AMD has released its Q1 2020 financial details, showing a slight drop in revenue, $1.79 billion, compared to the previous quarter, by 16 percent, but also an impressive increase compared to the same quarter last year, up by 40 percent. AMD said it has executed well in the first quarter", and while it expects some uncertainly in the near-term demand environment, AMD says its solid financial foundation and strong product portfolio puts it in a good position.
AMD is certainly putting a lot of pressure on Intel, in both desktop and mobile CPU markets, and more importantly, it has managed to keep delivering on its promises with solid roadmaps. While its RDNA architecture did not manage to dethrone or significantly shake Nvidia, bear in mind that AMD still holds the semi-custom and will be powering both Microsoft Xbox X Series and Sony PlayStation 5 consoles, which should launch during 2020 holiday season.
AMD has already revealed a few details about the Zen 3 CPU architecture and we know it will be based on TSMC's 7nm+ manufacturing process, as well as promising continuous performance-per-watt gains.
Earlier this week, some first rumors regarding AMD's Ryzen 5000 mobile chips, codename Cezanne, have shown up, promising significant IPC improvements, as well as info that it should be paired up with RDNA 2 GPU, which will be a significant boost compared to the 7nm Vega GPU in the Renoir mobile chips.
The Zen 3 architecture will bring Milan server CPUs, Genesis Peak Ryzen Threadripper CPUs, Vermeer desktop CPUs, and the aforementioned Cezanne mobile APUs.
AMD has also provided some details regarding its RDNA 2 GPU architecture as well, updating its GPU roadmap with both RDNA 2, based on the 7nm manufacturing process, as well as RDNA 3, which will be based on "an advanced node".
Back at AMD's Financial Analyst Day 2020, David Wang, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Radeon Technology Group, revealed a bit more information about RDNA 2 architecture, promising performance-per-watt improvement, or 50 percent over first-generation RDNA architecture, which will come from improved IPC, logic enhancements and physical optimizations, like increased clock speed, as well as support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and Variable Rate Shading.
AMD definitely has a big year ahead, and it all comes down to execution, and Dr. Lisa Su has certainly managed to hold the company reins and whip it into shape, with solid roadmap delivery and keeping the focus on certain market segments. The "late 2020" timeframe for launch gives AMD a lot of room, from September to December, which is not a big surprise considering the uncertainty that COVID-19 pandemic has brought to all markets.
