HiGame

One last tidbit related to AMD’s last conference call that doesn’t have much to do with AMD itself, but sheds light on Microsoft’s plans for Windows 10. During the call, CEO Lisa Su was asked whether she could clarify how Q2 results were expected to play out with regards to both the semicustom and embedded business (Xbox One and PS4) against the more mainstream APU and GPU business. Su responded by saying that she expected the semicustom business to be up “modestly,” and that AMD would move some inventory in Q2 and begin ramping Carrizo in greater volume. She then went on to say:

“What we also are factoring in is, you know, with the Windows 10 launch at the end of July, we are watching sort of the impact of that on the back-to-school season, and expect that it might have a bit of a delay to the normal back-to-school season inventory build-up.” AMD could be wrong, of course, but it’s unlikely — the company almost certainly knows when Microsoft intends to launch the new operating system, and this isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors of a summer release date for the OS.

It’s possible that AMD intends to capitalize on the launch with a new push around the GPU architecture its currently expected to launch in approximately the same time frame. The company wouldn’t need to launch alongside the operating system, but hitting the streets a few weeks early would build buzz around DX12 and other performance enhancements baked into Windows 10 before the actual OS debuts.

The big question on everyone’s mind in the PC industry is going to be whether Windows 10 lives up to the hype. So far, it seems as if it will. I’m not claiming people will be lining up around the blocks to grab it, but I think there’s a decent chance that

Windows 7 users, who gave Windows 8 a pass, will investigate Windows 10 — especially given the long-term advantages of DirectX 12.

It’s not clear yet how quickly games will transition to the new API, or how long they’ll support both DX12 and DX11. From past experience, we’d expect to see high-end AAA games popping out in DX12 in short order (the Star Wars Battlefront title that debuted last week will be DX12). Plenty of other games will transition more gradually, however, and it wouldn’t surprise us to see a few DX9 titles still knocking about — indie games and small developers have very different budgets compared with the big game studios.


More...