AMD upends GPU tradition by launching 'Navi' as a lower-end part
Although AMD is readying its new “Navi” GPU architecture for launch later this year, AMD executives revealed a surprise: The company plans to price it below the upcoming Radeon VII GPU.
AMD executives revealed their decision during AMD’s first-quarter earnings call. The company missed profit estimates, but surpassed analysts’ revenue forecasts. AMD reported net income of $16 million, down 80 percent year-over-year, on revenue of $1.27 billion, down 23 percent.
What this means: We’ve already seen how Intel has weathered a rocky quarter, and how unconfirmed roadmap leaks may signal a rough road ahead, too. The perception was that AMD’s own outlook was relatively rosy, and straightforward. We didn’t expect to hear this positioning, however, and we hope AMD has a chance to explain itself a bit more fully going forward on what its strategy is.