How Can ChatGPT Be Used by Manufacturing Organizations?
We tried to assess the potential uses that a manufacturing organisation could make of chat-enabled generative AI technology and assessed the potential impacts of this technology for the industry by analysing the very answers an open tool has given us.
We questioned none other than ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer. ChatGPT is based on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 series, which can perform a variety of natural language processes*.
With the professional version available, assuming that outage and availability problems are now past, does it make sense for a manufacturing organisation to fork out the few dollars of monthly subscription? Let’s find it out.
When we asked ChatGPT how it can be useful in manufacturing processes, the response listed the following areas:
“Quality control: ChatGPT can be used to analyse written reports and data from quality control inspections, identifying patterns and trends in product defects.
Predictive maintenance: ChatGPT can be used to analyse sensor data and logs from manufacturing equipment, identifying patterns and trends that indicate when maintenance is needed.
Document summarisation: ChatGPT can be used to automatically summarise large amounts of technical documents, such as manuals and procedures, making it easier for employees to find the information they need.
Natural Language Processing: ChatGPT can be used to process natural language input from users, such as voice commands, and translate them into actionable instructions for manufacturing robots or machines.
Chatbot: ChatGPT can be used to create a chatbot for customer service, handling customer inquiries and complaints.
Language Translation: ChatGPT can be used for language translation for multi-lingual communication with customers and suppliers.
These are just a few examples of how ChatGPT can be used in manufacturing. The specific application will depend on the needs of the manufacturing company and how they want to utilise the technology.“
We then proceeded in investigating some more details for each of the answers. The follow up question was “How can ChatGPT be used in quality management in manufacturing?”
We are now providing the actual answers, with a brief comment and our verdict.
“ChatGPT can be used in quality management in manufacturing in several ways. One way is by analysing data from quality control inspections to identify patterns and potential issues. The model can be trained on historical data to predict when quality issues are likely to occur, and can also be used to generate reports and alerts to notify quality control personnel.”
Any modern Quality Management System (QMS) application can already be augmented with an embedded AI analytics module to achieve this. This is very useful to help companies figure out complex root cause structures, and in general, investigate their “known” and “unknown” unknowns. In our case, it is unclear on which data Chat GPT is going to rely. So, at the present time, we think that ChatGPT is overselling a little bit here.
“Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to generate automated test plans and reports to increase the efficiency of quality control inspections. ChatGPT can also be used to generate automated documentation for compliance with regulations and industry standards. This can include generating standard operating procedures, work instructions, and other documents to ensure that quality management processes are followed consistently.”
This is quite interesting. This can help a lot with the simplification of clerical work and create multiple reports for different audiences very easily and at scale. But for the real business impacts to materialise, a company should first do some preparatory work and carefully define business rules, templates, formats, and audience requirements.
“Another way ChatGPT can be used in quality management is by analysing customer feedback and complaints, and identifying patterns and common issues. This information can be used to improve the quality of products, and to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.”
The good old “feedback loop” story: understanding user habits and recurrent issues to feed back to the quality department with relevant information. But in the manufacturing industry, the problem for most companies is how to bypass distributors and access timely and good quality market information directly to feed the analysis. If ChatGPT only relies on publicly available information and does not tap-in any market intelligence database, everything it would talk about is things a company should already know about. So, as an add-on to a market intelligence subscription, it could become an intelligent way to consume the data, otherwise, mostly of little use.
“Overall, ChatGPT can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of quality management processes in manufacturing, and help to identify and prevent quality issues before they occur.”
Here it seems a definitive oversell.
Then we followed up with the next use case: predictive maintenance and this is the answer.
“Analysing large amounts of data from manufacturing processes and equipment to predict when maintenance will be needed. This can include data from sensors on equipment, as well as data on past maintenance and repair history.
The model can also be trained on historical data to identify patterns and make predictions about when equipment is likely to fail.
Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to generate reports and alerts to notify maintenance personnel when maintenance is required, and can also be used to optimize maintenance schedules to minimize downtime and improve overall equipment efficiency.”
We are not doing a point-by-point analysis here, but in general, we are seeing the same pattern as the use case before. Overall, ChatGPT can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of document management processes in manufacturing and help to identify and extract important information from documents quickly and accurately.
Good for clerical work simplification, redundant for other functionalities, but definitely overselling itself sometimes.
Now, let’s analyse the other points that ChatGPT has brough forward: Document summarisation, Natural Language Processing, Chatbot, Language Translation.
A quick glance at the detailed answers highlighted that here ChatGPT was not providing additional business use cases, but rather outlining some basic principles of how it works. A little bit like if we asked an intelligent washer-dryer machine what it does, and the reply was: “Washing clothes, drying clothes, having a spinning drum inside, being heavy, consuming electricity, etc.”
Any Missing Areas?
Now we also thought about some obvious “missing areas” in its self-assessment: for example, idea generation. Using the generative text functionalities as a way to explore concepts, visions, user needs, like a “crowdsourcing” tool that prompts ideas that may just not come to mind to a decision maker considering several options.
Another obvious miss was code programming. Our research has constantly highlighted a critical need for digital skills in factories and the importance of low/no-code applications to address this (we have been talking about the notion of “buyilders” — a hybrid between “build” or “buy” software users), enabling workers on the shop floor in general act as/programmed as interactive tool/personal assistant, digital work instructions, etc…
As personnel with some knowledge of coding become more of a frequent sight in plants, having a conversational tool for programming can easily lower the threshold for digital skills in disciplines such as data analysis, machine connectivity, and operational improvement.
What Are the Risks that a Manufacturing Company May Incur While Using this Type of Solution in Their Business Practices?
First, the risk of losing the grip on information quality. Over time, managers can lose grip on the practical aspects of information they have to evaluate (where it comes from, how it has been created, are there inherent biases in it? etc.), with an increased risk of “garbage in/out” effect (a side note: with examples of answers such as “gnothi seauton”, or “42!” we can think of plenty of “oracles” providing unintelligible answers to poorly structured questions).
It is true that sloppy interns will get wrong information as well, but the system has no way to check the quality of information, at least not yet. Eventually, there is a risk of having supervisors that have never done the job in the first place because the step is not done anymore.
Also, these tools automate a lot of “entry-level”, clerical, repetitive transactional tasks (filling repetitive reports, data entry, data check, etc.). This is not bad per se, but it could be an issue in organisations where the “learning by doing” career growth is heavily based on those menial activities.
The risk is that there could be no available route for juniors to learn and grow in these organisations.
Hampering radical innovation reduces the questioning of the status quo. The widespread use of generative tools will also force companies to reinvent excellence.
In its answers, ChatGPT tends to converge to a median level, the “common knowledge”. So not only can this lead to a risk of preventing “disruptive discovery” if not used properly, it can also amplify and reinforce organisational biases, favouring routine and procedural consistency over innovation. Removing the transactional costs of procedures (i.e., clerical work is boring and expensive) can make organisational streamlining less of a need.
Making the fulfilment of useless steps automated and cheap may lead to the accumulation of inefficiencies. When nobody has the ownership and burden to execute these tasks, nobody questions the procedure, and the risk of procedural errors or bottlenecks arising from convoluted processes is never addressed.
The advice is to take this technology with a grain of salt. Companies have to look at it with an eye for process transformation. Automating something manual is not a benefit by itself, it is a benefit when it simplifies the organisational structure, saves time, and increases the focus of key decision makers to more relevant tasks that create real business value.
Purpose: Another Buzzword? Or Essential to Brand and Growth?
Purpose is a word that is often talked about. But what does it mean and how does it impact your business?
Purpose is not just about what you sell, but the value you bring. Not just about the products and services you produce, but your company ethos. The impact of what you sell, how you make it and the effect your company has on the wider community.
Purpose impacts everything from buying decisions to employee productivity. Purpose, therefore, drives not only what you do but how you do it.
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A purpose gets to the why of the company. Why do your products or services exist? What value does your company bring? Beyond making a profit, what are you providing?
But why does this matter?
Customers are not just concerned with the performance of the products they buy, but who is providing them. Interest in things like a company’s carbon footprint, the working conditions of employees, even the charities a company donates to influence a customer’s decision to buy.
What you stand for is impacting if people buy from you. So you need to ensure you can demonstrate the value you bring. What your “purpose” is.
Your brand purpose is also important for your employees.
It helps build strategy and focus goals. Helps with decision making. It needs to be more than a PR statement — an ethos that can help drive the company. Something that an employee can look to and ask, does the work I am doing contribute to our purpose?
It promotes an aligned and connected organisation that delivers value. Purpose enhances performance and creates value.
Brand purpose is an important keystone for any business. Brand purpose should influence everything from your strategy to messaging to recruitment.
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Your company may already have a brand purpose. If you do, it’s good to revisit it and see if it still reflects the ethos and goals of your business.
There are key questions that you should be asking when thinking about your business that your purpose should answer.
Questions to ask when looking at brand purpose:
- What does our business help people achieve?
- How does our business impact the societies we operate in?
- What value(s) do we have while building our products and services?
Customers are becoming more concerned about what a brand stands for. More likely to check whether your business is doing what you say it does. Performative actions without substance (such as greenwashing) will not go down well with potential customers. Purpose can be aspirational, but it must be honest.
Examples from major companies:
- Coca-Cola. Our purpose: Refresh the world. Make a difference.
- HP. We are a technology company born of the belief that companies should do more than just make a profit. They should make the world a better place. Our efforts in climate action, human rights and digital equity prove that we are doing everything in our power to make it so.
- Nike. Our mission: Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If you have a body, you are an athlete.)
Purpose goes beyond a slogan.
Purpose should tell whoever encounters it what your company stands for and what it provides.
Purpose is a factor in a business’ reach and awareness within a market. It can determine whether a customer buys from you, or not. A driver for success.
Act with purpose.
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What the IT Industry Can Do for Neurodivergent People
Neurodivergent people have many talents that can add value to the IT industry. Autistic people can be strong logical thinkers, highly focused, detailed orientated, reliable and loyal. ADHD people tend to have high energy and strong imagination. Dyslexic people can bring out-of-the-box thinking and pattern recognition. Dyspraxic people tend to be really good at strategic thinking and problem solving, and highly motivated.
There is no question that neurodivergent talent can add value in a variety of technical and business roles in the IT industry. So, we don’t need to ask, “What can neurodivergent people do for the IT industry?” The answer, unequivocally, is a lot.
We need to change the perspective. We need to ask ourselves what we can do better to attract and retain these talents in IT buyer and supplier organisations.
In a previous blog, I talked about how cities should think of how to become autism friendly, including through the intelligent application of technology. In this piece, I’m reflecting on how the technology industry itself can make the workplace more autism friendly.
Making the IT Industry Autism Friendly
According to Digital Scotland, 10% of Scottish people are neurodivergent, but many of them are unemployed. In fact, the UK Office of National Statistics’ research shows that just 22% of autistic people are in any kind of employment, but many more are eager to work. That’s a lot of wasted talent for the IT industry at a time when there’s a dire shortage of talent.
According to our surveys, around 74% of European organisations find it difficult or very difficult to hire technology roles in either line of business or IT. Most importantly, that’s a lot of unaccomplished self-fulfilment and happiness for autistic people.
The good news is that the IT industry has started to pay attention. On the technology buyer side, the Israeli army recruited autistic soldiers for a highly specialised visual intelligence unit. On the supplier side, IBM established the ND@IBM BRG (Business Resource Group), which includes neurodivergent employees and allies in IBM offices across the globe.
SAP, Microsoft, DXC and EY have invested to raise awareness both among their employees through internal webinars and training, and for the overall industry by sponsoring Autism at Work Summits. There are even companies that make neurodivergent talent their core asset, such as Auticon, which provides quality assurance, testing, data science and cybersecurity services with a delivery workforce that includes around 400 autistic consultants in its 20 offices.
There’s a long way to go, but these examples show that a different perspective on autism at work is possible for the IT industry. Companies embracing this new perspective need to consider that matching the skillset of neurodivergent people with the right projects and activities, and raising awareness, are only the first steps in the process.
Success comes from changing recruiting and hiring processes by finding alternatives to one-to-one interviews, which can be a barrier for people with gaps in their social skills. For example, they could combine cognitive written tests with week-long workshops, where psychologists bring candidates together for group work and meals to evaluate their individual soft skills.
Workspaces need to be adapted. Just as an employee in a wheelchair may need a ramp, an autistic person may find a low-light, low-noise environment more conducive to concentrating. Psychologists need to be retained as job coaches to help prevent situations that cause anxiety, based on each individual’s profile, and to facilitate interaction with clients.
Dress codes need to be relaxed for autistic people that may be hyper-sensitive to touch and therefore can’t wear certain fibres. Neurotypical employees must be immersed in teams with neurodivergent people to learn how to interact.
A simple change of language from “I need this deliverable to be completed ASAP” to “I need this deliverable to be completed by tomorrow at 5pm” makes an immense difference for an autistic person. The former quite simply does not make sense, and just creates anxiety. The latter provides a clear deadline that an autistic person can meet.
Neurodivergent talent can bring a different perspective to help IT buyers and suppliers avoid bias when tackling business and technical problems in our fast-paced industry. All we need is a change in mindset to make the IT industry a good place to work for neurodivergent talent.
High-End Gaming Upgrade with the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and Radeon RX 7900 XTX
AMD made major changes to its CPU and GPU portfolios in 2022. On August 29, AMD unveiled its Ryzen 7000 series of desktop processors powered by Zen 4 architecture and the new socket AM5 platform. These processors have been available globally from September 27. The flagship 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor is presently offered at the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of $699.
On November 3, AMD unveiled the Radeon RX 7900 series of graphics cards powered by RDNA 3 architecture. The cards have been available on AMD’s website from December 13, 2022. Leading AMD board partners, including ASRock, ASUS, Biostar, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, Sapphire, Vastarmor, XFX, and Yeston, have offered the cards from mid-December. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX has a starting price of $999, while the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT has a $899 price tag.
AMD offered samples of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX along with the Ryzen 9 7950X processor, a socket AM5 motherboard, and a DDR5 memory kit. The samples allowed IDC to test how well AMD’s flagship technology platform performed as a completely new system or upgrade over an existing system. IDC also gauged how well the new samples performed over prior generations in terms of performance per watt and computations per U.S. dollar.
What’s New with the AMD Ryzen 7000 Series Desktop CPUs?
The core compute die of the Ryzen 7000 series processor is built on TSMC’s 5nm process node. The input/output die — which now includes basic RDNA 2 graphics capabilities for 2D workloads or diagnostic/troubleshooting purposes — is based on TSMC’s 6nm process.
AMD made a significant change by moving from the previously long-lived AM4 socket platform to the new LGA AM5 socket. Since pins have moved from the CPU to the socket, there is less risk of damage during installations or upgrades. The AM5 platform also supports dual-channel DDR5 memory up to 5200 megatransfers per second (MT/S), in line with JEDEC standards.
AMD has invested in a memory configuration standard it has branded EXPO. EXPO supports advanced pre-configured profile settings designed specifically for AMD memory controllers built into DIMM boards. These pre-configured profiles simplify overclocking for greater bandwidth and tighten timing for the fastest responses and lowest latencies.
The new socket AM5 motherboards have up to 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes and are available with AMD X670E chipsets. In addition to possessing the highest overclocking capabilities, the enthusiast-grade X670 and B650E motherboards support the PCIe 5.0 standard for graphics and storage components. However, PCIe 5.0 support is an optional feature on the mainstream B650 motherboard.
AMD has pledged to support AM5 motherboards through 2025 and at least two subsequent CPU generations. However, support may be provided even longer if the long history of the AM4 series is anything to go by.
What’s New with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series GPUs?
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics cards are the first gaming cards to feature an advanced chiplet design. Like the Ryzen 7000 series, the AMD RDNA 3 generation architecture’s chiplet design combines 5nm and 6nm process nodes. The main graphics compute die (GCD) is built on TSMC’s 5nm process and provides the compute units for rasterization and ray tracing. AMD includes up to six TSMC 6nm memory cache dies (MCDs), each with 16MB of second-generation AMD Infinity Cache technology and a 64-bit wide memory interface. AMD invested in a novel interconnect to link the GCD and MCD chiplets together, enabling bandwidth of up to 5.3TB/s.
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 96 compute units. Each has four texture units (for 384 in total), one ray accelerator (96 total), and two artificial intelligence (AI) units (192 total). According to AMD, the performance of the ray tracing units in RDNA 3 architecture is nearly double that of the corresponding units in RDNA 2, while the new AI instructions are nearly three times as many as those in the previous generation.
The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX features six MCDs that support 24GB of GDDR6 memory running at 20Gbps over a 384-bit bus. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX also supports USB-C, DisplayPort 2.1, and HDMI 2.1a connectivity with UHBR 13.5, allowing displays with high refresh rates to be connected (up to 480Hz refresh rates on 4K panels and 165Hz refresh rates on 8K panels). A dual media engine supports simultaneous encode or decode streams up to 8K60 for HEVC, as well as the new AV1 codec.
The Test Platform
The test PC hardware components included the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card, the Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master motherboard, and a G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo 2x16GB DDR5-6000 EXPO memory kit. The Windows 11 main drive was a 1TB GIGABYTE AORUS NVMe Gen4 solid-state drive.
A be quiet! Silent Loop 2 280mm water cooler was installed for the processor, which was paired with a be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER 11 Platinum 850W power supply. A 34″ Dell Gaming S3422DWG monitor — a Quad-HD 3440×1440 display with a 144Hz refresh rate, FreeSync, 10-bit colors, and high dynamic range support — was also utilized.
The reviewer utilized the motherboard’s optimal default settings, set the memory profile to EXPO 6000, and made sure that smart access memory was enabled. No special tuning, optimization, or overclocking was carried out for the tests.
Synthetic Benchmarks and Productivity Performance
PCMark 10 is a comprehensive benchmarking tool that covers the wide variety of tasks performed in the modern workplace. Web browsing, videoconferencing, spreadsheet and word-processing workloads, photo and video editing, and rendering and visualization are some of the tasks tested by PCMark 10.
The gaming test focused on real-time graphics and physics engines of the platform hardware. The 9,186 score the platform achieved was better than 99% of all results produced by PCMark 10.
Blender Benchmark 3.4.0 was used to test the rendering performance of the graphics card. Thanks to the Heterogeneous Interface for Portability — AMD’s compute language for GPUs which Blender Benchmark uses (in contrast to OpenCL, which does not) — the Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranked in the top 10% of all benchmarks, delivering an excellent result.
IndigoBench, an OpenCL benchmark based on Indigo 4’s advanced rendering engine, was used to measure the performance of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX achieved 21.500 M samples/s in the bedroom rendering test and 49.599 M samples/s in the supercar rendering test. According to the published test results, the graphics card was 56% faster than the Radeon Pro W6800 and 51% faster than the 6900 XT.
3DMark Port Royal is a dedicated real-time ray tracing benchmark for gamers. The system’s score of 16,319 was better than 93% of all results and almost double the 8,784 score of the older AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Radeon RX 6800 XT system.
The system’s 3DMark Time Spy Extreme 4K score of 14,242 was better than 95% of all results. The graphics score of 14,593 was 48% higher than what was achieved by the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT on the same Ryzen 9 7950X platform.
Gaming Performance
Various old and new video games were tested on the platform, including next-gen versions.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
This game ran at an average 111 frames per second (fps) at 1440p, registering a minimum of 79fps. The highest graphical settings, as well as AMD’s FidelityFX CAS package, were enabled.
FARCRY6
Far Cry 6 ran at an average 140fps at 1440p, registering a minimum of 123fps. All DirectX Raytracing (DXR) and FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) features were enabled during testing.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 ran at an average 67fps at 1440p, registering a minimum of 49fps. Ultra-ray tracing presets and FSR 2.1 features were automatically enabled.
The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Next-Gen
The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Next-Gen ran at an average 75fps at 1440p, registering a minimum of 60fps. Ultra-ray tracing presets and FSR 2.1 features were automatically enabled.
Fortnite
The latest Fortnite game runs on Unreal Engine 5.1 and makes use of several next-gen features (such as Nanite, Lumen, Virtual Shadow Maps, and Temporal Super Resolution). For example, the Lumen Global Illumination and Lumen Reflection features can exploit the Radeon GPU’s hardware-accelerated ray-tracing capabilities. The updated game ran at an average 82fps, with a 65fps minimum.
IDC Opinion and Conclusion
Ryzen 7950X Performance, Power Consumption, and Heat Considerations
With the Ryzen 7000 generation of desktop CPUs, AMD has taken a new approach to delivering maximum performance. Rather than limit power, AMD allows its CPUs to consume as much power as needed within the socket and reach their thermal throttling temperature (for the Ryzen 9 7950x, the throttling temperature is 95°C). With a much higher CPU thermal design power of 170W in comparison to 105W for the Ryzen 9 5950X, the 7950X reached much higher single threads and all core boost clocks, increasing overall performance and speeding up challenging productivity tasks.
However, enhanced cooling is needed to maintain the performance of the processor (this means increased fan noise). The system and cooler’s fans will quickly ramp up to high speeds when the processor is executing a demanding workload.
AMD provides several tools for performance and efficiency customizations. For example, Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) is a feature that has dramatic impacts on power consumption, heat, and noise as it enables users to set overall socket power. On the test system, PBO had a major impact on the power consumption of the Ryzen 9 7950X, with only minimal drawbacks in terms of performance.
For example, the Ryzen 9 7950X running at 105W delivered 93% of the performance and used just 46% of the power of a higher 230W system setting. When AMD’s suggested 65W “eco mode” setting was used, the test platform delivered 73% of the performance and used 38% of the power of the 230W setting. While this configuration flexibility is a welcome change, AMD should make it simple and easy for users to change PBO socket power profiles on the fly. AMD could work with Microsoft to enable this capability via the power management features of Windows 10 or 11.
Radeon RX 7900 XTX Considerations
On the GPU side, AMD has increased the GPU power draw to 355W. This is a 55W increase over the 300W draw of the Radeon RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT but only a 20W increase over the Radeon RX 6950 XT. Overclocking delivered small gains of around 200 points in 3DMARK tests and slightly boosted gaming fps, but at the expense of increased power consumption, heat, and fan noise. The RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7900 XTX can hit frequencies of up to 3GHz, with additional power available on AIB partner cards that include a third 8-pin PCIe power connector and significantly enhanced cooling systems compared to AMD reference card designs.
As with the Ryzen 9 7950X, reducing the GPU power limit and undervolting the graphics card significantly reduces overall temperatures and noise for only a few percentage drops in gaming performance.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series Pricing
AMD faced some criticism about the Ryzen 7000X series and AM5 platform at launch. Although the pricing of the CPUs was competitive, the initial AM5 motherboards based on the X670E chipset were limited in choice and very expensive. This was compounded by the high price of DDR5 RAM (in comparison to DDR4).
AMD has since lowered the price of the Ryzen 7000X and introduced more cost effective and lower power non-X series of CPUs (the 6-core Ryzen 5 7600, 8-core Ryzen 7 7700, and 12-core Ryzen 9 7900). AMD board partners have also introduced a wider range of AM5 motherboards based on the X670, B650E, and B650 chipsets. Volume production of DDR5 has also resulted in more cost-competitive memory options.
AMD Radeon 7900 XTX Pricing
The European street price of the Radeon 7900 XTX is around €1,130, which is higher than the American $999 MSRP listed on amd.com, due to fluctuating exchange rates and taxes (e.g., value-added tax). The cards from board partners are in some cases more expensive, chiefly due to their beefed-up coolers, uprated power systems, and the additional margins of the board manufacturers and their channel partners.
It does not make sense for AMD to lower its profit margins, especially on niche flagship products. AMD’s key competitor asks higher prices for cards in the same category. At the same time, customers may not actually benefit from lower prices in some instances due to intermediaries such as channel partners or scalpers.
It’s getting harder to find a bargain these days, but with an MSRP of $999, the RX 7959 XTX reference card is actually $100 cheaper than the previous generation RX 6950 XT, despite having more compute units, more RAM, a wider RAM interface, and a significantly better performance. This should come as good news for high-end gamers.
User Experience
There are a few user experience challenges with the AMD AM5 platform, some of which are created by partners. For example, updating the motherboard BIOS may be difficult for some users. In fact, updating the BIOS of the motherboard in the test system failed a few times — the reviewer only discovered that the older BIOS first needed to be set to a default state before an upgrade could be made after carrying out a bit of reading and research. Fortunately, new standard features (e.g., BIOS flashback) simplify the recovery process when experiments with settings make a system unbootable and clearing CMOS memory does not work.
Another example is when the reviewer found that when games such as Hell Let Loose, Fortnite or Genshin Impact were launched, a sudden surge in frame rates can dramatically bolster power and voltage consumption. Fortunately, AMD has countered this issue with safety mechanisms that turn the device off when such surges are detected. After carrying out various tests and checking the health of system components, the reviewer found that these problems can be solved by establishing a frame rate cap (e.g., of 240fps), using Radeon Software.
Casual users who encounter such issues may feel displeased with the overall experience, particularly if they have to spend hours troubleshooting with systems integrators or manufacturers. They may attribute the problem to the AMD platform, rather than a poor job from the software house, in capping the frame rates.
AMD Advantage
The AMD Advantage framework combines Ryzen 7950X processors, Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards, the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition application, and smart technologies to deliver the best experiences to gamers and creators. The company works closely with prominent system integrators, including CSL, Cyberpower, eBuyer, Falcon Northwest, Maingear, Origin PC, and XIdax, to bring stable and enhanced experiences to gamers, streamers, and content creators. Customers who want to avoid the headache of troubleshooting issues during PC buildouts or upgrades will be pleased with AMD’s investments in additional testing, certification, and support.
Performance
AMD is innovating on multiple levels. The company is enhancing core architecture for inter-process communication gains, improving chiplet design for scalable manufacturing, making cache enhancements for memory intensive workloads, and supporting process and design improvements for clock speed increases. As a result of these efforts, its new products are 30–50% faster than previous generations. The company is not holding back or milking the market with small, incremental gains. Competition is one of the biggest drivers of innovation. As such, the performance improvements of AMD CPUs and GPUs are benefiting the entire market.
The move to PCIe 5 and DDR 5 will future proof the new platform. The inclusion of technologies — such as EXPO memory configuration profiles — will make performance improvements simpler and more accessible to the wider PC market.
AMD is also investing in backend software development with ISVs. AMD is collaborating with Adobe, Blender, and OBS to improve hardware acceleration across CPUs and GPUs for content creation, productivity, and encoding, decoding, and streaming use cases, thereby adding productivity value to the gaming cards.
Final Words and Conclusion
According to IDC’s monitor tracker, 1440p is the fastest-growing screen resolution. In addition, 3% of users buy 4K and higher-resolution displays. As these users are the target customers for high-end hardware, AMD is on the right track.
However, AMD has increased the power draw of its CPUs and GPUs to deliver a high level of performance. Per IDC tests, power consumption can be dropped significantly in many cases while still maintaining over 90% of peak performance. In turn, this drop can lower noise and energy bills. AMD can provide users with the best of both worlds by making it simple to switch performance profiles depending on the particular workload.
In conclusion, AMD has certainly taken a big step forward with its new generation of CPUs and GPUs. AMD’s 2023 desktop platform is taking 1440p gaming mainstream and making 120–140Hz refresh rates the norm. The new platform also makes 4K gaming possible at 60fps with the highest graphical settings achievable at native resolutions or with FSR. For this and other reasons, including AMD’s well-earned reputation for remedying challenges and aging very well, we have no issues with recommending the platform.