AMD in 2024: Annual Review
What kind of 2024 has AMD experienced? This year was quiet in some ways for Team Red – with not much activity on the GPU front, with one notable exception – but more happened on the CPU front, although the introduction of new Zen 5 processors proved controversial.
New laptop chips for Copilot+ PCs and a new X3D offering were clear highlights, so without further ado let’s take a look at what was good, bad or indifferent for AMD in 2024.
Vanilla Ryzen 9000 CPUs did not perform well at launch
This year we received new Ryzen processors, although the launch of these Zen 5 chips was pushed back a month from July to August – a delay that some at the time saw as ominous. Those more pessimistic mutterings turned into a form of online outrage when the Ryzen 9000 series finally arrived, with the PC community seemingly quick to label the new processors as a flop.
That may be a harsh conclusion, though there’s no denying that Ryzen 9000 didn’t meet the expectations of potential CPU buyers, especially in gaming performance, where increases were widely reported to be closer to 5% than 10 %AMD. to promote pre-release (that’s where the ‘Zen 5%’ joke comes from). The better news is that the Ryzen 9000 quickly gained performance thanks to Windows 11 24H2 refinements – although crucially the Ryzen 7000 chips came close to the same (major) improvement.
After some rather shaky reviews of the mainstream Ryzen 9700X and 9600X offerings, sales seemed to take off – partly because Ryzen 7000 chips are still on sale at quite steep discounts, making them relatively more tempting.
So the flak AMD took from a gaming angle wasn’t good at all here, but Team Red did have a few things in its favor. Its desktop CPU rival, Intel, has suffered far worse issues than a lukewarm reception around gaming prowess throughout 2024 – with Team Blue’s 13th and 14th generation processors plagued by annoying instability issues (which were eventually resolved). Additionally, Intel’s new Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) desktop CPUs performed as poorly as Ryzen 9000 (actually worse) when it comes to gaming performance.
That gave AMD some breathing room, and then Team Red fired back with a mighty salvo to entice PC gamers in terms of a quick launch of its new 3D V-Cache processors.
Ryzen 9800X3D to the rescue
Last year we saw the introduction of 3D V-Cache for Zen 4 CPUs, and the Ryzen 7800X3D caught fire as the most popular gaming CPU out there. While AMD normally takes some time to bring X3D chips to market for a given generation, these gaming-focused processors came very quickly with Zen 5. Indeed, the Ryzen 9800X3D debuted in the first week of November, just a few months after the Ryzen 9000 chips.
You could argue that this rushed appearance was made to take away the bad taste of the Ryzen 9000, and indeed the Ryzen 9800X3D did just that for PC gamers. As we found in our review, this CPU has been significantly boosted (with the ability to overclock for the first time) and is an excellent gaming chip – we even named it the best processor release of 2024.
The sticking point for the 9800X3D was the slightly increased MSRP, while initial stock sold out very quickly, a situation exacerbated by scalping woes. Still, this was clearly the piece of silicon AMD needed to get out the door to restore its CPU reputation and really take the fight to Intel.
It’s also worth noting that we were treated to a welcome wallet-friendly last-gen offering from AMD, the Ryzen 7600X3D, as a budget gaming CPU (and excellent for small form factor builds) – but as a Micro Center exclusive in the USA (again).
GPU disappointment – with a big saving grace
AMD was a hive of activity with graphics cards last year, supplementing the RDNA 3 series with several GPU models, from the lower-end RX 7600 to the mid-range with the RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT. Before that, we only had high-end models with the RDNA 3 family in 2022.
To say this year has been a bit of a contrast is an understatement. At the very beginning of 2024 we got a new RX 7600 XT, the souped-up version of the most wallet-friendly RDNA 3 GPU, but it was a modest upgrade, not that compelling on value, and overall it didn’t do well compared to its Nvidia rival (the RTX 4060).
We were hoping for some newcomers at the true budget end of the GPU market in 2024, below the RX 7600, but the rumored RX 7400 and 7300 never materialized. (Although bizarre, we did learn something about old low-end Radeon GPUs).
Of course, we also hoped even more eagerly for RDNA 4, but that didn’t happen either. Despite the rumor mill being adamant that these next-generation graphics cards could debut later in 2024, that didn’t happen – and the rumor mill has now predicted a Q1 2025 launch. Overall, the no-show of RDNA 4 – which is rumored to hit the mid-range with a RX 8700 XT flagship in theory – was one of the biggest PC disappointments for us in 2024.
What we did get was a rocket-powered rabbit – a Golden Rabbit Edition, or GRE, version of the RX 7900, to be precise. This was a GPU that launched in China in mid-2023, but wasn’t released globally until February 2024. At that point, the RX 7900 GRE stormed our list of the best GPUs and stole the top spot, likely because it’s the best entry-level option for 4K gaming.
So it wasn’t a complete breakout for Team Red after all, especially considering the RX 7800 XT also topped our best GPU list when it was released last year. However, the GRE was the only thing that was GRE-at (sorry) for AMD’s GPUs around 2024.
Ryzen AI 300 enters the scene to take on Qualcomm Snapdragon
As you’ve no doubt noticed, 2024 was the year Copilot+ PCs launched, and the only chips powering these AI laptops were Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X SoCs to begin with.
However, AMD and Intel weren’t that far behind with CPUs that had an NPU powerful enough to qualify as the engine of a Copilot+ PC, and Team Red’s (aka Strix) Ryzen AI 300 (x86) processors Point) arrived in laptops from the start starting in July 2024. However, the available models were very scarce at first, and the choice of Strix Point notebooks remains limited indeed, even as this year comes to an end.
Ryzen AI 300 proved to be strong in AI, but also in general performance and mobile gaming, easily matching Qualcomm’s efforts – with the advantage of having none of the compatibility issues that plagued the Arm-based Snapdragon Having X CPUs as luggage.
That said, Intel also debuted Lunar Lake mobile (x86) processors for Copilot+ PCs in 2024, and these turned out to be very strong CPUs as well – and in many ways a match for Ryzen AI 300. In short, there are two great ones in 2024 x86 alternatives for Qualcomm Snapdragon
Closing thoughts
Other notable events for AMD in 2024 included the release of FSR 3.1 – which still lags behind Nvidia DLSS, although AI may solve that – and a sensational performance in outpacing Intel in the data center space total turnover.
While the launch of Ryzen 9000 CPUs caused some issues, we shouldn’t forget that these aren’t bad chips by any means – they just didn’t meet (gaming) expectations and didn’t seem like much of a value compared to previous versions. gene processors (at greatly reduced prices) that are still available on the shelves (for the time being).
The time of Ryzen 9000 will undoubtedly come, and in any case AMD rebounded appropriately with the Ryzen 9800X3D – and wasn’t exactly under pressure from Intel either, as Team Blue had bigger concerns than the criticism Team Red faced.
GPU launches have been few and far between from AMD and rather disappointing – apart from the RX 7900 GRE – and the non-release of RDNA 4 this year was a further source of some consternation.
Unfortunately, AMD also saw major layoffs in 2024, with the company unconcerned about an increasing focus on the world of AI, where bountiful profits can be made.
Does this increased propensity for AI perhaps have something to do with the pushback on RDNA 4 graphics cards? We don’t know, and we don’t want to get caught up in any paranoia around AMD not prioritizing consumer GPUs yet – it probably has more to do with market conditions and sales through the current generation of RDNA 3 stock. Furthermore, you could apply that line of concerned thinking to Nvidia as well, with the next generation of Blackwell gaming GPUs also not showing up this year and perhaps appearing in the shadow of much bigger potential AI gains.