14 DAY TRIAL // Advanced Micro Devices has some pretty high expectations from its graphics division, now that it has released a new collection of graphics cards. In fact, it hopes to take over 40% of the market over the next two quarters.
We already knew that the Sunnyvale, California-based company felt this way, but now we have an actual time frame for its success.
A certain report from Digitimes gave 6 months as the “deadline,” of sorts, for the change in the marketing landscape. Right now, AMD controls around 30%.
Considering the new Radeon R9 and R7 graphics cards, we can't help but understand AMD's enthusiasm.
Even if we have to stay reserved about the future, we have to acknowledge that the new Hawaii-based cards have an incredible advantage in price.
After all, the Radeon R9 290X is as good, better in some cases than NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan, but priced at nearly half ($549 / €549 versus $1,000 / €1,000).
Radeon R9 290, meanwhile, will bear a tag of $449 / €449, quite below the GTX 780 ($500 / €500) despite being superior in performance.
On the other side of the fence is NVIDIA, with the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, which will be better than the Titan but still more expensive than R9 290X ($699 / €699),
There's also the GTX 780 GHz edition, which could match/best R9 290, but will still cost more than it, to the point where it might not really help stave off AMD's assault all that much.
We have to mention that most companies that aren't AMD, as well as market analysts, don't feel as confident about the company's plans for increasing its status. Besides, 6 months is a long while, and NVIDIA isn't about to stay still during that time.
Moreover, AMD may have scored points with consumers by placing such low prices, but that's also going to prevent its prices from rising too fast, even if sales do take off.