AMD’s upcoming plan for GPU releases have been called into question recently, and now, there’s some more evidence that the company’s GPUs are beginning to lose momentum.
As pointed out by Hardware Unboxed on X (formerly Twitter), MSI is slowly removing listings of AMD Radeon GPUs, specifically the 7000 series, from online retailers. Additionally, all existing products have been discontinued and the company never managed to release models for the Radeon RX 7700 XT and the 7800 XT.
Did I miss this story? MSI has been completely removed from AMD's Radeon 7000 series, all existing products have been discontinued and they never released a 7700 XT/7800 XT. This all seems to have happened very quietly.
— Hardware Unboxed (@HardwareUnboxed) April 26, 2024
MSI has been a prominent player in the gaming hardware arena, and by the looks of it, the company has made a decisive move toward embracing Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards.
This wasn’t just an observation, though. Hardwareluxx, a German tech site, reached out to MSI and received a response regarding their focus. MSI stated: “When it comes to graphics cards, our focus at the moment is actually more on RTX cards. Nevertheless, the collaboration with AMD is essential and extremely relevant for us. We see a very positive development, particularly in the area of mainboards.”
Although the statement does not explicitly state a discontinuation of Radeon graphics cards, MSI’s recent actions imply otherwise. The move also significantly departs from MSI’s long-standing commitment to AMD and could mean more trouble for Team Red in its fight against Nvidia.
If we look at the recent Steam hardware survey from March 2024, AMD is not even close to competing with Nvidia’s RTX 40-series GPUs. Interestingly, the expensive and oversized RTX 4090, which is one of Nvidia’s most niche consumer-grade graphics cards on the market, is more popular than any other GPU from AMD. What that means is a majority of consumers are willing to spend upwards of $1,500 instead of buying a cheaper Radeon graphics card.
Some of the potential factors driving MSI’s decision could be the competitive advantage offered by Nvidia’s RTX series GPUs, particularly ray tracing, DLSS, and overall performance metrics. Another reason could be wanting to adapt to market trends and technological advancements.
Whatever may be the case, if MSI really does intend to completely pull out from making Radeon GPUs, it’s certainly an ominous sign for AMD.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.