AMD to Cut its Workforce by About Four Percent

[R0H1T]

The Stock price is more important to these Companies than the Employees.

Always has been, everyone's just a number on their payrolls!

 

[Bwaze]

Didn't Intel do somehting similar a month or so ago though fired/slashed operating costs by billions or did I just dream that?

Intel is laying off over 15,000 employees and will stop ‘non-essential work’

That’s a lot of layoffs.

www.theverge.com

Intel to lay off more than 15% of workforce — 15,000 or more employees — encountered Meteor Lake yield issues, suspends dividend

From bad to worse.

www.tomshardware.com

Intel fires 15,000 employees as it intensifies focus on AI

The chip maker’s AI bet is yet to take off as margins continue to shrink and revenue growth remains challenging.

www.computerworld.com

My math, 4% of 26,000 is surely better than 15% of 100'000?

Yes,and Intel got awarded for that by shareholders, although they had crap products, and have just released a new line of crap products, and it looks they'll continue down this crap road.

Maybe AMD took note and equated laying people off with success on stock market! Who needs good financial results, just throw people on the street!

 

[GoldenX]

Are we supposed to expect this will solve any problem AMD has?
What a joke.

 

[Quicks]

Hopefully the axe comes down hardest on their marketing department.

Agree, they probably caused a lot of damage for AMD. Claiming huge performance numbers on CPU's and GPU's and when release nowhere near the promised marketing. Then AMD get thrown under the bus by reviewers because they don't know where it went wrong.

 

[_roman_]

I wish they would keep the people and fix the existing bugs for graphic cards and processors

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Intel is shrinking and floundering, and AMD just released their hottest consumer-facing product in decades (maybe, ever).
This just doesn't seem like the right time for layoffs. Maybe, there's something else AMD sees on the horizon?

Which, however, is not foolproof. Outside has first burned 9800x3d which pass with socket together. Bad installed possible.

 

[eidairaman1]

Are we supposed to expect this will solve any problem AMD has?
What a joke.

Who pissed in your cereal?

I wish they would keep the people and fix the existing bugs for graphic cards and processors

What bugs?

 

[Gigaherz]

Hopefully the axe comes down hardest on their marketing department.

For real, their ads are trash. The product marketing however is pretty nice (speaking about slides and packaging)

 

[_roman_]

What bugs?

I think you try to troll - but i give you a small list - a very, very, very small list

Have you ever tried to create a game profile when a game is running? Try to change the fan curve - all five fan values to the maximum or minimum - it is not applied. Quite the game / sometimes restart windows -> start the game again the fan curve is applied from the game profile

W11 PRO 24h2 -> some warm boots necessary -> to show the graphical user interface from the amd gpu driver to change game profiles or to see anything (happens very, very, very often)

User interface offers to not check for updates. But that option is ignored. Regardless if that option is turned on or turned off. Long term bug.

Memory bug for Radeon 6800 non xt (exists for 5000 radeon cards also)

Hole settings are very often lost when updating the windows gpu driver. No option to save the hole config and revert everything from a single file

installer does not remember location for installs. files are cluttered everywhere and are not in c:\amd -> as i always use.

so many lint files in so many files

no temporary files cleanup

driver update issues

installing only a part, not hte full windows package, causes some side effects in the windows 11 pro driver. I do not want the streamer feature in a gpu driver.

~800MB gpu driver size (this is a joke) - was around 300 MB I think a year ago.

Just for information. I'm a long term gnu linux user. I only use Windows for Gaming. I do not really care for anything except UEFI updates, the regular update windows package from computerbase.de/downloads -> monthly windows update package + wlan + amd gpu driver update package, i sometimes updates the browser. nearly no other software on the windows box. This windows 11 installation was installed as i bought my hardware in may 2023.

There are more, but I have to think about them ... just a small fast list which i instantly remember.

--

gnu linux no fan curve control, no voltage control, no software -> the gnu linux driver is a joke. 6600XT / 6800 non XT / 7800xt
Tell me why I am not allowed to set the fan curve always to 30%

There exists no user interface for anything from amd - which works - 3 months ago.

barely any support for gnu linux

--

wrong edid values are read out which causes wrong settings which causes in windows 11 pro and in gnu linux high memory clocks always which causes too high idle consumption. creating a modeline fix or a custom config for windows 11 pro is a nasty hack.

----
----

cpu bugs -> see all those CVE (i think we do not need to discuss what a cve is and why it's important)

 

[StimpsonJCat]

AMD's amateur-hour management continues.

They don't even have the staff to test their new products before they get released to the public! Zen 5%

 

[Broken Processor]

Hopefully it's from marketing and retail GPU. With AMD moving to UDNA it's probably shuffling more work onto the shoulders of that existing team but who knows.

 

[Kyan]

What bugs?

With the latest driver version, I get a driver crash only when I put a Discord video in full screen on my secondary vertical display. And my tuned version of mpc-be doesn't display any video, just the audio of that video.
Funny thing is that rolling back to 24.8 works as intended, but fan control doesn't work with this version anymore. I didn't try to use an older version of fan control, but it should work. I'll test it later.
So yes, there are bugs, not everyone has them or the same ones. This is the first time since I got my 6750XT in 2022 that I've had such a weird and annoying bug.

On the subject, I think, as others have said, given the "low" percentage, that it could be a reorganisation of the workforce following the recent acquisition. And it makes sense to make some changes while you're doing great, rather than in a rush to save money.

 

[Daven]

I think you try to troll - but i give you a small list - a very, very, very small list

Have you ever tried to create a game profile when a game is running? Try to change the fan curve - all five fan values to the maximum or minimum - it is not applied. Quite the game / sometimes restart windows -> start the game again the fan curve is applied from the game profile

W11 PRO 24h2 -> some warm boots necessary -> to show the graphical user interface from the amd gpu driver to change game profiles or to see anything (happens very, very, very often)

User interface offers to not check for updates. But that option is ignored. Regardless if that option is turned on or turned off. Long term bug.

Memory bug for Radeon 6800 non xt (exists for 5000 radeon cards also)

Hole settings are very often lost when updating the windows gpu driver. No option to save the hole config and revert everything from a single file

installer does not remember location for installs. files are cluttered everywhere and are not in c:\amd -> as i always use.

so many lint files in so many files

no temporary files cleanup

driver update issues

installing only a part, not hte full windows package, causes some side effects in the windows 11 pro driver. I do not want the streamer feature in a gpu driver.

~800MB gpu driver size (this is a joke) - was around 300 MB I think a year ago.

Just for information. I'm a long term gnu linux user. I only use Windows for Gaming. I do not really care for anything except UEFI updates, the regular update windows package from computerbase.de/downloads -> monthly windows update package + wlan + amd gpu driver update package, i sometimes updates the browser. nearly no other software on the windows box. This windows 11 installation was installed as i bought my hardware in may 2023.

There are more, but I have to think about them ... just a small fast list which i instantly remember.

--

gnu linux no fan curve control, no voltage control, no software -> the gnu linux driver is a joke. 6600XT / 6800 non XT / 7800xt
Tell me why I am not allowed to set the fan curve always to 30%

There exists no user interface for anything from amd - which works - 3 months ago.

barely any support for gnu linux

--

wrong edid values are read out which causes wrong settings which causes in windows 11 pro and in gnu linux high memory clocks always which causes too high idle consumption. creating a modeline fix or a custom config for windows 11 pro is a nasty hack.

----
----

cpu bugs -> see all those CVE (i think we do not need to discuss what a cve is and why it's important)

I can use Google too. Here are the Nvidia bugs:

Some known NVIDIA software bugs include: issues with the OpenGL compiler causing high GPU usage, problems with shader compilation in Vulkan, bugs related to smoothstep function calculations, potential inconsistencies in Python header lines during script execution, driver failures to set priority for specific communication protocols, and vulnerabilities that could allow privilege escalation for attackers in the GPU display driver, often detailed in NVIDIA security bulletins.

Specific examples:

• Shader compilation issues:
  Bugs in the NVIDIA Vulkan driver compiler leading to issues with compiling shaders in certain applications like Chrome.
  
  
• Incorrect smoothstep behavior:
  Discrepancies between how the "smoothstep" function operates on the GPU compared to the CPU, potentially causing visual glitches.
  
  
  
• Python header inconsistencies:
  Potential issues with the shebang line in Python scripts depending on the Linux distribution.
  
  
• Priority setting errors:
  Cases where the driver fails to set the correct priority for specific communication protocols like DCT, potentially impacting performance.
  
  
• Vulnerability in GPU display driver:
  Security issues in the NVIDIA GPU display driver that could allow attackers to escalate their privileges on a system
  
  All hardware and software has bugs. ALL OF IT!!!

 

[DDCC]

I remembered this recent interview with AMD's Computing and Graphics Business Group head Jack Huynh.

AMD in an interview with Tom's Hardware, confirmed that its next generation of gaming GPUs based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture will not target the enthusiast graphics segment.

 

[Baba]

That is great for Valve but don't forget Valve is mostly a service company (regarding income) and basically has monopoly on that if not "legally a monopoly" still owning all the competition in every important metric.
On the lay off part :
View attachment 371593
Everything is up, so it mean move.

You're wrongly looking at the overall results. GPU division is shrinking. It is only 6.8% of their total revenue and will keep getting smaller. Hence they're abandoning RDNA and combining it with CDNA. AMD is transitioning into AI and is focusing on the data segment. Layoffs will probably come from the gaming segment as well as the embedded segment (Xilinx FPGAs for autos).

CPU division is gaining marketshare of an ever shrinking pie. ARM is going to take more and more. Such a niche group of gamers care about the 9800X3D. Professionals buy Macbook Pros. I don't want a plastic monstrocity with a dragon logo, RGB, discrete GPU lasting 1hr on battery, and an inferior screen from a company I don't trust. Apple is growing marketshare and so will Qualcomm's ARM chips. I'm not even talking about Nvidia yet. AMD is stagnating big time in CPUs. Zen 5 is a failure. 5%-10% increases? That's unnoticable in the real world. Where are the NPU cores that Apple, Qualcomm and no doubt Nvidia will have? AMD better get going on the ARM side of CPUs. Windows just released an ARM version. Regardless of the sold out stories online, there are dozens of 9800X3Ds in stock all around me in stores.


Segment Summary

• Record Data Center segment revenue of $3.5 billion was up 122% year-over-year and 25% sequentially primarily driven by the strong ramp of AMD Instinct™ GPU shipments and growth in AMD EPYC™ CPU sales.
• Client segment revenue was $1.9 billion, up 29% year-over-year and 26% sequentially primarily driven by strong demand for “Zen 5” AMD Ryzen™ processors.
• Gaming segment revenue was $462 million, down 69% year-over-year and 29% sequentially primarily due to a decrease in semi-custom revenue.
• Embedded segment revenue was $927 million, down 25% year-over-year as customers normalized their inventory levels. On a sequential basis, revenue increased 8% as demand improved in several end markets.

 

[A Computer Guy]

Intel is shrinking and floundering, and AMD just released their hottest consumer-facing product in decades (maybe, ever).
This just doesn't seem like the right time for layoffs. Maybe, there's something else AMD sees on the horizon?

ARM and Windows, competition could be heating up.

 

[GoldenX]

Who pissed in your cereal?


What bugs?

No GPU reset, relying entirely on WDDM, and having nothing on Linux. AMD GPUs just crash and take the desktop session with them.
Broken AV1 encoding, making it impossible to record 1080p video, 1082/1086p is the best the encoder can do.
No profiles for any encoding format, making software like OBS and the rest have terrible quality while actually having good hardware encoders.
Bad RT performance.
Bad compute performance.
Crashes on critical new releases, like the new season of Fortnite.
Absolute lack of support for 24-bit depth formats and no fallback option.
Subpar HDR performance, sometimes limiting max nits to 500.
ROCm support is a joke, only runs on 3 cards, and it's absolutely unstable. Windows support lacking.
FSR 3.1 is the worst option available for scaling.

On top of other management issues like terrible pricing and only focusing on trying to compete with CUDA with a 17 years handicap.
And to add insult to injury, they take the luxury of firing people, as if it will solve any of this. Glad to see your support for the decision.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Just for reference, 4% of 26,000 is 1,040. Yup. A thousand people will be losing their jobs to AI..

I would argue, when you are doing well, thats also a good time to cut people, dont keep the bloat. You shouldnt cut just because your financials are bad.

Of course there is this to consider.

 

[cal5582]

Which, however, is not foolproof. Outside has first burned 9800x3d which pass with socket together. Bad installed possible.

you mean the guy that slammed it in there like an angry chimp and bent the pins?

 

[kapone32]

When people complain I wonder how they feel. AMD has been attacked in GPU space from every corner. I have people tell me that what I feel is not real even though they have never used my hardware. Even some staff members tell me that I am lying. I was watching the MSI Gaming live stream and got them to admit that CPU performance matters in Games. I kept bringing up City Skylines 2, Space Marine 2 and Factorio. Now we have this thread that is discussing AMD support on AM5 when it is a huge nothing burger. If you don't like X870E you can get X670E. If you can't afford those boards A620 is a fine choice for most people. It has been funny watching reviewers twist into pretzels trying to justify Intel. I have been drinking and the events of the past few days have pissed me off as I listen to Reggae so the juices are flowing. I do not want to see Intel fail but I do want to see them try. Getting back to the post as I have been posting ad nauseam AMD needs to be commended for their socket support and X3D has changed PC Gaming forever. Just imagine if AMD repeats their track record with AM4 on AM5. I remember posting that a 5800X is 100% faster than a 1700X if you apply math to AMD's improvements over CPU generations on AM4. The 3300X proved that AMD were onto something and if you had the pleasure of using a 5900X or 5950X, most of us are fans of Dual CCD. Now it is 2024 and we have AM5. The 9800X3D was not just a mic drop but the entire stage being dropped on Intel. The CPU space has been changed forever. Now we have Nvidia announcing an APU which as I have said before is to try to break AMD's dominance in the Handheld space. What they don't realize is like the Borg in Star Trek AMD has solidified their position. There is no tech enthusiast who is not excited about Strix Point CPUs and just to bring it back to the thread that is basically AM5.

 

[3valatzy]

Hopefully the axe comes down hardest on their marketing department.

Won't help. The problem is called Lisa Su. The head should go...

 

[kapone32]

Won't help. The problem is called Lisa Su. The head should go...

Please provide 5 points to support your position.

 

[cal5582]

Won't help. The problem is called Lisa Su. The head should go...

why would you axe someone who brought them from bankruptcy to having more cpu marketshare than they did during the athlon 64 days?

 

[3valatzy]

why would you axe someone who brought them from bankruptcy to having more cpu marketshare than they did during the athlon 64 days?

It wasn't her who designed the Zen processors.
It is her who is responsible for the most important decisions, and the grand strategy of the corporation. Besides the Ryzen CPUs, nothing at the company is worth it.
The GPU division is from bad to worse. When a team plays bad, it's not the players who get dismissed, but the manager in charge.

 

[kapone32]

It wasn't her who designed the Zen processors.
It is her who is responsible for the most important decisions, and the grand strategy of the corporation. Besides the Ryzen CPUs, nothing at the company is worth it.
The GPU division is from bad to worse. When a team plays bad, it's not the players who get dismissed, but the manager in charge.

Your glass is half full. AMD has changed CPUs with a new hierarchy based on application.

Gaming: X3D

Productivity with Power: Dual CCD

IGPU: 8700G

None of that is conjecture. Lisa Su has been at the helm for all of that. She also took from the Company that would promise the Earth and deliver the Moon to a Company that kept it's info close to the vest. Should we start the inevitable comparison to what Intel have done in the same space?