AMD confirms it will not prioritize high-end GPUs in the Radeon 8000 series

After rumors, leaks and speculations pointing to the possibility of AMD not bringing a high-end graphics card in its next generation of GPUs, we now have confirmation of the strategy. The information was obtained by the people at Tom’s Hardware, who spoke to a company representative about the Radeon 8000 series.

Jack Huynh, vice president and general manager of AMD’s computing and graphics group, is the one who spoke about the upcoming RDNA 4-based GPUs. He’s the same executive who confirmed the Ryzen Z2 Extreme for early next year.

In a very extensive conversation with Tom’s Hardware, Huynh emphasized the importance of first increasing AMD’s market share. The executive talks about “scale”, and how this is important to attract developers. Asked about competing with Nvidia in the high-end segment, he responded:

“I’m looking at scale. And AMD is in a different place now. We have this debate a lot at AMD, right? So the question I ask is, PlayStation 5, do you think it’s hurting us? So I ask, is it okay to try to be King of the Hill? I’m looking at scale. Because when we have scale, then I’ll bring developers to us.”

Huynh’s strategy, then, would be to greatly expand AMD’s market share and have more games optimized for its GPUs, attracting more gamers. Currently, the manufacturer has only 12% of the home graphics card market.

The website asked the company’s representative directly if they intend to tackle the high-end segment with their next graphics cards. The answer was:

“One day, we can. But my priority right now is to build scale for AMD. Because without scale right now, I can’t get developers. If I tell developers, ‘I’m only going to go for 10% of the market share,’ they just say, ‘Jack, I wish you the best, but we have to go with Nvidia.’ So I have to show them a plan that says, ‘Hey, we can get 40% of the market with this strategy.’ Then they say, ‘I’m with you now, Jack. I’m going to optimize for AMD now.’ Once we have that, then we can go after the top.”

AMD remains focused on gaming

In the same interview, Huynh stressed that GPUs for gaming remain one of the company’s core pillars. In addition to his answers emphasizing the importance of having more developers optimizing for their cards, the executive spoke directly on the subject.

“Don’t worry, I love gaming. When I present to directors, I say that gaming is a strategic pillar in my strategy. I actually talk about a few things: commerce, PC and gaming.”

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AMD’s representative concluded his comments by noting that the company still offers enthusiast products in processors. “Don’t worry, we won’t forget about Threadrippers and Ryzen 9s,” he said.