Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) announced that its new Radeon Vega Frontier Edition graphics card is now available for purchase.
The first of the new AMD graphics cards designed around the company’s Vega architecture, the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is aimed at “the pioneers of the world.”
Also hitting shelves is a previous-generation AMD card that’s been optimized to meet the needs of digital currency miners, the Mining RX 470.
Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Goes on Sale
AMD announced the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition back in May. The advanced new AMD graphics card goes head-to-head against rival Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and its Titan Xp.
Nvidia has been promoting that Titan Xp as being the world’s most powerful graphics card, with a whopping 12 teraflops of processing power. However, the Radeon Frontier Vega –which is the first new Radeon card to be released that’s based on AMD’s new Vega GPU architecture– can manage in the 13 teraflops range. That claim is giving AMD bragging rights over the Titan Xp.
What wasn’t known for certain up until now was one key detail: pricing.
Based on the Titan Xp and AMD’s past patterns, analysts had pegged the new Radeon flagship somewhere in $1,000 territory. AMD announced that the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is available for purchase and retailers are stocking the card. As for price, there are two primary options. Go with traditional air cooling and the sticker is $999 — right where it was expected to be. However, if you choose the liquid-cooled version, be prepared to part with $1,499.
AMD has been positioning the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition as a card for loftier purposes (digital pioneers, innovators and content creators), but The Verge points out that the company is offering dual-mode drivers for the new Radeon graphics card. Doing so lets it be flipped between professional applications and use for video game acceleration. So technically, it could also be used to power a killer video game rig.
A very expensive gaming rig.
AMD Mining RX 470 for Bitcoin Mining and Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrencies are currently worth an estimated $107 billion. And the way new currency is generated is through a process known as “mining.” This system is incredibly processor-intensive and is perfectly suited to graphics cards.
When it comes to Bitcoin mining, graphics cards and their parallel processing are far more efficient and cost-effective than CPUs. Advanced Micro Devices has been the manufacturer of choice, with its GPU architecture boasting an advantage over Nvidia’s when it comes to this specific task.
Bitcoin and other crytocurrencies like Ethereum have gone gangbusters this year, and AMD admits the demand for its graphics cards by miners is seriously boosting sales.
It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that Advanced Micro has quietly released a version of its previous generation RX 470 graphics card that is optimized for Bitcoin mining. The Mining RX 470 has tweaks like dual ball bearing fans and dust resistance so it can run continuously, 24/7, for months as part of a Bitcoing mining rig. The new AMD graphics card is claimed to have twice the lifespan of a stock RX 470.
At the moment, the Mining RX 470 is being offered exclusively by Asus.
Bottom Line
AMD stock is up over 8% at this point in 2017, and that’s before it began to release its new Radeon video cards. With the flagship Radeon Vega Frontier Edition now hitting store shelves, and the redesigned Mining RX 470 there to take advantage of the cryptocurrency mining rush, the company is poised to do even better.
At this point, it has bragging rights for the world’s most powerful graphics card for digital innovators, and what seems likely to quickly become the most popular card for Bitcoin mining.
Those are two very different target demographics, but both are willing to spend money to get the best.
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
