Highlights:

  • AMD intends to combine RDNA and CDNA into a single chip design.
  • AMD thinks that gaining market share in the lower-end GPU segment will persuade more game creators to adapt their titles for its processors.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. planned to merge the architectures that support its consumer graphics cards and data center.

The development was revealed by Jack Huynh, the Executive of AMD’s chip development division, in the recently published interview.

AMD provides two different lineups of GPUs. The CDNA 3 architecture serves as the foundation for the first product line, which is aimed at the enterprise market. Large language models are given special attention in the architecture, which is tailored to operate artificial intelligence software.

When reaching a judgment, an AI model computes values for some data points that have been set to zero. Calculations are sped up by CDNA 3’s ability to compress such data into a more compact form that requires less GPU processing power. A number of additional enhancements to the architecture are also included to accelerate AI workloads.

In contrast, AMD’s consumer graphics cards are designed more for playing games than LLMs. Their foundation is the RDNA 3 architecture. The design differs from CDNA 3 in part because it supports ray tracing more effectively, which is a method used in many video games to produce shadow and lighting effects.

Huynh said that AMD intends to combine RDNA and CDNA into a single chip design. The GPUs produced by the business will all be powered by this next technology. He listed the use of a cohesive design for three major reasons.

The first is that AMD’s engineering team will be able to work more effectively if they design a single GPU architecture rather than two. Huynh claims that RDNA, the chipmaker’s consumer GPU architecture, has some design constraints, which is another reason for the direction shift. The engineers at AMD have found it challenging to enhance the memory components of the architecture due to these constraints.

Independent developers will gain from a single chip design as well, according to Huynh. Software teams should find it easier to optimize an application for one chip architecture rather than two.

Huynh also gave an update on AMD’s intentions regarding the market for high-end consumer GPUs. With an estimated 88% share of chip shipments, competitor Nvidia Corp. presently leads the segment. AMD makes up the remaining 12 percent.

Huynh claims that AMD would now give preference to less expensive graphics cards. The company intends to expand in that area before returning to its primary objective of competing with Nvidia’s high-end consumer GPUs. Huynh clarified that developer adoption is a factor in the choice.

The quantity of video games that are designed to run on a consumer GPU has a significant impact on demand. AMD thinks that gaining market share in the lower-end GPU segment will persuade more game creators to adapt their titles for its processors. The chipmaker will be in a better position to compete with Nvidia in the high-end GPU market after it has established that go-to-market infrastructure.