No new Radeon in sight

Just a few weeks ago, AMD’s CEO Rory Read indicated that the next generation of graphics processors will appear sometime in the first half of 2013. Shortly afterwards, sources told SweClockers that this is not true – the new Radeon will be introduced in the fourth quarter of the year at the earliest.

The latter was more or less confirmed by AMD’s marketing manager Robert Hallock, who in a post on Twitter announced that the existing 7000 series would be the main focus for a long time to come. Japanese 4Gamers is now publishing an interview with product manager Devon Nekechuk, which puts an end to speculation that a new Radeon series is coming in the near future.

In connection with the launch of the Never Settle Reloaded marketing campaign, Devon Nekechuk confirms that today’s graphics cards will make up AMD’s range throughout 2013, or at least a bit into the third quarter of the year. Only then can it become relevant with new models.

However, the reason for the postponement is not discussed. There are many indications that AMD believes that it is not profitable or necessary to launch new graphics processors, not least because the next generation of gaming consoles from Sony and Microsoft is on the doorstep. In addition, the competitor Nvidia is also lagging behind with the upcoming architecture Maxwell.

Another possible reason is that AMD has a hand in the game at both Sony and Microsoft and now the resources are focused on producing graphics parts for the successors to Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 respectively. The new game consoles are expected to contain some form of Radeon graphics in combination with x86-based processors from AMD.