Let's make it clear here, AMD is staring down the barrel regarding GPUs. The last 7 quarters are the worst for them since Jon Peddie Research started tracking this metric a decade ago, they had never dropped under 18% until Q3 2022, and with the upcoming Blackwell launch and nothing new from AMD we can expect NVIDIA to breach 90% of the desktop GPU market. That is annihilation territory for AMD GPUs, that is territory where they consider exiting the desktop consumer market and concentrate on consoles only. And what is AMD doing in response? Literally nothing.
See this is conjecture. Who said this? AMD isn't saying this, they're simply continuing development and they're not trying to keep pace with Nvidia because they know they can't.
Is AMD staring down the barrel? Is this really worse here than the years they were getting by on very low cashflow/margin products, pre-Ryzen? Are we really thinking they will destroy the one division that makes them a unique, synergistic player in the market?
There are a few indicators of markets moving.
- APUs are getting strong enough to run games proper, as gaming requirements are actually plateau-ing, you said it yourself, that 4060ti can even run 1440p. Does the PC market truly need discrete for a large segment of its gaming soon? Part of this key driver is also the PC handheld market, which AMD has captured admirably and IS devoting resources into.
- Their custom chip business line floats entirely on the presence and continued development of RDNA
- Their console business floats on continued development of RDNA - notably, sub high end, as those are the chips consoles want
- The endgame in PC gaming still floats on console ports before PC-first games at this point and with more cloudbased/unification between platforms, that won't get less, it will get more pronounced.
- AI will always move fastest on GPUs, another huge driver to keep RDNA.
Where is heavy RT in this outlook I wonder. I'm not seeing it. So Nvidia will command its little mountain of 'RT aficionado's on the PC', a dwindling discrete PC gaming market with a high cost of entry, and I think AMD will be fine selling vastly reduced numbers of GPU in that discrete PC segment because its just easy money alongside their other strategic business lines.
This whole thing wasn't new or hasn't changed since what, the first PS4.
AMD is fine, and I can totally see why they aren't moving. It would only introduce more risk for questionable gains, they can't just conjure up the technology to 'beat Nvidia' can they? Nvidia beats them at better integration of soft- and hardware.
Still, I see your other points about them and I understand why people are worried. But this isn't new to AMD. Its story of their life, and they're still here and their share gained 400% over the last five years.