AMD’s graphics card market share has become as another casualty of the global pandemic. While gamers may be frustrated that they may not be able to find a modern GPU in stock right now, AMD is also feeling its own share of frustration. The maker of the Radeon graphics cards is finding its market share quickly shrinking, down to just 18% in the last 12 months after being at 27% in the fourth quarter of 2019.
According to a report published by John Peddie Research, the GPU maker’s market share sharply declined by exactly 33.33% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2020. This comes at a time when the overall PC market increased 35.76% year-to-year, according to the same report.
These numbers match the market share in a recent Steam Hardware Survey, according to a report on PC Gamer, which states that AMD’s RX 6800 XT registered just 0.74% in the survey when compared to the competing NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080.
Unfortunately, for AMD, the decline in market share comes at a time when the latest Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards gain features like real-time ray tracing that make them competitive against Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3000 series and when PC shipments are actually increasing due to work-from-home mandates as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the authors of the report noted. Early reviews of the Radeon RX 6000 have largely been positive, with many praising the GPU’s strong performance.
While interest in powerful PCs for gaming, entertainment, work, and play remain strong, AMD is also facing strong headwinds due to disruptions in the supply chain and component shortages in the semiconductor industry. These shortages are affecting CPUs and GPUs from companies like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia.
Most recently, Nvidia advised that the shortages could linger through the first quarter of this year, while AMD predicted that ongoing supply-side issues could mean that GPUs remain in short supply through the first half of the year. In addition to creatives, professionals, and gamers, modern and powerful graphics cards are also appealing to cryptocurrency miners, with some investing in expensive GPU rigs to earn big returns on Ethereum mining.
In addition to PC graphics cards, AMD’s GPU architecture is also found on the latest gaming consoles from Microsoft and Sony. The GPU shortage means that supplies for both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are extremely limited right now, and restocks at major retailers quickly sell out in little time. For gamers looking to stay entertained during the pandemic, your best bet is to stay patient and constantly check with your favorite retailer if you’re interested in AMD’s silicon.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.