AMD's gaming scientist, Richard Huddy, talks about the future of AMD in the PC industry with PCR

[Bloodyvalley]

PCR interviews AMD’s gaming scientist Richard Huddy about the future of the PC gaming market, from photorealistic graphics to virtual reality and games with 200 million players…

What is AMD doing to push PC gaming?

First of all, AMD is much, much more than just PC gaming, we obviously have a clean sweep of [powering] games consoles which no company has managed before. We have GPUs in the Xbox One, PS4 and the Wii U. 

We have a serious ambition to be the best supplier of GPUs in the world, not just across the consoles but in the PC space as well. 

Our Mantle API has both set the agenda for new graphics APIs and really does deliver a significant step forward in quality of experience for those who own our hardware.

How happy are you with Mantle’s progress and what’s next for that? 

The number of registered developers that we have with Mantle continues to rise quite dramatically. In early July we had got to 75. The first Mantle game, Battlefield 4, arrived in January. We will have somewhere between nine and 12 games at least this year which have Mantle ports. That’s at least as many as there were DirectX11 games in its first year of existence.

So Mantle is a big deal for us. You will continue to see us invest and release interesting updates over the next years.  

How do you expect the rivalry to play out between screen-tear-eliminating AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync monitors? 

One of the most attractive things about FreeSync when compared to G-Sync is that FreeSync is free to all our partners – they never have to pay us anything. G-Sync monitors will cost about an extra $150 for consumers compared to FreeSync, as there’s a licence payable to Nvidia for that and there is also a bill of materials there. FreeSync retail availability will happen from January and February 2015 onwards. 

Some of the upcoming PC gaming Steam Machines are powered by AMD. How well do you think the Steam Machines will be received?

It’s certainly a big investment from AMD. We want to make sure Valve and the consumers who choose to buy Valve’s OSs and games continue to get the best. 

It’s one of the changes to the market that is a little bit unpredictable, but I see these Steam Machines a part of PC gaming and they will be a great place to play. 

Virtual reality and the Oculus Rift are increasing in prominence. How integral do you think that will be to the PC gaming market? 

From a technological point of view, AMD loves it, we’re delighted to be in some of the boxes which are being put together for this. The extra graphics horsepower that gets used for a virtual reality system, which has to render the left eye and right eye separately… we love that kind of stuff. If they could go to something like 2K per eye or 1080p, or doubling that, then it will be awesome.  

How will the level of graphics change in the future? Where will it be in the next five years?

We’ve got to the stage where very high-end PC graphics are really getting impressively close to photo-real. Not that they actually fool you all of the time, but they are astonishing compared to where they were four years ago. We’ll close that gap as well. So probably in five years time we’ll be able to produce games that are photo-real (in limited scenarios).  

Do you think developers will soon innovate with fresh genres beyond the currently popular MOBA?

I imagine so and I expect we’ll see significant innovation from then on. The number of users you get on games of that ilk is extraordinary – League of Legends had around 130 million players last year. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear a PC game has in excess of 200 million subscribers – something which is hard to see a console title ever getting to.

People should keep their focus on gaming. Never give up on PC gaming – it’s had its death predicted far too many times and actually remains a healthy place for people to

do business.

 

 

Hopefully something big coming from AMD in the next few weeks in response to NVIDIA's GTX 970 & 980 rendering all AMD cards except the 295X2 useless?

also: "We have a serious ambition to be the best supplier of GPUs in the world, not just across the consoles but in the PC space as well."

[nsyedhasan]

Hopefully something big coming from AMD in the next few weeks in response to NVIDIA's GTX 970 & 980 rendering all AMD cards except the 295X2 useless?

Render all the cards useless? My R9 290 still plays games fine. I don't notice any stutter in any games. Just because it is older doesn't mean it is useless.

[Bloodyvalley]

Render all the cards useless? My R9 290 still plays games fine. I don't notice any stutter in any games. Just because it is older doesn't mean it isn't useless.

Well, price/perf wise, Maxwell just shat on AMD

[qwertywarrior]

the gifs u used are random and odd

at least be original

[nsyedhasan]

Well, price/perf wise, Maxwell just shat on AMD

No, the R9 290 is still amazing, and I am pretty sure AMD will reduce the price of the cards.

[kizoku_95]

I could care less .............I am happy with my HD6670 !

[BallGum]

Well, price/perf wise, Maxwell just shat on AMD

Actually the 970 is about equal to the R9 290 in price/ perf, but I guess both of the cards will get cheaper as time goes on...

[BallGum]

Render all the cards useless? My R9 290 still plays games fine. I don't notice any stutter in any games. Just because it is older doesn't mean it isn't useless.

Worst double negative ever

[TERAFLOP]

Well, price/perf wise, Maxwell just shat on AMD

And 290 took an even bigger shit on Nvidia when it launched. What's your point ?

[kizoku_95]

And 290 took an even bigger shit on Nvidia when it launched. What's your point ?

Nvidia and AMD just shit on each other !

[TERAFLOP]

Nvidia and AMD just shit on each other !

The graphics scene started to smell a bit funny...

[kizoku_95]

The graphics scene started to smell a bit funny...

our purchase start to stink after a while coz the other company releases cards that tend to shit on our cards !

[Trik'Stari]

I'd just like them to revisit the idea of dual graphics, just don't force it to be budget only this time. That's something Nvidia would do, but instead they would make so "you can only do dual graphics with a 4790k and a 980" or something.

 

Give us flexibility, there's no point in APU's otherwise, it's just a cheap system, that becomes pointless very quickly. Or at least mine did.

[Notional]

@Bloodyvalley Could you post a source please?

[ComradeHX]

I'd just like them to revisit the idea of dual graphics, just don't force it to be budget only this time. That's something Nvidia would do, but instead they would make so "you can only do dual graphics with a 4790k and a 980" or something.

 

Give us flexibility, there's no point in APU's otherwise, it's just a cheap system, that becomes pointless very quickly. Or at least mine did.

Discrete gpu isn't that flexible.

 

Why should APU?

APU just IS pointless unless in very niche roles(not for serious gaming).

Even if you get something with gpu component that rivals R9 290(doubtful); it would still come with a subpar AMD CPU.

AMD really needs to get their sh*t together if they don't want to be forever overshadowed by intel.

[Trik'Stari]

Discrete gpu isn't that flexible.

 

Why should APU?

APU just IS pointless unless in very niche roles(not for serious gaming).

Even if you get something with gpu component that rivals R9 290(doubtful); it would still come with a subpar AMD CPU.

AMD really needs to get their sh*t together if they don't want to be forever overshadowed by intel.

That's what I mean, they need to quit doing only budget shit, and make an APU that's as powerful as say, a 4690k, and able to run in dual graphics mode with 1 or several r9 290's, why? because I might feel the need to run that kind of set up.

[WereCat]

Discrete gpu isn't that flexible.

 

Why should APU?

APU just IS pointless unless in very niche roles(not for serious gaming).

Even if you get something with gpu component that rivals R9 290(doubtful); it would still come with a subpar AMD CPU.

AMD really needs to get their sh*t together if they don't want to be forever overshadowed by intel.

APUs would be awesome if HSA had wide support.. but now.. yea they are not very usefull (they have their use though).

[ACatWithThumbs]

Actually the 970 is about equal to the R9 290 in price/ perf, but I guess both of the cards will get cheaper as time goes on...

Not even close the GTX970 is most of the time faster than the R9-290X and with OC it goes up to 980 stock speeds.

To compete against Nvidia AMD needs to drop the prices of the R9-290X by $150 and the R9-290 by $100 and than the 970 still would be the better choice.

And considering the die size of the R9-290/R9-290X it costs more to produce those cards so dropping the prices will be harder for AMD than Nvidia.

AMD pretty much has no choice to release new GPUs and I'm not sure if AMD is capable to compete with Maxwell on 28nm.

 

[carolkarine]

Not even close the GTX970 is most of the time faster than the R9-290X and with OC it goes up to 980 stock speeds.

To compete against Nvidia AMD needs to drop the prices of the R9-290X by $150 and the R9-290 by $100 and than the 970 still would be the better choice.

And considering the die size of the R9-290/R9-290X it costs more to produce those cards so dropping the prices will be harder for AMD than Nvidia.

AMD pretty much has no choice to release new GPUs and I'm not sure if AMD is capable to compete with Maxwell on 28nm.

If amd is waiting till 2015 to release the next gen, it is quite possible they're waiting for time on 20nm fabs... Which, if they get, would make the rumored 4096-core chip possible.

[ComradeHX]

If amd is waiting till 2015 to release the next gen, it is quite possible they're waiting for time on 20nm fabs... Which, if they get, would make the rumored 4096-core chip possible.

More core?

 

My room will be heated in the winter now.

[Sonefiler]

More core?

 

My room will be heated in the winter now.

smaller core.

[KeltonDSMer]

And considering the die size of the R9-290/R9-290X it costs more to produce those cards so dropping the prices will be harder for AMD than Nvidia.

 

 

I just looked up the die sizes of Hawaii, GM204 and GK110 and they are 438, 398, and 561mm³, respectively.

 

Hawaii is only 10% bigger than GM204 and is only 78% the area of GK110.

 

GM204 likely costs less to produce than Hawaii, but not nearly to the same extent when comparing how freaking huge and expensive 780(ti)/Titan gpus are to manufacture. Nvidia dropped the prices way down on the 780(ti) and I would imagine they are not selling those for a loss, even considering how gargantuan those chips are.

[KeltonDSMer]

Could you post a source please?

 

Here is is, I just found it: http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/amd-on-the-future-of-pc-gaming-mantle-and-virtual-reality/034732

 

Looks like there wasn't a whole lot more to see.

[Lynx]

why did many people still stink APU is useless, no it's NOT, intel i7 basically an APU too, and did you call it useless?. the problem with AMD APU is just the weak core performance, and its AMD CPU problem as a whole. Also let's not forget about HSA, and before you start thinking it's just AMD shenanigans go check it first http://www.hsafoundation.com/

[ComradeHX]

the problem with AMD APU is just the weak core performance, and its AMD CPU problem as a whole. 

i7 is okay because nobody bought i7 for the iGPU; and the iGPU can be used to assist with video encoding.

 

People buy AMD's APU because of promises of decent game performance...which is NOT there.

 

On top of weak gaming performance(instead of buying APU, buy i3 cpu + r7 260x will beat it in every game)...it also has typical AMD cpu problems.

 

So yes it is irrelevant.

 

And hsafoundation website???

Where are the game developers?

 

I use AMD GPU; there is no way I will ever use AMD cpu/apu.