Samsung to license AMD Radeon IP for their in-house Exynos GPUs

Qualcomm’s Adreno graphics was initially based on IP from ATI’s mobile graphics division. And just see how big of a lead they have over any other flagship smartphone chipset in the industry, especially when it comes to GPU performance. Now, Qualcomm may see competition rise from Samsung, who is now partnering with AMD to design their own in-house GPUs based on AMD’s RDNA graphics architecture.

While not much is known about AMD’s RDNA architecture, what we do know is that AMD claims it to be a lot more efficient than previous generations. It seems like AMD wasn’t fudging the numbers, as Samsung’s commitment to integrate the latest AMD graphics architecture would mean that AMD has made significant progress in terms of efficiency. Under this partnership, AMD will license custom graphics IP based on the RDNA graphics architecture to Samsung for use in mobile devices and other products that complement AMD product offerings.

Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO, sees it as a win as this partnership with Samsung will mean that AMD Radeon graphics will be in almost every industry where GPUs are relevant. We look forward to seeing what RDNA can bring to smartphones. While we probably won’t see AMD RDNA graphics architecture in the upcoming Galaxy Note10, the Samsung Galaxy S11 might very well feature Samsung’s first in-house GPU design.

Pokdepinion: An interesting turn of events… Perhaps Samsung also wants to try to have an alternative ready in case ARM tries to cut them off like they did HUAWEI?