Losses continued to mount for AMD in the third quarter of 2008, but the company surprised investors with quarterly results well beyond expectations. This may be the company’s eighth consecutive quarterly loss, but the chipmaker finally showed some hints of profitability in the future with a loss of only $67 million, or 11 cents per share, on sales of $1.78 billion.

That’s a big improvement for the company compared to a loss of $396 million last year and the massive $1.19 billion net loss it reported in Q2 2008 – though much of that was write downs of goodwill and not actual money out the door. The improvement was attributed in part to strong demand for the AMD’s new line of graphics processors, which were released during the quarter.

But while revenue increased 32 percent compared to last quarter (and 14 percent year-on-year), the company warned it expects no increase in revenue for the fourth quarter, adding that they are “being cautious” about forward-looking guidance based on the current economic uncertainty.