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AMD shuns GPU enthusiast crowd

by on09 September 2024


Wants to focus on low to mid range

A dark satanic rumour claiming that AMD wants to move away from the high-end enthusiast GPU crowd to focus on cheap and cheerful chips has been confirmed.

AMD's SvP and GM of the Computing and Graphics Business Group, Jack Huynh told Tom’s Hardware the company should focus on GPU scaling, given that this segment holds 80 per cent of the market share. Competing with NVIDIA in the enthusiast segment hasn't been fruitful, and by shifting market targets, AMD hopes to perform better.

Huynh said: "So, my number one priority right now is to build scale, to get us to 40 to 50 percent of the market faster. Do I want to go after 10% of the TAM [Total Addressable Market] or 80 per cent? I’m an 80 per cent  kind of guy because I don’t want AMD to be the company that only people who can afford Porsches and Ferraris can buy. We want to build gaming systems for millions of users.

“Yes, we will have great, great, great products. But we tried that strategy [King of the Hill] — it hasn’t really grown. ATI has tried this King of the Hill strategy, and the market share has kind of been...the market share. I want to build the best products at the right system price point. So, think about price point-wise; we’ll have leadership."

This confirms rumours about AMD's RDNA 4 lineup, suggesting that the company won't be catering to the enthusiast crowd with its upcoming Radeon RX 8000 "RDNA 4" GPU family. One of the high-end Navi chips, the Navi 4C/4X, was unceremoniously axed mid-development.

Huynh said the firm is now keen to build a portfolio that competes on pricing and value rather than maxing out specs and price tags. This doesn't mean Team Red won't dabble in the enthusiast segment, but the upcoming "RX 8000" series SKUs will take a different approach, potentially marking a breakout moment for AMD.

This will be AMD's third attempt to start from the mainstream segment and scale up to high-end and enthusiast GPU segments and previous attempts have not worked that well.

The AMD Radeon RX 8000 "RDNA 4" GPUs are expected to debut next year at CES, with the launch following soon after in the first quarter.

Last modified on 09 September 2024
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