RTG Raja's going on a break, Lisa Su is stepping in for the next few months

[YongKang]

Well, that's odd. Raja from RTG is going on a break until Q4 (start of 2018) and the CEO is stepping in.

News link: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/59104/rtg-boss-takes-sabbatical-lisa-su-over/index.html

Bear in mind that the RX Vega series has just launched and it's strange that such an important executive such as Raja is taking a kinda long break right now. Could it be an order from the top brass? This is just some speculation but feel free to drop your thoughts down below. This is getting interesting.

[DocSwag]

RTG hasn't been doing well lately at all. Maybe this will be good for em especially seeing as Lisa su seems to have been doing pretty good for amd.

[YongKang]

1 minute ago, DocSwag said:

RTG hasn't been doing well lately at all. Maybe this will be good for em especially seeing as Lisa su seems to have been doing pretty good for amd.

I just hope Vega gets better with the drivers and Lisa's leadership.  

[vanished]

Could be something as mundane as taking a vacation, or could be a coverup for him basically being kicked out for not reking the 1080 Ti with Vega.  I guess we'll see

[Okjoek]

I think Adored's sort of pessimistic view for Radeon might be accurate. 

 

[YongKang]

Just now, Okjoek said:

I think Adored's sort of pessimistic view for Radeon might be accurate. 

 

It's kinda sad to see this.  

[MechPilot524]

I think for Vega it's largely too late for anything really noticeable. Drivers, sure, but that's it aside from maybe improving HBM2 availability and fab deals. My hope is that Lisa Su might influence the next generation of cards (or the generation after), finding the right people and laying the right groundwork as she did for Zen.

[YongKang]

Just now, MechPilot524 said:

I think for Vega it's largely too late for anything really noticeable. Drivers, sure, but that's it aside from maybe improving HBM2 availability and fab deals. My hope is that Lisa Su might influence the next generation of cards (or the generation after), finding the right people and laying the right groundwork as she did for Zen.

I'm thinking the same thing as well. RTG really need to rethink what they've been doing with the high-end market and position themselves better.

[Okjoek]

Just now, YongKang said:

It's kinda sad to see this.  

I mean I guess there's a chance nVIDIA would fall into the same position that Intel did and then get blindsided by a miracle like Ryzen. But I personally think nVIDIA is a much bigger mountain to climb than Intel.

[79wjd]

14 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

RTG hasn't been doing well lately at all. Maybe this will be good for em especially seeing as Lisa su seems to have been doing pretty good for amd.

 

7 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Could be something as mundane as taking a vacation, or could be a coverup for him basically being kicked out for not reking the 1080 Ti with Vega.  I guess we'll see

Except didn't Raja have (relatively) little to do with Vega (in terms of its final state -- sure he was managing RTG during that time, but there's a limit to what he could do after the architecture has been developed) as it was mostly through production? Isn't Navi the first architecture he's played a big role in? 

[vanished]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

 

Except didn't Raja have very little to do with Vega as it was mostly through production? Isn't Navi the first architecture he's played a big role in? 

I have no idea tbh, I just know he dropped the 480 lol 

[YongKang]

Just now, Okjoek said:

nVIDIA is a much bigger mountain to climb than Intel.

Yep, they are. We're in a Goliath vs David situation. I really thought Vega was their comeback but they should of find a balance between performance and power consumption. And not go like " We beat the GTX1080 but your power bill gonna be expensive."

[MechPilot524]

7 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

I personally think nVIDIA is a much bigger mountain to climb than Intel.

Maybe so, but RTG is in a better position now vs Nvidia (they can actually sorta compete across the market) than what AMD had when Intel dropped Devil's Canyon (Haswell refresh with improved TIM and binning). AMD had the FX-9590, only capable of competing in heavily multithreaded applications, and overclocked in gaming (difficult to do because Vishera was a space heater!) couldn't even match an i5. And AMD was trying to sell them to compete with the i7 K-SKUs on price, though they eventually shifted it to match an i5. So yeah, compared to that market where you really were only gonna pick AMD processors on a budget and snag an 8350 instead of a pricier i5, Ryzen is a miracle and RTG can at least compete.

[DocSwag]

5 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

 

Except didn't Raja have (relatively) little to do with Vega (in terms of its final state -- sure he was managing RTG during that time, but there's a limit to what he could do after the architecture has been developed) as it was mostly through production? Isn't Navi the first architecture he's played a big role in? 

Raja has been at amd since 2013 ish. I believe he had high rankings in the graphics division since then so he definitely has done a lot with these archs. Vega was definitely built since he joined.

[Okjoek]

Just now, MechPilot524 said:

Maybe so, but RTG is in a better position now vs Nvidia (they can actually sorta compete across the market) than what AMD had when Intel dropped Devil's Canyon (Haswell refresh with improved TIM and binning). AMD had the FX-9590, only capable of competing in heavily threaded applications, and overclocked in gaming (difficult to do because Vishera was a space heater!) couldn't even match an i5. And AMD was trying to sell them to compete with the i7 K-SKUs on price, though they eventually shifted it to match an i5. So yeah, compared to that market where you really were only gonna pick AMD processors on a budget and snag an 8350 instead of a pricier i5, Ryzen is a miracle and RTG can at least compete.

One thing I would maybe try if I were Radeon is go balls deep into mobile products and APUs. nVIDIA can't compete in the realm of APU graphics I assume because they don't actually design CPU to put them on.

[MechPilot524]

Just now, DocSwag said:

Raja has been at amd since 2013 ish. I believe he had high rankings in the graphics division since then so he definitely has done a lot with these archs. Vega was definitely built since he joined.

Raja Koduri was an important guy but back in 2013 RTG was technically still just AMD, it wasn't as autonomous as it is now. He was made the chief of RTG when the Fury X cards with HBM dropped, in the summer of 2015. At one of the conferences where they hyped Fury and revealed the Crimson software suite, RTG became sorta independant and he was the official chief. So he may not have had the level of influence he could have on Vega, depending on when they were R&Ding the chip and idk when they started that process.

[YongKang]

Just now, Okjoek said:

go balls deep into mobile products and APUs

That would actually be a very interesting direction. Nintendo Switch with the horsepower of a GTX1070. Oh the dreams lol~

[RGProductions]

Please make readeon good again?

[Taf the Ghost]

Execs don't go on breaks like this. Either he or a family member is ill. He'd be removed & replaced with an interim director if he was being dismissed.

[MechPilot524]

10 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

One thing I would maybe try if I were Radeon is go balls deep into mobile products and APUs. nVIDIA can't compete in the realm of APU graphics I assume because they don't actually design CPU to put them on.

Hmm. Nvidia is very deeply entrenched in mobile products. AMD APUs have always been good because Intel integrated graphics have always been trash (I think someone ran a 1080p benchmark and a 4790k on IGPU was about the same as an A10 APU)*.

You had the 940M and now the 940MX, to which there was never really an alternative. And the 10X0 series desktop cards have been in laptops these days - no way Vega will be a good mobile card and Polaris can't touch a 1080 in a laptop.

 

AMD has a better chance on desktops, where you have things like FreeSync. AMD's had some good entries there - RX 4/580 were fundamentally good, it's just data mining got 'em. And my first true GPU was a Hawaii, an R9 290 I keep around to this day.

 

*Edit: Trivial but found it. Gamers Nexus tested a new Athlon chip and in their benchmarks included a 4790k running IGPU and an A10-7870k. The 7870k handily beat the 4790k in general, titles I noticed were GTA 5 Normal at 1080p and GRiD Medium at 1080. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxukB3GZyMg

 

[YongKang]

1 minute ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Execs don't go on breaks like this.

And just after the Vega launch... That's strange af. #tinfoilhat

[mr moose]

clearly he is now cleaning toilets on the 2nd floor while they try to find a dopple ganger to replace him.  I mean there is absolutely no other logical,  rational or even possible explanation for this.

[DocSwag]

3 minutes ago, MechPilot524 said:

Raja Koduri was an important guy but back in 2013 RTG was technically still just AMD, it wasn't as autonomous as it is now. He was made the chief of RTG when the Fury X cards with HBM dropped, in the summer of 2015. At one of the conferences where they hyped Fury and revealed the Crimson software suite, RTG became sorta independant and he was the official chief. So he may not have had the level of influence he could have on Vega, depending on when they were R&Ding the chip and idk when they started that process.

Raja was previous corporate vp of visual computing. So while yes, he didn't have the same control he does now, he definitely did have pretty good control. Especially seeing as he was hired JUST TO oversee GPUs.

[YongKang]

Vega 20 is coming according to the news. It should be interesting with this "switch" of leadership.

[Shreyas1]

28 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

I think Adored's sort of pessimistic view for Radeon might be accurate. 

 

I SHOULD be sad that there's less competition, but I own a 1070, so TBH I'm kind of happy...