Computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. beat Wall Street’s expectations Tuesday with a smaller-than-expected fourth-quarter loss.

The company also issued a strong earnings forecast for the current quarter. In particular, it expects high demand for its upcoming high-performance Ryzen desktop personal computer processors for gamers and other demanding users.

AMD is the second-largest manufacturer of personal computer processors and graphics chips in the world after Intel Corp., meaning its earnings can be a good indicator of industry trends. For its part, Intel last week reported a better-than-expected quarter, though it said it expects sales to be flat this year.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company reported a net loss of a penny per share on revenues of $1.11 billion, better than Wall Street’s expected loss of 2 cents per share on revenues of $1.07 billion. AMD put the revenue growth of 15 percent from a year ago down to higher-than-expected sales of graphics chips in the quarter. However, revenues fell 15 percent from the third quarter, which AMD blamed on slower seasonal sales of semi-custom systems-on-a-chip.

Investors liked what they saw. AMD’s stock rose 3.6 percent, to $10.74 per share, in after-hours trading after trading down more than 2 percent in regular trading Tuesday.

For the full year, AMD’s revenues were up 7 percent, to $4.27 billion. The company reported a net loss of $497 million, compared with a net loss of $660 million a year ago. AMD President and Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su told investors that the company is “well positioned and on-track to deliver our strongest set of high-performance computing and graphics products in more than a decade.”

Industry analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy agreed with Su’s assessment, saying the company had delivered a “solid” fourth quarter and full year. He was also optimistic that the company’s upcoming products, which includes a new Radeon Instinct artificial-intelligence chip based on its new Vega graphics architecture as well as the new Ryzen chips, could help it build on that performance through 2017.

“Nearly every indicator was improved from 2015 to 2016, driven by the game console business and by a new Polaris graphics launch,” Moorhead said. “This is really positive as the Ryzen desktop and notebook, Naples server and Vega graphics chips are all upsides in 2017. Lisa Su has architected what looks like a turnaround. It’s all up to AMD to flawlessly execute this year.”

In its guidance, AMD said it expects revenues to fall by 11 percent in the first quarter from the previous quarter. However, that would still be 18 percent up from a year earlier.

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