14 DAY TRIAL // Chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices is rumored to prepare a new market strategy codenamed "Thunder". Despite the fact that it is not a physical product or a technology, the codename might turn things upside down on the graphics market and bring AMD back into the competition.
The Thunder codename has been brought to the general attention via Mike Magee's webblog, and is touted as a "shock treatment for Nvidia on the graphics front", that is slated to kick in later this year. Of course, the first thing that comes to our minds is that the Thunder is actually more than a market strategy, and we suppose that is a reference to the company's upcoming R700 series of graphics chips.
AMD has just snapped out of the mental shutdown it entered when it misfired the Phenom chips late last year. Since then, things have hardly been shiny for the US-based chip manufacturer, who bled market share in favor of Intel. However, things are different on the graphics market, where AMD managed to kick Nvidia's back lately.
For instance, AMD managed to release its ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 high-end, dual-chip graphics card relatively on time, while rival Nvidia is still struggling with its highest-end offering in the GeForce 9800GX2. It is slated for release on March 25th, after a series of prolonged delays, caused by the Chinese New Year and some issues with the card running hotter than specified.
AMD's next-generation of GPUs in the RV770 family will kick in until the end of the second quarter this year. According to the company estimations, the RV770-powered Radeon HD 4800 cards are expected to be about 40% faster than the currently-running RV670 GPU-powered graphics cards. The Thunder is currently just a rumor, but it could turn out to be the next technology advancement on the graphics market.