AMD investor slide touts enthusiast Vega H1 2017 launch

by Mark Tyson on 30 August 2016, 09:01

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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Slides from a purported leaked AMD presentation to investors have come to light over the weekend. They are interesting as they reveal a little more detail than the tech press got provided, regarding launch timescales. In one particular slide, which will likely be of great interest to HEXUS readers, the launch time of the Vega GPU architecture is indicated.

In a slide entitled 'Graphics momentum with significant growth opportunity', reproduced above, AMD indicates to investors that it "will launch 'Vega' for the enthusiast market in H1 2017". Taking the statement at face value that could put the launch date anywhere between January 1st and 30th June next year. The latter date is a full 10 months away. A full set of 29 slides can be found published at Scout Finance, found via TechPowerUp.

Not that long ago we were getting our hopes up for some kind of AMD Vega launch event this October. If there's anything in October it is now looking to be a pre-pre-pre launch event or some such PR stunt. The 'Graphics Momentum' slide doesn't give any indication of any follow up for enthusiasts between the Polaris GPUs and the H1 2017 Vega launch.

2017 will be key to AMD as it promises 'jam tomorrow' to investors, which are currently optimistic about AMD's claims – as judged by the share price. Looking at AMD's multi-year strategic plan slide to 2017/18, directly above, we can see some important moments coming up; the introduction of Next Generation Graphics and processor products such as Vega and Zen, accelerating graphics/PC share gains, server/infrastructure market share gains, and to become consistently profitable and enjoy increase margins.

On the topic of Zen we had some official performance and tech updates recently, thanks to the Hot Chips 28 conference. Zen processors will ship in volume early in 2017.

HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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Posted by Nifl - Tue 30 Aug 2016 10:44
Can AMD just take my money already? Geez… what's with all these delays? The first revision of the GPUs/CPUs is gonna be terrible anyway. It always is with AMD and Intel, and sometimes Nvidia. They should rely more on the paying beta testers. Just like software companies ;)
Posted by mattburnzy - Tue 30 Aug 2016 14:57
Nifl
Can AMD just take my money already? Geez… what's with all these delays? The first revision of the GPUs/CPUs is gonna be terrible anyway. It always is with AMD and Intel, and sometimes Nvidia. They should rely more on the paying beta testers. Just like software companies ;)
It'll be a really surreal feeling when AMD has a new CPU on the market. Vishera was 2012….dang
Posted by sykobee - Tue 30 Aug 2016 20:59
Note that with investor documents, AMD would give the most pessimistic date for launch, probably allowing for a couple of failed steppings and the like.

So with luck, it may be earlier in H1 rather than later in H1, but that doesn't mean that they won't launch on June 30th… it is AMD after all.
Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH - Tue 30 Aug 2016 22:07
There is both Vega 10 and Vega 11 - it could be one launches earlier in the year and one later during the 1H 2017 period. However,by then Nvidia should have the GTX1080TI released as well. I do wonder if AMD will still be using GF though??
Posted by nobodyspecial - Tue 30 Aug 2016 23:21
Jeez, this is terrible. Now NV has effectively 6 months or more to sell their top cards and bin for a response (1080ti or whatever) to vega. By the time vega ships NV will have sold to the entire high end crowd for this gen and be announcing new products especially if they're actually Q2 here. Since they don't say Q1, rather H1, it will be past march. They miss the entire xmas season. Nice work console chips. AMD never should have taken the first console, let alone a re-up to do it again. Both Zen and Vega should be out NOW or before xmas in MASS quantity, or risk losing any chance of profits on either (may be relevant in server stuff still though). Zen had better be able to win in more than just a cherry-picked benchmark and it had better smoke broadwell-E since it will be facing something else already. Core i7-7700K features 4 cores, 8 threads, 6MB cache and 95W TDP coming ~Dec16 (and a HEDT replacement probably some time next year). Something tells me this quad will win most of the games vs. AMD's 8 but I hope not. Unfortunately for AMD most games don't see much more than a fast quad as shown by Intel's own 6-10 core chips being beaten by their own quad in many games.

Maybe AMD will sell the same chip as 8/6/6/4 (much like Intel with 10/8/6/6) with failing parts of the chip disabled or something (slowed down maybe like 6800k). Bring on something that matches or beats a 6800k (in EVERYTHING) please AMD or even higher. I want at least 6 cores for my next upgrade (too much ripping etc to do). I hope this ZEN chip is roughly xbox1/ps4 sized. That would likely be a winner and a HUGE profit maker. If they can make a 363mm^2 chip for $100 and sell it to MSFT for 110-115, make ZEN that big and sell it for $300-1500 or something (assuming it competes well with Intel's HEDT chips). Use your apu's later for low end people. Aim high first or you won't make much profit. The money is in the high-end. Sure I'd like a great deal too, but AMD needs some profit and we need them IN the high end to make 58% margins again. Zen should be aiming at $300+ market. PERIOD.

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