AMD Earnings Call: $180M loss, new graphics poducts 2H 2015

PRIME1

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http://seekingalpha.com/article/307...arnings-call-transcript?page=4&p=qanda&l=last

Lisa Su - President and CEO
Yes. So thanks for the question, Vivek. That, I do believe PC gaming and gaming in general is a growth opportunity in the market and a growth opportunity for AMD. So as I look forward, we're launching Carrizo on the APU side and we're also launching some graphics products in the second half of this year.

I guess that means July or later. Although they could still announce something sooner.

If you want a summary of their finances:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9172/amd-posts-q1-2015-results-180-million-net-loss
 
Very well could mean the second half of the fiscal year... since it was an earnings call.


April 1 - September 30(That's the second half of the fiscal year)
 
Very well could mean the second half of the fiscal year... since it was an earnings call.


April 1 - September 30(That's the second half of the fiscal year)

Incorrect!

Per http://ir.amd.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=74093&p=irol-faq

13. What are AMD’s fiscal year and quarters?
AMD’s fiscal year follows the standard calendar year. Fiscal quarters for the 2014 year (exact dates are adjusted early):

First Quarter: December 28, 2013 – March 29, 2014
Second Quarter: March 30, 2014 – June 28, 2014
Third Quarter: June 29, 2014 – September 27, 2014
Fourth Quarter: September 28, 2014 – December 27, 2014
 
Incorrect!

Per http://ir.amd.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=74093&p=irol-faq

13. What are AMD’s fiscal year and quarters?
AMD’s fiscal year follows the standard calendar year. Fiscal quarters for the 2014 year (exact dates are adjusted early):

First Quarter: December 28, 2013 – March 29, 2014
Second Quarter: March 30, 2014 – June 28, 2014
Third Quarter: June 29, 2014 – September 27, 2014
Fourth Quarter: September 28, 2014 – December 27, 2014

Well then, I stand corrected, it can't be that after all
 
There's no way AMD can sell 390x at a discount price if they want to make money. Their current strategy of losing money has them at near junk bond status.
 
Very well could mean the second half of the fiscal year... since it was an earnings call.


April 1 - September 30(That's the second half of the fiscal year)

This again... No. While companies report on a fiscal basis, as a rule, they refer to a calendar year when giving guidance during earnings calls on roadmaps.
 
AMD's fiscal year IS a calandar year,

They are one and the same.
 
Sounds like we wont see anything in retail channels by late summer at the earliest.
 
Sounds like we wont see anything in retail channels by late summer at the earliest.

Maybe the first trickle in mid July with mass availability in late August if i had to guess.
 
I really don't see how a company can loose so much money yet still exist. Somebody has to be keeping AMD alive...
 
I really don't see how a company can loose so much money yet still exist. Somebody has to be keeping AMD alive...

Well their stocks are considered a minefield now so I don't see anyone really dropping cash on them unless they are gamblers. Eventually what little reserve cash they have will run dry and they don't have any real assets left to sell. They sold GloFo, they sold their HQ building, they sold their mobile smart phone GPU IP, so what's left? I think the only thing really keeping them alive at this point is money from the console design wins. Their CPU division is as good as dead, they have no server market and they are getting pummeled in the dGPU market. AMD is basically on life support and has been for sometime now.
 
We really need AMD to hit a massive home run with the 390 series. Quite literly, they need there best ever launch. I really hope they pull it off. You only need to look at the stagnant CPU market to see what a lack of competition brings.
 
We really need AMD to hit a massive home run with the 390 series. Quite literly, they need there best ever launch. I really hope they pull it off. You only need to look at the stagnant CPU market to see what a lack of competition brings.

Part of the problem is that even if they do get a hit it won't change the dynamics that much.

Take a look at this chart someone put together.

http://i.imgur.com/bNqJYgA.png

from

https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/nvidia-shows-signs-of-strain.43294/page-161#post-1828480



The gpu market share rates ebb and flow for amd and nvidia, but it took the aftermath of the ati 9700 class destruction of nvidia performance wise to get amd to peek above nvidia for a brief period of time, the rest has been a large gap in favor of nvidia.


The best amd can hope for is to get back to the mid to high 30% range for their discreet gpus, and why?

Because the PRIME's of the world outnumber people like me who actual favor amd. The "swing" vote that actually votes based on individual card merit is not large enough to give amd an edge unless nvidia lights itself on fire again like the 9700 days, which is not likely to happen. That is why amazon shows that sh*t card known as the 960 selling far more than a 290 with far more performance for small differences in cash, because nvidia = superior in too many minds. This is theology.

Against that reality amd needs to release competitive parts every year, they have to work harder to maintain ground because they don't have the same number of sycophants and brand loyalists. And it's been what now? a year and a half since the 290x launched? AMD cannot afford to do that. They need to iterate every year, and an x2 variant is not going to cut it for the single gpu crowd.
 
inb4 drivers, heat, power draw, noise, and "because it's AMD"
 
Part of the problem is that even if they do get a hit it won't change the dynamics that much.

Take a look at this chart someone put together.

http://i.imgur.com/bNqJYgA.png

from

https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/nvidia-shows-signs-of-strain.43294/page-161#post-1828480



The gpu market share rates ebb and flow for amd and nvidia, but it took the aftermath of the ati 9700 class destruction of nvidia performance wise to get amd to peek above nvidia for a brief period of time, the rest has been a large gap in favor of nvidia.


The best amd can hope for is to get back to the mid to high 30% range for their discreet gpus, and why?

Because the PRIME's of the world outnumber people like me who actual favor amd. The "swing" vote that actually votes based on individual card merit is not large enough to give amd an edge unless nvidia lights itself on fire again like the 9700 days, which is not likely to happen. That is why amazon shows that sh*t card known as the 960 selling far more than a 290 with far more performance for small differences in cash, because nvidia = superior in too many minds. This is theology.

Against that reality amd needs to release competitive parts every year, they have to work harder to maintain ground because they don't have the same number of sycophants and brand loyalists. And it's been what now? a year and a half since the 290x launched? AMD cannot afford to do that. They need to iterate every year, and an x2 variant is not going to cut it for the single gpu crowd.

That graph paints a rather bleak looking picture.
 
inb4 drivers, heat, power draw, noise, and "because it's AMD"

People want quality over quantity. Although with NVIDIA you get both. FPS is one of just several reasons people buy video cards.

Like I said you can strap a rocket to a station wagon and it will be fast, but no one will buy it. This is the current state of AMD video cards. They are struggling to sell their top chip for $300 while NVIDIA is selling $1000 chips left and right.
 
Well, they've improved a hell of a lot from 4Q '14. Banks calling for the sale of assets like the Wells Fargo rep did isn't a sign of good investor relations, though, and that's the scariest bit.
 
I really don't see how a company can loose so much money yet still exist. Somebody has to be keeping AMD alive...

The last time I saw something like this where it was just a loss quarter after quarter after quarter and nothing the company did could turn it back around was Sun Microsystems. The one difference is that Sun Micro was sitting on $2 billion in cash in the bank (not assets, cash).

The primary parallel is that both companies couldn't change fast enough to match the ways the market was changing. The other difference is that at the time Sun was actually a company where both the top brass and engineers were not phoning it in everyday. AMD very much strikes me as a "9-5, collect my paycheck" type of company, and especially at the top.
 
Doesn't matter if AMD is around or not. All companies go out of business eventually. AMD doesn't have to make the best GPUs, APUs, or GPUs to exist. As long as they can pay off their debt then they are fine. If there is a market for a product then another company will step up and fill the void.

I would like to see a CPU / GPU manufacturer in say Saudi Arabia.
 
This will probably launch 6 months or less before Pascal that's an incredibly small window to try and make back any market share.
 
Where can I see the company's full report?
I want to see if they are preparing to sell the company.
 
Prime's right, AMD is on a death spiral.
If they had launched the 300 series in Q1 like they planned, maybe a different story.

Delay after delay just moves them closer to Pascal's door step. Why bother with another behemoth 28nm card when something new and flashy is right around the corner?

And AMD is still hoping people will continue shelling out $300 for Hawaii GPU's.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/g...roduce-new-radeon-r9-300-series-gpus-in-june/

AMD Radeon R9 390/390X – Fiji Pro/Fiji XT graphics processing units featuring GCN 1.3 architecture with up to 4096 stream processors and 4096-bit interface to HBM memory. Price range: $649 and upwards.

AMD Radeon R9 380/380X – Grenada Pro/Grenada XT graphics processing units featuring GCN 1.2 or GCN 1.3 architecture with up to 2816 stream processors and 512-bit interface to GDDR5 memory. Price range: $249 – $299 – $329. Since “Grenada” GPU is basically a revamped “Hawaii”, it is possible that instead of making a new GPU, AMD will simply use the old one under a new moniker.

AMD Radeon R9 375X – Tonga XT graphics processing units featuring GCN 1.2 architecture with up to 2048 stream processors and 384-bit interface to GDDR5 memory. Price range: around $229.

AMD Radeon R9 375 – Tonga Pro graphics processing units featuring GCN 1.2 architecture with up to 1792 stream processors and 256-bit interface to GDDR5 memory. Price range: around $199.

AMD Radeon R9 370/370X – Trinidad Pro/Trinidad XT graphics processing units featuring GCN 1.3 architecture with up to 1536 stream processors and 256-bit interface to GDDR5 memory. Price range: $119 – $149.
 
People want quality over quantity. Although with NVIDIA you get both. FPS is one of just several reasons people buy video cards.

Like I said you can strap a rocket to a station wagon and it will be fast, but no one will buy it. This is the current state of AMD video cards. They are struggling to sell their top chip for $300 while NVIDIA is selling $1000 chips left and right.

Kind of proves tybert's point about peopling buying into nVidia's marketing.

Edit: The reason I brought it up is because it just seem to me that the goalposts shift whenever convenient. During the 5870 and 6970 era the main defense for the 480 and 580 was "who cares about noise or heat or power draw, performance is king", then when the 290X launched people were all over the heat, noise, and power draw., while ignoring the fact it matched Titan performance for almost half the price.

But whatever, it's fashionable to hate on AMD, carry on.
 
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Kind of proves tybert's point about peopling buying into nVidia's marketing.

Edit: The reason I brought it up is because it just seem to me that the goalposts shift whenever convenient. During the 5870 and 6970 era the main defense for the 480 and 580 was "who cares about noise or heat or power draw, performance is king", then when the 290X launched people were all over the heat, noise, and power draw., while ignoring the fact it matched Titan performance for almost half the price.

But whatever, it's fashionable to hate on AMD, carry on.

Looking at all the 970s you have I guess NVIDIA's marketing was too powerful even for you.
 
It's funny you bring this up, because I bought my 970s 2 weeks after launch, when AMD hasn't yet started the firesale on their 290X's. Had I known about nVidia's lie sorry "marketing" back then about the 970, I would'n't even have considered the 970. Not to mention the 290X often had good deals, around that time, PowerColor 290X for $270 on NCIX, or 290X Lightning for $300 on Newegg.
 
I really hope AMD's 300 series is a success. Even if you're an Nvidia fanboy, it's good to have competition.
 
It's impossible for AMD to be successful when 80% of the market has this mentality.
"I'll never buy AMD but hopefully everyone else will."

Doesn't work that way. You have to actually buy AMD products if you want to support them. Hoping and praying everyone else will do it for you is the Bystander Effect.

I've seen so many Nvidia owners talking about how AMD cards are a great alternative, how competitive the 290X is, how their drivers have gotten better, how amazing FreeSync/VSR/GVR is. That's all fine and dandy, but y'know, if it's so great why didn't you actually buy an AMD card? AMD will crash and burn while everyone stands on the sideline hugging their GTX 970 talking about how great AMD is.

I'm sick of that pandering bullshit. There's a reason these people own Nvidia and it's because they think AMD is inferior, they just don't want everyone else to know that because nobody wants to pay $1,000 for their GTX 970 when they decide to go SLI.
 
I'm sorry I don't want to sell my 970s at a loss, and not even have enough pick up another pair of 290X's without coughing up extra cash. Oh, and who's gonna pay for my waterblocks? :rolleyes:

Seriously? Ok if you really want to know, had I known about 970's "special feature" at the time, I'd either have bought the 980 if I wanted the extra performance, or grabbed 290X for bang for buck while the retailers were having special promotions. I'm pretty sure at one point Newegg had the Sapphire Tri-X on sale for $260 after rebate. But of course, being I was an early adopter, and nVidia didn't fess up till 4 months after launch, I was well screwed.
 
By the time AMD releases a working driver and the 300 series, Nvidia will have Pascal out destroying it instantly.
 
"I'll never buy AMD but hopefully everyone else will."

I see a lot of people in the video card forums saying we need to buy AMD video cards, but they own Intel CPUs.

If they are not willing to buy a lesser CPU to support AMD, I'm not willing to buy a lesser video card to support them either.
 
I see a lot of people in the video card forums saying we need to buy AMD video cards, but they own Intel CPUs.

If they are not willing to buy a lesser CPU to support AMD, I'm not willing to buy a lesser video card to support them either.

Come on man you can't compare different segments like that. CPU wise we know that AMD has fallen of the horse. On the other hand in graphics cards AMD still has a lot of muscle compared to Nvidia, if someone does not like the products they don't have to buy, but regardless of preference AMD has competitive products out.
 
The AMD R9 200 series, which is AMD's latest high-end family of GPUs, is the 48th most popular graphics card.
Because the "AMD R9 200 series" is a graphics card?
Last time I checked the survey, individual 7000-series cards outranked the entire "R9 200 series" cumulatively by near double. An article using those numbers as a citation immediately goes out the window. Unless you're dumb enough to believe there are more 7850's being used today than the entire 200 series combined.

It looks like Steam has now removed individual results from their survey entirely, I see HD4000 @ 5% and then Other @ 95%. Nothing else even shows up.
 

Performance not market share. :rolleyes:
I realize that Nvidia has raked in the market share but AMD still has competitive products out. While AMD, in the performance CPU market, has nearly nothing to compete with Intel.
Two different segments, like comparing pineapples and oranges.

Regardless, AMD is in a spiral and the article you linked is showing the first sings of a terrible graphics card market for the customer.
 
There's no way AMD can sell 390x at a discount price if they want to make money. Their current strategy of losing money has them at near junk bond status.

Being a half generation behind NVidia, I'm not sure they have a choice. The longer the wait for 390x is, the easier its going to be for consumers to simply want and see what the next GeForce card looks like, more so if the price isn't attractive.
 
AMD is done. The only thing that can save AMD is a massive breakthrough, which will not happen. Operating at a loss greatly reduces the amount of money that goes into research. No research equates to no ground breaking, money making products.

AMD needs a serious monetary influx, and probably a significant change in the leadership and talent present there.
 
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