It's too bad AMD will stop even aiming for that market. But also, I bought a Sapphire 7900 XTX knowing it'd be in my machine for at least half a decade.
People are acting like this is some long-term position. There's no evidence of that. AMD didn't give up on the high end permanently after the RX 480 / 580 generation.
What AMD does need right now is:
* Don't cannibalize advanced packaging (which big RDNA4 required) from high-margin and high-growth AI chips
* Focus on software features like upscaling tech (which is a big multiplier and allows midrange GPUs to punch far above their weight) and compute drivers (which they badly need to improve to have a real shot at taking AI chip marketshare)
* Focus on a few SKUs and execute as well as possible to build mindshare and a reputation for quality
"Big" consumer GPUs are increasingly pointless. The better upscaling gets, the less raw power you need, and 4K gaming is already passable (1440p gaming very good) on the current gen with no obvious market for going beyond that. Both Intel and Nvidia are independently suffering from this masturbatory obsession with "moar power" causing downstream issues. I'm glad AMD didn't go down that road personally.
If "midrange" RDNA4 is around the same strength as "high-end" RDNA3, but $300 cheaper and with much better ray tracing and an upscaling solution at least on par with DLSS 3, then that's a solid card that should sell well. Especially given how dumb the RTX 5080 looks from a value perspective.
