Tag: Qualcomm

What sort of 2024 did AMD experience? This year was quiet in some respects for Team Red – with not much activity in the GPU space, save for one notable exception – but there was more happening on the CPU front, although the introduction of new Zen 5 processors proved controversial.

New laptop chips for Copilot+ PCs and a fresh X3D offering were definite highlights, so without any further preamble, let’s dig into what was good, bad, or indifferent for AMD in 2024.

(Image credit: AMD)

Vanilla Ryzen 9000 CPUs fizzled upon launch

This year we received new Ryzen processors, although the launch of these Zen 5 chips was pushed back a month from July to August – a delay which some regarded as ominous at the time. Those more pessimistic mutterings turned into something of an online outcry when the Ryzen 9000 range did eventually arrive, with the PC community seemingly quick to label the new processors a flop.

That’s a harsh conclusion to jump to, perhaps, although it’s undeniable that Ryzen 9000 did not meet the expectations of would-be CPU buyers, particularly for gaming performance, where uplifts were widely reported to be closer to 5% than the 10% AMD was touting prerelease (which is where the ‘Zen 5%’ joke comes from). The better news is that Ryzen 9000 swiftly received better performance thanks to fine-tuning work in Windows 11 24H2 – though crucially, Ryzen 7000 chips got close to the same (major) uplift.

Following rather shaky reviews of the mainstream Ryzen 9700X and 9600X offerings, sales appeared to flag out of the gate – partly due to Ryzen 7000 chips still being around with pretty deep discounts applied, making them comparatively more tempting.

So, the flak AMD caught from a gaming angle wasn’t good at all here, but Team Red did have a couple of things in its favor. Its desktop CPU rival, Intel, spent the whole of 2024 dealing with way worse issues than a lukewarm reception around gaming prowess – with Team Blue’s 13th and 14th-gen processors being plagued by nasty instability issues (that were eventually fixed). On top of that, Intel’s new Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) desktop CPUs fared just as badly as Ryzen 9000 – actually, worse – out of the gate in terms of gaming performance.

That gave AMD some breathing room, and then Team Red shot back with a powerful volley to entice PC gamers in terms of a swift launch of its new 3D V-Cache processors.

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(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Ryzen 9800X3D to the rescue

Last year, we saw the introduction of 3D V-Cache for Zen 4 CPUs, and the Ryzen 7800X3D caught fire as the most popular gaming CPU out there. While normally AMD takes some time to push out X3D chips for any given generation, with Zen 5, these gaming-focused processors arrived very swiftly. Indeed, the Ryzen 9800X3D debuted in the first week of November, only a few months after Ryzen 9000 chips.

You could argue that this hasty appearance was pushed through to take away the bad taste from Ryzen 9000, and indeed the Ryzen 9800X3D did exactly that for PC gamers. As we found in our review, this CPU is seriously pepped up (with the ability to be overclocked for the first time, too), and an excellent gaming chip – we called it the best processor release of 2024, in fact.

The sticking point for the 9800X3D was the slightly hiked MSRP, along with the initial stock selling out very quickly, a situation compounded by scalping woes. Still, this clearly was the piece of silicon AMD needed to get out of the door to recover its CPU reputation, and really take the fight to Intel.

Also, i’s worth noting that we were treated to a welcome wallet-friendly last-gen offering from AMD, the Ryzen 7600X3D, as a budget gaming CPU (and a great fit for small form-factor builds) – but as a Micro Center exclusive in the US (again).

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

GPU disappointment – with a big saving grace

AMD was a hive of activity with graphics cards last year, filling out the RDNA 3 series with various models of GPU, from the lower-end RX 7600, through the mid-range territory with the RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT. Before that in 2022, we only had high-end models with the RDNA 3 family.

To say this year was a bit of a contrast is an understatement. At the very start of 2024, we did get a new RX 7600 XT, the pepped-up take on the most wallet-friendly RDNA 3 GPU, but it was a modest upgrade, not all that compelling in the value stakes, and overall it didn’t stand up well compared to its Nvidia rival (the RTX 4060).

We were hoping for some new entrants at the true budget end of the GPU market in 2024, below the RX 7600, but the rumored RX 7400 and 7300 never showed. (Although bizarrely, we did get some milking of ancient low-end Radeon GPUs).

We were also hoping for RDNA 4 with even more eagerness, of course, but that didn’t happen either. Despite the rumor mill firmly believing these next-gen graphics cards could debut later in 2024, they didn’t – and the grapevine now has a Q1 2025 launch predicted. Overall, the no-show from RDNA 4 – which is rumored to top out at the mid-range, with an RX 8700 XT flagship in theory – was one of the biggest disappointments in the PC sphere for us in 2024.

What we did get, though, was a rocket-powered rabbit – a Golden Rabbit Edition, or GRE, version of the RX 7900, to be precise. Now, this was a GPU that was launched in China in the middle of 2023, but it was only released globally in February 2024. At that point, the RX 7900 GRE stormed our list of the best GPUs and stole the top position, arguably being the best entry-level option for 4K gaming.

So, it wasn’t a complete washout for Team Red after all, particularly when you consider that the RX 7800 XT also topped our best GPU list when it emerged last year. The GRE was the only thing that was GRE-at (sorry) about 2024 for AMD’s GPUs, though.

(Image credit: AMD)

Ryzen AI 300 bursts onto the scene to take on Qualcomm Snapdragon X

As you doubtless noticed, 2024 was the year that Copilot+ PCs launched, and the only chips powering these AI laptops were Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X SoCs to begin with.

AMD and Intel weren’t that far behind with CPUs that had a beefy enough NPU to qualify as the engine of a Copilot+ PC, though, and Team Red’s Ryzen AI 300 (x86) processors (also known as Strix Point) arrived in laptops starting from July 2024. However, the available models were very thin on the ground to begin with, and indeed the amount of choice with Strix Point notebooks remains limited even as this year draws to a close.

Ryzen AI 300 proved to be strong for AI, and also general performance and mobile gaming, too, easily matching Qualcomm’s effort – with the advantage of having none of the compatibility issues that the Arm-based Snapdragon X CPUs have as baggage.

That said, Intel also debuted Lunar Lake mobile (x86) processors for Copilot+ PCs in 2024, and these also proved to be very strong CPUs – and a match for Ryzen AI 300 in many respects. In short, two great x86 alternatives to Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PCs emerged in 2024, albeit we need more laptops packing this silicon.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Concluding thoughts

Other notable happenings for AMD in 2024 included the release of FSR 3.1 – which remains lagging behind Nvidia DLSS, although maybe AI will fix that – and an eye-opening achievement in outgunning Intel in the data center arena in terms of overall revenue.

While the launch of Ryzen 9000 CPUs caused some wobbles, we have to remember that these aren’t bad chips by any means – they just didn’t meet (gaming) expectations, and didn’t seem all that great value compared to previous-gen processors (at heavily cut prices) which are still very much on shelves (for the time being).

Ryzen 9000’s time will doubtless come, and at any rate, AMD recovered suitably with the Ryzen 9800X3D – and wasn’t exactly under pressure from Intel, either, as Team Blue had bigger worries than the criticisms Team Red faced.

GPU launches were thin on the ground from AMD, and rather disappointing – save for that RX 7900 GRE – and RDNA 4 failing to appear this year was a further source of some dismay.

Unfortunately, 2024 also saw AMD implement major layoffs, with the company making no bones about an increasing focus on the world of AI, where plentiful profits are to be made.

Is that increased leaning into AI anything to do with pushing back RDNA 4 graphics cards, perhaps? We don’t know that, and wouldn’t get carried away with any paranoia around AMD deprioritizing consumer GPUs yet – it’s probably more to do with market conditions and selling through current-gen RDNA 3 stock. Furthermore, you could apply that line of worried thinking to Nvidia equally, with next-gen Blackwell gaming GPUs also failing to turn up this year, and perhaps set to launch in the shadow of much bigger potential AI profits.

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