AMD confirms that its Ryzen CPU will be launched in early March, followed by the Vega GPU

AMD's highly anticipated Ryzen processor will launch in early March, according to Lisa Su, executive director of AMD. His specified target date during the company's fourth quarter earnings call Tuesday afternoon.

"There will be wide availability of the system from the first day," said Su during the call. Channel vendors will receive the first Ryzen chips, along with system integrators. More traditional hardware vendors will come later, Su added.

That statement implies that vendors like Dell or HP (none of which have been officially confirmed to use the Ryzen chip) will be asked to wait, while AMD caters to PC boutique sellers. Ryzen will face Intel's next-generation Core chips, specifically the Core i5 and Core i7 processors, Su said.

Why this is important: 

AMD has previously said that it believes that Ryzen is the most significant consumer product it will introduce in over a decade, with its Naples chip, helping to extend AMD and its Zen architecture to the higher-margin server business . Over the past few years, AMD shipments to the console business have boosted the company's revenue while Ryzen was developed, but as both Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 go through to their fifth year of life, AMD does not depend on the console ever plus.

Zen Roadmap Suggestions

Su also confirmed that AMD is already thinking about Ryzen's follow-ups: Su referred to a "Zen 2" and a "Zen 3", and confirmed that AMD is also developing with 7 nm technology in mind. That will help offset any concerns that hardware partners have in competing with Intel, he said.

"Our best customers, who are investing in our roadmap, are not only investing in a timely product," Su said.

Su's comments seem to support what a Game Developers Conference presentation revealed earlier: that Ryzen would launch before March 3. (His did not specifically confirm our report from the GDC document, however). Its also revealed that its Zen-based server product, Naples, will be launched in the second quarter.

What's new, however, is a Vega schedule: Its revealed that Vega GPUs will ship during the second quarter as well. In the second half of 2017, AMD still plans to launch a Zen-based APU, codenamed "Raven Ridge", designed primarily for laptops, but also for some desktops.

AMD revenues reflect the transition

His added that profit margins for Ryzen and Vega will be well above the AMD average. Those are not appearing in the current earnings, obviously. AMD reported a net loss of $ 51 million, although the company claimed $ 26 million in operating income when taking out the expenses. AMD reported a 7 percent increase in revenue a year ago, to $ 1.1 billion. A year ago, AMD reported a net loss of $ 102 million.

Unlike previous quarters, AMD's earnings were boosted by its PC business, as opposed to SoC chips that power game consoles and other products. AMD's Computer and Graphics business generated $ 600 million in revenue, up 28% from year-over-year. AMD said growth was driven by GPU sales, specifically higher GPU prices. Put another way, GPU revenue was the highest in 11 quarters, Su said, and PC customer revenues were the highest in the past seven quarters. His did not offer predictions for the success of Microsoft Project Scorpio and Sony's next-generation console, however; "We'll see how they do it," she said.

AMD predicted revenues would fall 11 percent (plus or minus 3 percent) in the current quarter, however, indicating that AMD will not have much to offer before Ryzen's launch. That's because AMD wanted to clean up its channel inventory, Su explained, before Ryzen was officially shipped.