Earlier this month AMD went into damage control mode, after comments made by an exec in China were misinterpreted by tech hacks, or Google translate. The comments seemed to indicate that AMD’s next generation Radeons will not appear this year, while in fact AMD’s strategy this year will be to focus on HD 7000 sales, with HD 8000 products coming on line in late 2013.
AMD’s cunning plan to keep HD 7000 sales going and clear inventory was straightforward. In early February the company launched a new game bundle, dubbed Never Settle Reloaded. The bundle offered two to four AAA titles with high end and mid range Radeons. It basically meant that add-in-board partners could keep selling HD 7000 cards at current price levels, but offer a lot more value, courtesy of the bundle.
The simple approach worked and AMD is apparently on track to sell about as many graphics cards in February as it did in December, which is the peak month for graphics card sales. Sales of the pricey HD 7970 and HD 7950 cards soared in February and Overclockers UK told Fudzilla that the Never Settle Reloaded promotion worked like a charm.
Overclockers UK Purchasing Manager Andrew Gibson claims the bundle will help his outfit seize more than 50 percent of the AMD GPU market in Blighty.
Bear in mind that AMD’s HD 7900 series launched a year ago, so it is a pretty impressive turnaround for a few venerable cards. AMD’s next generation HD 8000 are not coming anytime soon, not because the chips are late, but because AMD thinks it can still make money on HD 7000 products and help AIBs get rid of inventory without much hassle.
An AMD representative said the company is not willing to comment on sales figures, but it seems the bundle is working very well indeed.
