AMD's current rivals in the processor and graphic chip industries happen to be Intel and NVIDIA respectively. In order to counter NVIDIA's Maxwell lineup of graphic solutions, AMD will be launching its R9 300 series, with its flagship GPU, R9 390X fitted with High Bandwidth Memory in place of the traditional GDDR5 type memory for delivering superior gaming performance.
As for Intel, AMD is currently working on a 16 core Zen APU that will feature completely fully unlocked cores for superior multitasking performance. According to Fudzilla, the unnamed APU is expected to be released at an unknown period in 2016.
It is also expected that the processor is going to be processed on the 14 nm architecture, indicating that AMD might form an alliance with Samsung in the near future, since the South Korean firm and GlobalFoundaries are the only ones that can provide AMD access to the superior node.
The product will be taking on Intel's upcoming Canonlake Core-i7 lineup of processors, which are going to be fabricated on the 10 nm process. In terms of energy efficiency, Intel's processors will take a commanding lead thanks to the superior architecture. However, in terms of pricing, AMD has always been one step ahead, even against NVIDIA, and the company will be looking to maintain its superiority in this particular department.
There are several consumers who will not be able to see justification in spending hundreds of dollars on Intel's Skylake processors when they can pay a fraction of that price, sacrifice a little bit of performance, and get their hands on AMD's Zen APU.
The upcoming processor will serve as the direct successor to the Richland/Carrizo lineup of APUs. AMD's products have always received negative criticism for being too power hungry and displaying poor thermal efficiency. With the 14 nm process, AMD will be looking to mitigate that level of negativity and provide the public with better performing products.
In addition, AMD's upcoming offering will also provide support for DDR4 type memory. Since no exact release date of the application processor is available at this current time, consumers intending on purchasing the 16 core Zen APU will have to wait for 2016 to commence for further updates.
