AMD is one of the world’s biggest computer chip companies, best known for its fierce competition with Intel. It’s a rivalry that really kicked off in the early 2000s when AMD’s Athlon and Opteron processors saw great success. While AMD has often struggled to keep up with Intel, its latest Ryzen CPUs are some of the most competitive chips it has produced in years. AMD also acquired ATI in 2006, a 3D graphics card company. It now produces a variety of Radeon GPUs that compete with Nvidia’s GeForce line of graphics cards. AMD also produces the chips found in the latest PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and the Valve Steam Deck, and it re-entered the server market with its Epyc brand in 2017.
Monday was quite the whirlwind! Let’s take a step back and recap all of the fun surprises:
• Apple dropped the launch date for the Vision Pro.
• Samsung’s Ballie AI robot now doubles as a projector.
• MSI has a new Steam Deck competitor called the Claw.
• Nvidia revealed its RTX 4080 Super and RTX 4070 Ti Super.
There’s still more to come! Stay tuned to The Verge for more CES coverage from the show floor.
AMD is returning to CES 2024 this year to talk about AI PCs. Rumors suggest there could be some new Ryzen mobile chips, potentially a new AM4 processor, and even a new Radeon RX 7600 XT GPU. AMD’s event kicks off at 8AM PT / 10AM ET / 3PM GMT today, and you can watch the whole thing below. Stay tuned to The Verge for all the latest news from AMD.
The gorgeous X-ray-like close-up photos in this video are from Fritzchens Fritz — I’ve introduced you to his work before. You can also go straight to his Flickr page if you don’t have time for video. I particularly like this shot.
The video also shows how much smaller the Steam Deck OLED’s die-shrunk Sephiroth chip is — no die shots of that one yet, though.
Blowing the hidden fuse doesn’t necessarily void their warranty; while damage caused by overclocking won’t be covered, “other unrelated issues could still qualify for warranty repair / replacement,” the company says in a statement confirming the fuse to Tom’s Hardware.
GPD, a boutique handheld PC maker that’s been kicking around long before the Steam Deck, is now pointing the finger at AMD for failing to deliver an entire batch of 7840U chips for its Win Max 2.
Practically every PC gaming handheld maker save Valve uses this chip or derivatives. Maybe a shortage? Bad blood? We’ve asked AMD to comment. Ayaneo has a clamshell coming out too...
Framework has begun shipping out AMD mainboards for its 13-inch laptop, which was previously Intel-only. The component experts over at Tom’s Hardware have popped open their 13-inch model and swapped its Intel Core i7 out for an AMD Ryzen chip. The process took less than 30 minutes. Less than 30 minutes!
“All upgrades should be this easy,” editor Andrew E. Freedman writes.
At this year’s Code Conference, the CEO of one of the world’s largest computer chip companies discusses competing with Nvidia’s leading GPU, AI regulation, and the global supply chain.
I asked Su if she’s worried about Apple’s recent push to prove that its devices and M series chips are good for triple-A gaming. I get the sense she’s not.
“We’re gonna continue to push the envelope on the highest performing PCs and consoles’ chips, and I think we’re gonna be pretty good,” she added.
(I recommend reading the IGN interview where Apple made that claim, by the way. It’s by Verge alum Taylor Lyles!)
AMD’s Lisa Su somewhat dodges a question about whether a cloud gaming shift is underway: “I see PC gaming strong, I see console gaming strong, and I see cloud gaming also having legs. They all need similar types of technology but they obviously use it in different ways.”
That was Su’s response to Nilay asking if it would be possible. Microsoft and AMD are reportedly working together on an in-house AI chip for Microsoft. Su also confirmed that it would be possible to make AMD chips available to Azure customers in an invisible way — but she suggested asking Microsoft’s CTO Kevin Scott asking that question as well. Fortunately, he’ll be starting Wednesday’s show!
That’s AMD CEO Lisa Su’s take on that Huawei’s 7nm chip, which have raised some questions.
AMD’s Lisa Su is happy with CHIPS subsidies, but thinks we’re maybe a teensy bit behind the curve.
But Su says the company is putting “a tremendous amount of effort to getting the entire supply chain ramped up.”
Scott Herkelman ran the Radeon business unit since 2016, getting AMD back in the game.
He’s not the only AMD graphics boss to leave this year, as “Computing & Graphics EVP” Rick Bergman recently retired too. Bergman was replaced by Jack Huynh, whose previous division helped AMD dominate two generations of game consoles (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series) with semi-custom gaming chips.
AMD’s latest GPUs will put even more pressure on Nvidia’s RTX 40-series pricing.
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It’s not quite as powerful as the gargantuan Strix Scar X3D, but it’s also not quite as expensive.
AMD has accidentally revealed its Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT in a post on X / Twitter. VideoCardz spotted the post, which linked to the AMD website and shows off unannounced Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT GPUs. AMD has a Gamescom event later today, where it’s expected to announce these new GPUs.
In addition to a remastered edition of Quake II for all platforms, Bethesda just announced this Starfield limited edition AMD hardware at QuakeCon 2023.
However, unlike the $299.99 Starfield Constellation Edition that comes with a real-life watch and access to the game up to five days before its September 6th launch, you won’t be able to buy these. Only 500 were made, and apparently, you’ll only be able to get them during giveaways on the QuakeCon livestream this weekend.
Not sure how I missed this on the earnings call, but Su says “new, enthusiast-class Radeon 7000 series cards” are coming Q3 — a quarter that ends on October 1st, less than two months from today!
VideoCardz rightly points out that these “enthusiast” GPUs will almost certainly be the RX 7700, 7800 or 7800 XT, because AMD uses “ultra-enthusiast” to describe 7900, and “mainstream” to describe 7600.
AMD’s MI300 data center AI accelerator chips will ramp in the fourth quarter of this year, CEO Lisa Su just said during the company’s Q2 earnings call.
She says the company already has customers for the MI300X generative AI chip. “We expect early deployments as we go into the first half of 2024, and then we would expect more volume in the second half of ‘24 as those things fully qualify,” says Su.
AMD projects data center AI accelerators could be a $150 billion market by 2027.
AMD’s Q2 2023 earnings shows the company’s doing worse in PCs than industry slump would suggest — while Intel’s PC chips were down 12 percent, AMD’s client CPUs are down 54 percent. But AMD says its new Ryzen 7000 CPUs are actually up 35 percent sequentially — a glut of older chips is likely to blame.
Gaming rev was only down 4 percent because semi-custom (read: game consoles) actually grew — but gaming graphics (read: GPUs) are down. Overall, the company’s back to a slim profit of $27 million in Q2.
