperforms", "Zen 5 is too expensive", "Zen 5 sales are terrible" or, now, "AMD admits defeat", just because they're trying a different approach. Makes sense, because the previous one hasn't really worked out for them.

I advise not giving a damn about YouTube headlines, even those of high prestige reviewers. Clickbait bullshit, the lot of them. Just look at hard review data and decide for yourself.

 

[Godrilla]

I advise not giving a damn about YouTube headlines, even those of high prestige reviewers. Clickbait bullshit, the lot of them. Just look at hard review data and decide for yourself.

Just like I predicted zen4 x3d is now more expensive than zen5. My 14 month old 7800X3D now has equity and is aging like fine wine.

 

[Godrilla]

Update on more blind spots from a second hand used market perspective.

What will happen to the enthusiast level 4000 series in the second-hand market? AMD will also have to compete with that. Just a reminder for every 1 amd gpu sold there are almost 9 Nvidia. The second hand market will have more Nvidia supply than AMD'S rdna 4 gpus.
Used 4080super/4070ti super or rdna4 gpu?
The Midrange will probably be a disaster for the current owners of anything lower than a 4090 in terms holding value unfortunately.