AMD Continues to Push Premium VR Rhetoric

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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The following statements were made by Dr. Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, during today's earning call concerning Polaris GPUs and VR.

“Polaris GPUs continue to gain traction based on their leadership performance in VR, and under rapidly expanding number of software titles that feature the latest generation of APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulcan.”
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“Our progress in the quarter was punctuated by Oculus, announcing a limited edition Oculus-ready PC powered by an AMD FX processor and Radeon RX 470 GPU that brings the cost of entry for a VR-ready system down to $500 for the first time. This is a meaningful milestone for consumers, and I am excited that AMD is enabling the ecosystem and driving broader adoption of VR by making premium experiences available at such an attractive price point.”
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I think she is spot on with her comments about Polaris GPUs in DirectX 12 and Vulcan titles. Our reviews have shown how strong Polaris can be in these two very narrow categories when it comes to performance. Even the RX 470 and RX 460 offer solid performance for their respective product classes as well. All three of the GPU reviews linked above have earned HardOCP Editor's Choice Awards for desktop PC gaming.

I am however still extremely confused about Su's statements about "leadership performance in VR," and "making premium experiences available" when referring to the RX 470 usage in a VR system. In no way does the Polaris GPU have any sort of "leadership performance" in terms of an actual VR gaming experience. And in now way is an RX 470 GPU going to deliver a premium VR experience. AMD's penetration into VR is in shambles at worst, and seemingly ignored by developers at best when it comes to optimizing for these Polaris GPUs. Over the past few months after reviewing GPU performance in multiple VR gaming titles, only once has a developer even mentioned AMD's LiquidVR technology approach and that was from Croteam/Revolver devs handling Serious Sam VR. A review of SSVR performance will be published by us tomorrow. I will say however that AMD's Polaris once again fails to show up in any kind of leadership or "premium" performance role.

AMD is far and away from touching on reality about its Polaris GPU performance in VR, and this delusion seems to have worked its way to the very top of AMD's hierarchy.

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It's sad how far AMD/ATI has fallen. At this point, I think Matrox is probably more relevant than AMD.
 
Perhaps they speak of their 'wins' with Oculus ASW, if you can call being 100% in reprojection a 'win'.

I mean, even if ASW is really good, there is simply no substitute for meeting the 90fps/11ms target most of the time.
 
It's just a typical earnings call. AMD finally has something new and shiny to show off so they're spinning it. And it's a CEO's job to do so. A CEO could literally be on the deck of the Titanic and proclaim 'We have an abundance of rushing cool water for the weary and thirsty traveler".
 
Are we going to see mGPU in SSVR, which is one major benefit of Liquid VR is supposed to allow for?
 
JosiahBradley said:
Are we going to see mGPU in SSVR, which is one major benefit of Liquid VR is supposed to allow for?
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I still don't understand what they were thinking with the name LiquidVR. All I think about is vomiting with a VR headset on.

Anywho... AMD is having trouble getting a single card to work. I would completely discount the possibility of mGPU.
 
Were you expecting truth in advertising, Kyle?

Can you just picture it?

"Our shit is shitty shit, buy someone else's stuff if you want the best!"
 
just watched a ltt yt vid, maybe they are comparing to the the Samsung gear...
 
Twisted Kidney said:
Were you expecting truth in advertising, Kyle?

Can you just picture it?

"Our shit is shitty shit, buy someone else's stuff if you want the best!"
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Did not realize that SEC required earnings calls were advertising.
 
MavericK said:
Oh snap.

Somewhat off topic but, Kyle, would you recommend SSVR at the current price? If you already have titles like Raw Data or Brookhaven Experiment?
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Mmmmm, no. I have only played through the first two worlds, but it is a fairly flat experience. Nothing like Raw Data.
 
EuphoricRage470 said:
They kind of are, though -- but WHAT they are advertising is not their products per se, but their stock. AMD's job is to make sure that its stock price goes as high as possible (duty to its shareholders). So what they do is they hype their products, claim leadership in VR or whatever else, and the equity analysts on the earnings calls who really don't know any better will just sit there and buy it (most of them have likely never even read a GPU review). They then go tell their clients that AMD stock is a great buy because of AMD's "opportunities in the emerging virtual reality market" which drives the share price up.
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OK. Still does ZERO to change my stance. No others are doing the work to properly evaluate current GPU's performance, and I that is one reason that AMD keeps with its rhetoric. I am not going to shut up just because some of you think it is advertising and apparently think it is OK to lie to consumers.
 
EuphoricRage470 said:
They kind of are, though -- but WHAT they are advertising is not their products per se, but their stock. AMD's job is to make sure that its stock price goes as high as possible (duty to its shareholders). So what they do is they hype their products, claim leadership in VR or whatever else, and the equity analysts on the earnings calls who really don't know any better will just sit there and buy it (most of them have likely never even read a GPU review). They then go tell their clients that AMD stock is a great buy because of AMD's "opportunities in the emerging virtual reality market" which drives the share price up.
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Look their numbers beat the street, what AMD has done was actually advertised why they beat the street, and Telling ya right now Polaris and VR is NOT why their numbers beat the street. AMD's dealings, they got extra cash flow coming in by other means then selling product this is what caused the increase in profits. This is not about product sales, and yet, they have done this time and time again, every quarter of the past 3 or 4 quarters lol, there is only one way this will end up when shit hits the fan so to speak.

If they are trying drive stock price up, they want a buyout, and if and when that buyout happens, and they still don't have products to drive their companies worth, yikes, look for what happened to AMD's buyout of ATi to happen again. Of course the buyout company if they are smart will totally change directions with AMD IP's so might be better than that......

Keep this in mind Lisa Su is an excellent strategist, the position AMD is in right now, is make it or break it, Zen has to be great for them, Polaris, is a yeah we got something but we are still getting our ass punted. Well they can't talk about Zen right now, cause they showed the best they had just last quarter, so they need to fuel the pipeline with their other major market space.

PS we already know where this cash flow came from, they talked about it last quarter, if I'm not mistaken (consoles) its still a 400 million dollar loss to boot which is quite large.

This is exactly why the stock price dipped, my shorts of AMD is getting pretty close, actually might hit before the Q numbers come in..... I'm about 10 cents away.
 
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A company maintaining/building selling options open is prudent. Also options on not selling if more beneficial to the company is also an option. If AMD can do better selling off RTG then it is in order for them to do so - also it can be much more prudent to keep RTG as well for the HTC market and servers AMD is hoping to get back into - big money thhere. Also consoles are paying off, maybe not enough to make the whole company profitable but does push them in that direction. Getting rid of that can also break them. In other words keep as many viable options open as possible and go with the best one. RTG I think is most likely more valuable staying with AMD then not. Does not mean talks are not happening between like Intel and others (those in my opinion will most likely not pan out since AMD I think would push to sell RTG at a price point close to their purchase price if not more, but then a China company may step up to the plate).
 
I'm hearing that AMD's VR performance is the best, tremendous.
 
That's what happens when the RTG runs on R&D fumes for 4 years in a row. While the powerpoint slide crew gets more money.
 
It doesn't matter what Su is saying. The analysts that follow this company read the same reviews we do. Lisa can talk all she wants, it's not going to suddenly make one of the big boy analysts suddenly upgrade their rating to outperform.
 
I love AMD but it takes conflict and constructive feedback to keep being innovative. AMD needs people like Kyle and Steve or you end up being a leader at a company that only knows that their butt is shiny from everyone kissing it all day. AMD needed a wake up call and I'm hoping 2017 is it!
 
Kyle might be bitter, as I'm sure many people would likely be given the same experience.

That being said, he is calling marketing BS on legitimate BS. [H] Has run fair testing on all cards, and the data is in.

I will never understand fanboys, nor people that feel the need to say 'still bitter?' when facts back up the position. It is only a valid comment if [H] was decrying AMD's cards in spite of them delivering, but they don't deliver so the criticism is valid and fair.
 
Jadawin said:
Still bitter, Kyle? ^^
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The only people that are still bitter are the pathetic blind fanboys that think Kyle and [H]ardOCP crew are anti-AMD biased. Kyle and the crew have always been Pro-consumer and Anti-Bullshit biased. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't know [H]'s storied history with just about every tech company that has been reviewed on this site. Kyle has on many occasions called out Intel and Nvidia on their bullshit too.
 
The only thing relevant about ATI anymore is how dillusional they are...oh and how freakin slow they are.
 
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