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Another one Bites the Dust - RTG senior leadership heads rolling.

Beren

Beren

Beren

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EXCLUSIVE: AMD RTG Boss Mike Rayfield Retires Amidst Chatter About ‘Disengaged Behavior’
https://wccftech.com/exclusive-mike-rayfield-amd-retires/

Looks like the axe is continuing to swing over at RTG group and the pressure has got to the heads.

I don't know if this is a good or bad thing long term, but I suspect it means we are looking at 2 quarters of bad numbers from AMD Graphics and the guys at the top just have no ideas what to do about it.

Rayfield was disengaged and very superficial. He would delete all his emails each week that he could not get around to reading and would never work weekends or after 5 PM. He would pontificate in an abrassive manner and couldn’t remember any names [ of his peers].

Rayfield denied to Lisa Su that there was a talent problem and that the talent that had recently exited form AMD wasn’t actually an issue. He denied that there was a talent war going on [Usman: You can read up about the talent war here]

He presented suggestions that werent really feasible such as ‘Radeon VII ‘ which was to be a Vega 20 based consumer facing part that cost $750 to build and would barely tie in with an [NVIDIA] GTX 1080 Ti.
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It is funny how easy it is to agree and completely disagree with someone at the same time. I think some of the heads that have rolled including Raja were potentially no great loss. But there is obviously a major talent shortage in this space.


 
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Sounds like he just wanted a good work/life balance :p Nothing wrong with not wanting to work overtime! Made me chuckle that not working beyond scheduled hours is seen as a bad thing
 
ljt said:
Sounds like he just wanted a good work/life balance :p Nothing wrong with not wanting to work overtime! Made me chuckle that not working beyond scheduled hours is seen as a bad thing
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I am expected to work overtime (in my contract), but regardless, I work all the overtime going cos I am a greedy ****. I really enjoy my job also, so working overtime isn't a chore.

Anyways, he was no good for the company and good riddance I say. Saving AMD money is a good thing!
 
Yeah there is an expectation of working a certain amount of overtime as per business needs i.e. if we are super busy in my contract.

That said frustrating when you have to deal with people who live and breath work and can't understand that not everyone is motivated by career or making money.
 
If you are studying computer science at university choosing to specailse in computer graphics seems like a good route given the demand for people in this area
 
Gregster said:
I am expected to work overtime (in my contract), but regardless, I work all the overtime going cos I am a greedy ****. I really enjoy my job also, so working overtime isn't a chore.

Anyways, he was no good for the company and good riddance I say. Saving AMD money is a good thing!
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If overtime is in your contract, then it's not overtime surely? It's contracted time :p
 
Howling said:
If overtime is in your contract, then it's not overtime surely? It's contracted time :p
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If his contract is anything like mine it contains a vague sentence such as "you may be required to work overtime from time to time as the needs of the company dictate" leaving it open to interpretation how much is actually required. No doubt the company will always interpret this in their favour whenever they feel like.
 
‘Radeon VII ‘ which was to be a Vega 20 based consumer facing part that cost $750 to build and would barely tie in with an [NVIDIA] GTX 1080 Ti.
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As I said, V3ga20 for consumers never going to happen.


As to the news in question, seems like he needed to be let go but I don't think this paints a good picture for AMD GPUs. They seem to be scrambling around completely unfocused without any clear development and direction. When the RTG Boss is so disinterested it is a bad sign that the group of not working well, is under funded and they don;t have a strong product line up.
 
ljt said:
Sounds like he just wanted a good work/life balance :p Nothing wrong with not wanting to work overtime! Made me chuckle that not working beyond scheduled hours is seen as a bad thing
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This is the US, and a senior management job. Working late isn't optional.
 
Rroff said:
Yeah there is an expectation of working a certain amount of overtime as per business needs i.e. if we are super busy in my contract.

That said frustrating when you have to deal with people who live and breath work and can't understand that not everyone is motivated by career or making money.
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Totally, but in the US such a senior position would be expect to be doing 60+hour weeks, 100hour weeks when the **** hits the fan. Everyone know that, that is just the work environment that exists there.
The people in these position in general love the challenge, love working crazy hours, and don't prioritize their life that high. THe sad thing is they justify work-life balance by stating ridiculous things like it is not the time spent with family, but the quality time and harp on about some 5* holiday in Hawaii. In reality, your kids care much more about the time you kicked a ball about in the back garden after school.
 
A lot of companies in the US are moving to the unlimited holidays space, where you decide yourself how much holiday you take. Sounds like he would take them all.
 
D.P. said:
As to the news in question, seems like he needed to be let go but I don't think this paints a good picture for AMD GPUs. They seem to be scrambling around completely unfocused without any clear development and direction. When the RTG Boss is so disinterested it is a bad sign that the group of not working well, is under funded and they don;t have a strong product line up.
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I think this paints a very good picture for AMD's graphics. Lisa Su is clearing house, she's properly front and center of everything AMD do now, and every time she talks there is a sense of confidence that a clear game plan is at work across all aspects of the business. Papermaster, too. You couldn't say that with Koduri. It sounds more to me like Rayfield lost his gravy train when Raja was booted out, and he was just making token noises out of his face hole to sound like he was still relevant and keep his paycheck. That won't wash with somebody like Su because she strikes me as actually giving a damn.

Vega is finally doing what it was always designed to do, Navi will function as a product and workflow reset to draw a line under RTG, Arcturus will cement that line as it's under Lisa's watch and restructuring, not Raja's. Rumoured aggressive pricing which would force a fundamental shift in market segment definitions and what you can (should) get for your money after so much stagnation. It's all in roadmaps, it's all in conferences and media events. Now maybe roadmaps aren't worth the pixels they're displayed in to some people, but there is always a plan and a journey, which surprisingly hasn't wavered that much.

You make it sound like AMD's graphics division is running around like headless chickens, I suggest that is the polar opposite of what's actually going on. But then if AMD aren't destroying Nvidia at the halo super high end that automatically makes them a failure in the eyes of some.

Delivering on all of this is an entirely different matter of course...
 
Howling said:
If overtime is in your contract, then it's not overtime surely? It's contracted time :p
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Nah, there is a sub section stating that "when work requires it, there is an obligation to come in on overtime rates". Lots of people work at my place and never come in in fairness and it is always covered by greedy peeps like me. I have to buy my expensive stuff somehow :D
 
LePhuronn said:
You make it sound like AMD's graphics division is running around like headless chickens, I suggest that is the polar opposite of what's actually going on. But then if AMD aren't destroying Nvidia at the halo super high end that automatically makes them a failure in the eyes of some.
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You need some staff to be able to run around like headless chickens in the first place pal :D :D
 
Gregster said:
On a serious note, a good house clean will do wonders, so long as it is done correctly. Ambitious GPU staff will seriously help AMD and whilst they have the CPU market shaking, the GPU market is a bit one sided.
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Yeah, this is what I was getting at. Of course we're not privy to any insider info so we just get the rumour mill and sensationalist journalism, but it does seem that RTG under Koduri was a half-assed, somewhat flighty affair run by those who put their own ego above the product and business. Things got dire, Lisa Su came in and wanted changes, Raja "left" because he couldn't get his own way and now it turns out Rayfield had his fingers in his ears singing lalalalaaaaaaa.

Bin off RTG as was, get Navi out as a back-to-basics card to stabilise the group's baseline and Arcturus is a "new age" in a fully-incorporated AMD under Lisa Su.
 
You are all mad if you think this is only about overtime.

Very conveniently the 'source' put a negative spin on it being Mike's 'fault'.

I'm pretty sure Mike will have a very different opinion on that.
 
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