Although I have mentioned in the past that NVIDIA's (NVDA, Financial) stock is overvalued, the company is still a lot better positioned than its rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, Financial). I have been an NVIDIA bull for quite some time; while the stock's valuation has made me skeptical recently, it is a better buy than Advanced Micro Devices.
AMD's Radeon Pro Duo is still not launched
Advanced Micro Devices declared a new name for dual-GPU Fiji card. Since the Fiji event, everyone expected the card to be named Radeon R9 Fury X2, but now the company revealed that its name will be Radeon Pro Duo as the company is shifting the graphics cards toward the pro segment, comprising virtual reality content developers instead of just ultra-high end gamers.
In June, Advanced Micro Devices for the first time shared about this dual-GPU card. At the same time, the company also revealed details about its Project Quantum, an example of a powerful mini gaming PC comprising the dual-GPU Fiji card and Intel Core i7 processor. Project Quantum attracted a lot of media, but it is highly likely that it will take a lot more time as the company has not talked about the project.
On the other hand, the dual-GPU Fiji card was initially planned for a launch in 2015, but last year's reports specified that the company desired to delay until the entrance of the virtual reality ecosystem to make it a huge success with its new liquid-cooled dual-GPU card.
After numerous delays, Advanced Micro Devices still has not confirmed a release date for the Radeon Pro Duo. It is projected that it will be released sometime in the second quarter. The Radeon Pro Duo features high configuration, but less was reported about its clock speed.
Qualcomm's approach regarding virtual reality
While Advanced Micro Devices' strategy includes generating high-end graphics cards with dedicated GPUs, Qualcomm (QCOM, Financial) is planning to generate a pocket-friendly way for clients to make use of virtual reality content with the help of its Adreno-based integrated GPUs. Qualcomm's Adreno-based integrated graphics can proficiently achieve stereoscopic rendering –Â i.e., crafting an illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface.
Furthermore, Qualcomm is putting efforts in installing an extensive range of sensors in its CPUs for delivering customers well-organized head tracking. High quality virtual reality headsets use a tracker, which is a small head-tracking unit installed with a number of sensors like magnetometer, gyroscope and accelerometer. For instance, Adjacent Reality Tracker is used in Oculus Rift. However, Snapdragon 820’s digital signal processor (DSP), the Hexagon 680, works the same as that of Adjacent Reality Tracker.
Conclusion
Not only does Advanced Micro Devices have a resolute rival in the form of NVIDIA in its core market, the company is also facing tough competition in the virtual reality space. Advanced Micro Devices has historically failed to outsmart its competitors, which is why it can dominate the VR space. Thus, investors should continue avoiding the stock especially after the recent run up.
Disclosure: The author doesn’t have any position in the stocks mentioned in the article.
