It's that time of the year when public companies are reporting their earnings for the second quarter. Alongside those reports are typically a wink and a nod to the future to give investors something to look forward to. For gamers, that apparently will mean some new "Enthusiast class" GPUs from AMD will arrive soon, probably around September, as previously suspected. Though it was just a rumor, it's now been confirmed by the company's CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, in this week's earnings call.
On the call with investors, Dr. Su only mentioned these new GPUs in passing before moving on to embedded computing. "We are on track to further expand our RDNA 3 GPU offerings with the launch of new enthusiast-class Radeon 7000 series cards in the third quarter," she said, according to a transcript by Fool.com. She mentioned these new GPUs after discussing the launch of the Radeon RX 7600, the only new GPU the company has brought to market in 2023. Notably, she said the word "cards" in the plural, as it's been rumored that it will introduce the Radeon RX 7800 and 7700 using the RDNA 3 Navi32 die.
So far this year, AMD has stood idly by while Nvidia has launched many enthusiast-class GPUs, such as the RTX 4070 Ti and 4070, along with the $499 RTX 4060 Ti. According to TechSpot, one reason for AMD's relaxed launch schedule could be that it needs to sell its existing inventory of RDNA 2 GPUs, which will likely compete with the new GPUs on price. Those existing models that are likely still in the channel include the Radeon RX 6900 and 6800. You can currently buy an XFX Radeon RX 6900 XT for $649, which could land directly in the price range of a Radeon RX 7800. The 6800 XT cards are around $549, which might also pose a problem for a card like the RX 7700 XT.
Unlike Intel, AMD had a rough quarter, especially compared with its performance in the same quarter a year ago. Although Dr. Su described the quarter's results as "strong," its year-over-year revenue was down 18%, and it went from making $526 million in profit a year ago to losing $20 million. On top of that, its earnings per share fell 93% from a year ago. Despite these less-than-stellar results, its stock rose after the call by 5% based on hopes that the company will profit immensely from the AI boom currently enveloping the semiconductor industry.
