AMD executives David McAfee and Frank Azor have addressed the criticism surrounding the company’s absence of RDNA 4 GPUs at the recent CES 2025 keynote. According to McAfee, the decision was made due to time constraints, with a 45-minute presentation limiting the amount of information that could be shared about the new architecture.
The lack of RDNA 4 in the press conference has sparked debate among enthusiasts, who were hoping for major product announcements. However, McAfee assured that the chips are in development and performing well, meeting all performance targets. The company plans to release more details on RDNA 4 later this quarter, with preliminary performance numbers potentially leaking during this time.
Azor added that Nvidia’s pending announcements at CES 2025 made it impossible for AMD to include RDNA 4 in the keynote, as the timing would have left audiences unimpressed. The company instead chose to wait and see what Nvidia would do, avoiding a potential narrative that they don’t care about RDNA 4.
Despite the criticism, AMD remains committed to focusing on the mid-range segment of the market with RDNA 4, which will deliver features and performance improvements for gamers in this volume segment. The company is also emphasizing the dramatic generational jump in ray tracing capabilities and AI enhancements expected from RDNA 4.
While some critics argue that AMD’s behavior mirrors patterns seen in other industries like crypto and NFTs, where major firms join late to a trend only to lose money, the situation remains uncertain with performance leaks potentially contradicting initial claims.
Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/amd-explains-the-missing-rdna-4-gpus-in-its-ces-2025-livestream