AMD on the up and up thanks to Mac Pro, other partnerships

By Konrad Krawczyk December 23, 2013

AMD Radeon R290X — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Don’t count out AMD just yet. They’re poised for a big 2014 and perhaps even more.

AMD is slated to go from owning 20 percent of the professional graphics card market, to 30 percent by the conclusion of 2014. Why is that the case? In a single word, Apple.

Though Apple’s revamped, cylindrical Mac Pro is suffering supply chain problems that have pushed the initial December 30 ship date back by a couple a months to an unidentified date in February, that doesn’t change the fact that AMD will be the sole supplier of graphics cards for the sci-fi prop/desktop workstation. The redesigned Mac Pro ships with a pair of AMD FirePro D300, D500 and D700 GPUs, with no NVIDIA option to choose from. There’s more to this equation though.

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It’s also worth noting that while AMD will be lending its graphics cards to the new Mac Pro desktop machines, they’ll also be the GPU supplier of choice for the new Microsoft Xbox One, Sony PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Wii U. The PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One have both sold well, which can only help AMD from marketshare and bottom line standpoints, especially considering that the PS4 and Xbox One were just released last month, and will likely be on the market for at least six years.

What’s more, recently released desktop graphics card options like the AMD Radeon R9 290x card are priced very competitively when compared with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 TI. The former can currently be had for anywhere between $550 and $600, while the latter’s asking price is roughly $700.

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Konrad Krawczyk

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

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