AMD has high hopes for the Instinct MI300 series

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For years, AMD has endeavored to wrest the data center GPU market from Nvidia’s grasp, yet the fruits of their labor have been modest. This is largely attributable to software support challenges, which have hindered AMD’s ability to penetrate Nvidia’s well-established ecosystem. However, with the surge in artificial intelligence (AI) demand and AMD’s increased investment and focus, there seems to be a tide turning, and a breakthrough product may soon be on the horizon.

According to TomsHardware, Dr. Lisa Su, AMD’s CEO, indicated in an earnings call with analysts and investors that data center GPU revenues are projected to reach approximately $400 million in the fourth quarter. This figure is expected to rise above $2 billion by 2024, driven by increased shipments and sales. This suggests that the recently shipped AMD Instinct MI300 series could become the fastest in AMD’s history to hit $1 billion in sales.

The AMD Instinct MI300 series is more strategically positioned than its predecessors, capable of providing solutions required by supercomputers and data centers, as well as addressing the needs of cloud service providers for artificial intelligence training and inference. Its diverse configuration options make it more competitive in both performance and software capabilities.

Based on the available information, the Instinct MI300 product series may include:

  • Instinct MI300A (CPU+GPU) – 6 XCDs (up to 228 Compute Units/CUs on CDNA 3 architecture), 3 CCDs (up to 24 cores on Zen 4 architecture), and 8 HBM3 stacks (totaling 128GB).
  • Instinct MI300X (pure GPU) – 8 XCDs (up to 304 CUs on CDNA 3 architecture), no CCDs, and 8 HBM3 stacks (totaling 192GB).
  • Instinct MI300C (pure CPU) – no XCDs, 12 CCDs (up to 96 cores on Zen 4 architecture), and 8 HBM3 stacks (totaling 128GB).
  • Instinct MI300P (pure GPU) – 4 XCDs (up to 152 CUs on CDNA 3 architecture), no CCDs, and 8 HBM3 stacks (totaling 64GB).

AMD is progressing on schedule with the development and validation of the Instinct MI300A and Instinct MI300X, with performance reportedly exceeding internal expectations. On the software front, AMD has expanded its artificial intelligence software ecosystem and has made significant strides in enhancing the performance and functionality of its ROCm platform over the past quarter.

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