Reports say that AMD is now prioritizing AI chips ahead of the GPU flagship for gamers.
The company just laid out a new business strategy, where it plans to merge its RDNA gaming graphics and CNDA data center efforts into a unified system architecture called UDNA that is aimed at AI.
In a recent interview with Tom’s Hardware, AMD senior vice president Jack Huynh revealed their aspirations for flagship gaming GPUs, saying “My number one priority right now is to build scale.” It means that the focus will now be on the mid-range and affordable market for gaming graphics cards.
Jack Huynh said, “Without scale right now, I can’t get the developers. If I tell developers, ‘I’m just going for 10 percent of the market share,’ they just say, ‘Jack, I wish you well, but we have to go with Nvidia.’ So, I have to show them a plan that says, ‘Hey, we can get to 40% market share with this strategy.’ Then they say, ‘I’m with you now, Jack. Now I’ll optimize on AMD.’ Once we get that, then we can go after the top.”
AMD wants to build a “King of the Hill” for the AI data center, as that’s where it has a substantial market share with its EPYC CPUs. AMD is following its rival NVIDIA’s lead, and hence it might probably sound familiar.
In the Tom’s Hardware interview, Jack Huynh revealed he wants to chase the success of Nvidia’s own universal CUDA platform as well.
However, we are not yet sure as to what changes UDNA will bring, as Jack Huynh didn’t go into detail. However, one drawback we are certain of is the lack of dedicated AI acceleration units in RDNA.
Although the unified UDNA architecture is a logical effort to compete with CUDA, it still has a long way to go.
