Items tagged with NYSE: AMD
AMD has just released the latest version of its Radeon Crimson graphics driver, 16.2. If you plan on playing either Ashes of the Singularity or Rise of the Tomb Raider, this driver is going to be worth the time it takes to download. For everyone else, if time and bandwidth isn't an issue, you may still want to grab the update as there is a long list of fixes. At the forefront, AOTS is the highlight here. Earlier this week, AMD worked with Stardock to deliver an improved DirectX 12 benchmark. This enabled asynchronous compute, multi-GPU support, and multi-threaded command buffer re-ordering. There's a good reason AMD is helping Stardock out with this: its Radeon GPUs are delivering the best benchmark...
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It's no secret that NVIDIA does a great job of bundling in some epic games to help it move graphics cards -- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the latest example. Meanwhile, in recent years, AMD has largely targeted odd games that don't appeal to a wide audience, or has given gamers a choice of one or more outdated games -- that's just not as appealing as a brand-new AAA title. Well, with its upcoming Radeon lineup, AMD might finally have a game on offer that's going to settle the deal for many: Star Wars Battlefront. The original Battlefront games became cult classics, and a reboot is something that was demanded from gamers long in advance of an actual announcement. The hype for this game is...
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NVIDIA's latest high-end GeForce cards, the GTX 980 and 970, are powerful - a fact we well-established in our in-depth look last month. In fact, I'd wager that the cards are so powerful - and not to mention so power-efficient - that even AMD itself was taken by surprise. To me, it felt like NVIDIA pulled out all the punches to make AMD feel it. I think that the company could have released both the 970 and 980 scaled-back a little bit, and they still would have impressed us. Nonetheless, with NVIDIA's latest cards totally ruining AMD's value proposition at the high-end, the red team has finally decided to drop the prices on a number of its Radeon graphics cards. The high-end R9 290X, for...
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Radeon fans, take note! AMD is going to be hosting a livestream this AM (9 CT, 10 ET) called "30 Years of Graphics and Gaming." Given the headline, you can probably make a guess or two at what is going to be discussed. What we know for certain is that if you've been a PC gamer for a while, a trip down memory lane with a bit of nostalgia awaits. With AMD inviting everyone to tune in, you can also expect that a couple of cool products will be announced, as well. AMD's livestream is going to be hosted by the company's Chief Gaming Scientist, Richard Huddy, and as he has recently rejoined the company, we're sure he's anxiously waiting to tell us what he's been up to, as well as clue us into what's...
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Sometimes, it's just better to build something yourself - even microprocessors. That's something that Russia proved this week as it was announced that the government would be funding a project to build a custom CPU, codenamed Baikal. The deal is worth "dozens of millions" of dollars, and supercomputer designer T-Platforms will be the firm to head-up development. Like every other country on earth, Russia wants to keep its secrets and internal information secret and internal. As such, it feels that it can't trust American-built processors, eg: Those made by Intel and AMD. Given the fact that it's been heavily rumored that the NSA has worked with both of those companies in the past, and also that...
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AMD is banking big on a heterogeneous server future, one where CPUs and GPUs work in unison to offer unparalleled performance. And speaking of parallels, that's just where AMD thinks its APUs can shine. It should come as a surprise to no one at this point that if a process can take advantage of a highly parallel processor, then running it on the GPU is a no-brainer; otherwise, the process can be kept on the CPU. AMD calls this magic HSA, or heterogeneous system architecture. To aide developers for the future of HSA, AMD has been working with a couple of developers to release tools that are going to make the transition to CPU+GPU computing much easier. Project Sumatra, for example, is a joint...
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In case you haven't noticed, it's pretty tough sledding out there in the semiconductor space. Margins are thin, suppliers are demanding, consumers are finicky, and we're living in a world that constantly demands more power for less money. It's a story that's familiar to AMD, which has been in some state of turmoil for years it seems. Ups and downs at AMD are nothing out of the ordinary, but considering that the planet would be quite a boring place with only Intel in the space, we're happy to see AMD's third-quarter earnings. Following Intel's own profitable Q3, AMD is citing a major boom in the semi-custom business as the key proponent for its Q3 net income figure of $48 million. Revenue for...
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You may have heard that AMD is in some way, shape, or form powering each of the three next generation game consoles (Nintendo Wii U, Microsoft Xbox One, and Sony PlayStation 4), but don't you worry, PC gamers, the Sunnyvale chip designer hasn't forgotten about your platform of choice. Far from it, AMD made at splash at Gamescom 2013 in Cologne, Germany, by partnering with several developers to showcase the latest PC titles that fall under its Gaming Evolved program. Need a refresher? "AMD’s Gaming Evolved program represents our deep commitment to PC gamers, PC game developers, and the PC gaming industry to deliver innovative technologies, nurture open industry standards, and to help the...
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We have some good news for PC gamers. AMD's free game promotion with the purchase of select graphics cards from qualifying vendors continues today with the arrival of the "Never Settle Forever" bundle, the third edition of the "Never Settle" franchise of game bundles. It's also the most flexible of the bunch, as gamers can now choose exactly which titles they want to receive. "AMD has numerous close ISV partnerships with the world’s top game developers and we are thrilled to collaborate with them to the benefit of gamers," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit, AMD. "But the ‘Never Settle Forever’ program is an entirely new dimension...
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You may have noticed that AMD's Radeon HD 7990 graphics card is selling for less money these days. That's because the Sunnyvale chip designer issued a generous price cut to its flagship part, and the end result is that you can get your mitts on what was once a $1,000 card for around $700 or less. Shop around a little and you could save even more. Granted, $700 is hardly cheap, but we're talking about a dual-GPU graphics card that's capable of performing like two Radeon HD 7970 cards when properly scaled (see our full review). Equally important, there's a value proposition at the $700 price point that didn't exist at the $1,000 mark. Officially, AMD knocked $200 off the MSRP. We reached out to...
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AMD expanded its line of low-power G-series APUs with the GX-210JA, a full SoC design for x86-based embedded systems that the company says uses a third less energy than even its own previous embedded G-series chips, with a TDP of just 6W. Further, AMD says that the chip’s “average power” is a mere 3W. Like the recent Intel announcement about a Haswell chip with a 4.5W SDP (which, as we mentioned, is not an apples-to-apples comparison with TDP), the GX-210JA is designed for fanless designs. The AMD chip could find its way into fields ranging from industrial controls to digital gaming to digital signage and thin client computing. AMD G-Series platform block diagram "AMD Embedded...
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AMD has a new beta graphics driver available--the AMD Catalyst 13.6 Beta2 Driver--which features the typical sort of feature list that you’d expect from a driver release, with a notable exception: there’s no support for Windows XP. In the “system requirements” area, AMD lists Windows 8 (32 & 64-bit versions), Windows 7 (32 & 64-bit versions with SP1 or higher), and Windows Vista (32 & 64-bit versions with SP2 or higher). That’s not surprising. Windows XP is a venerable operating system, to be sure, but it’s long overdue for mothballs. Microsoft will stop supporting the OS in April, and the company has been pushing for businesses, who are otherwise...
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AMD is stepping up its efforts on the CPU front by announcing two new FX-series chips, the FX-9590 and FX-9370. The company claims that the FX-9590 is the world’s first commercially available processor clocked at 5GHz (Max Turbo), and the FX-9370 isn’t far behind at 4.7GHz(Max Turbo). Based on the Piledriver architecture, the 8-core processors are unlocked so gamers can push the already-high CPU clock even further. They also feature AMD Turbo Core 3.0, which is designed to optimize performance across all of the CPU’s cores. MAINGEAR SHIFT with AMD's New 5GHz CPU AMD isn’t offering up too many additional details on the FX-9590 and FX-9370, although of course they’re...
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Although AMD said in January that it was diving in strong with Windows 8 and was not interested in making chips for Android devices, senior vice president and general manager of global business units at AMD Lisa Su told PCWorld that the company may shift some of its focus to building chips for Google’s two operating systems and is in fact working with developers on Android apps for AMD processors. "We are very committed to Windows 8; we think it's a great operating system, but we also see a market for Android and Chrome developing as well," she said. Kabini-based AMD A6-Series APU It’s not hard to imagine why AMD would consider making chips for Android and Chrome OS devices. For one...
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Feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the Haswell headlines dominating the tech scene? Lest anyone forget, AMD still has game, and it just so happens that boutique system builder Maingear is offering the Sunnyvale chip designer's new A-10 6800K APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) in both its Potenza and Vybe line of gaming PCs. Starting with the less expensive of the two, a Maingear Vybe machine configured with an AMD A-10 6800K CPU runs $649 and up. A baseline configuration consists of a Vybe 2012 chassis, MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 motherboard, 8GB of DDR3-2133, AMD Radeon HD 8570D (integrated into the APU) + Radeon HD 6570 discrete graphics, 1TB hard drive, 24X CD burner, 430W power supply, Windows 7 Home...
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Despite Intel’s dominance in the PC chip market, AMD is not going away; far from it. Talking to them at CES, you could tell the AMD folks had a plan, and apparently the Xbox One was part of it. AMD chips underpin the new consoles, and according to GameSpot, the deal AMD struck with Microsoft for the Xbox One is valued at over $3 billion. Bob Feldstein, formerly AMD vice president of Strategic Development, had a (now deleted) note on his LinkedIn profile stating that AMD developed a “custom silicon solution” for the gaming console. “This required the coordination of multiple functional teams within AMD, as well as regular customer meetings with leadership teams responsible...
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Consumers are going crazy for tablet devices these days. It started with Apple's iPad, which is still the best selling tablet line out there, and continues with the influx of low-cost Android slates from name-brand vendors like Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Asus, and so forth. Tablets have become so popular that Microsoft went and re-imagined Windows for touch input on-the-go. It seems unlikely these mobile devices are going anywhere, or does it? At an AMD event the other day, AMD U.K. Retail Business Development Manager Andrew Muscat told T3 that the market will shift away from tablets and towards hybrid devices. Muscat fully acknowledges that slates like the Nexus 7 and iPad mini are super popular,...
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Rumor has it--er, has had it--that the Xbox 720 “Durango”, which is potentially slated to debut in May, would have AMD silicon inside. A Bloomberg report further points to that rumor as being highly likely. Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg says that the Xbox 720 will run on an AMD “Jaguar” SoC, which means that the Xbox will shift from IBM’s Power PC technology to an x86 architecture. That’s great news for game developers, who previously had to deal with creating games for the PC and then retooling them for consoles. (Sony’s PlayStation 4 will also have an AMD Jaguar SoC inside.) Now, they can easily port games from the PC to next-gen consoles. Unfortunately,...
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Livestream, the company that connects millions of people over the Internet to live events, has upgraded its infrastructure with AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 server with SeaMicro Freedom Fabric Storage as the core platform to provide live video and collaboration, AMD announced today. Equally important, Livesteam's decision to invest in fabric technology provides further validation to AMD's decision to acquire SeaMicro for $334 million, the price it paid back in March 2012. Livestream's investment allows it to double its computing density while reducing power consumption, all while providing plenty of capacity for future expansion. Furthermore, Livestream received a grant from the New York State Energy...
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It's never too early to start looking ahead to your tax refund, and if a graphics card upgrade is on your radar, AMD has an enticing offer. The Sunnyvale chip designer just announced the arrival of its "Never Settle: Reloaded" game bundle, the sequel to last year's "Never Settle" bundle, which allows gamers to receive download codes for triple AAA titles with the purchase of select Radeon HD 7800 and 7900 Series graphics cards. "AMD knows gaming and in 2013 we plan to make a huge mark on the industry. Today we begin that journey by showing the world that the best PC game developers are AMD Gaming Evolved partners," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD Graphics....
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After struggling as of late in the market, AMD is mounting an offensive against very stiff competition, and part of that effort is the next generation of the company’s APUs. Codenamed “Richland”, we knew that these chips will be built on Piledriver CPU cores just as the last generation Trinity APUs are, and that Richland APUs will have an updated graphics core. VR-Zone published a table of leaked specs that show more details. Assuming this information is correct, there will be at least six SKUs ranging from an A4 to an A10 with a mix of dual- and quad-core chips bearing 6000-series numbering. That “updated graphics core” turns out to be HD 8000-series graphics. Image...
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If you have a penchant for x86-based embedded system development, AMD and GizmoSphere have a new tiny board for you to play with. The Gizmo is a 4 x 4-inch development board designed for use in applications as diverse as set-top boxes, industrial control systems, and casino gaming, and it features an AMD G-T40E processor (dual core, 1GHz) with Radeon HD 6250 graphics, and 1GB of DDR3 SDRAM. The Gizmo purports of offer 52 GFLOPS performance while consuming just 10W of power, and it supports operating systems including Android, Linux, RTOSes and Windows. There are plenty of connectors on board, including low- and high-speed PCIe edge connectors, a development and debug header, VGA, Ethernet port,...
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