News AMD Arcturus Is Probably a Vega-Based Professional GPU

bit_user

Polypheme
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We can expect the graphics card's feature set to include a benevolent amount of HBM2 memory
Had to LOL at that phrase - "a benevolent amount of HBM2"!

An amount can't be benevolent. AMD can be benevolent, if they provide a generous, copious, abundant, or sizable amount. Perhaps a plentitude, even.
 

bit_user

Polypheme
Ambassador
RDNA is definitely more optimized for gaming workloads.
Presumably, most of the additional transistor budget went towards improving gaming efficiency. However, I've not actually seen any GPU compute benchmarks for Navi - have you?

I think the compute driver stack is still catching up. Navi isn't yet supported on the latest Linux release.

Not that I disagree about GFX908 being Vega-based nor about RDNA possibly even representing the bifurcation of their consumer & professional lines, as Lisa Su recently alluded. I just don't want to prejudge Navi's compute capabilities before we have some good data on it. I'm also not sure we won't eventually see RDNA in server products.

Consider that Nvidia's Volta core is faster at both gaming and compute workloads. AMD certainly could've achieved a similar accomplishment.
 
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alextheblue

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Presumably, most of the additional transistor budget went towards improving gaming efficiency. However, I've not actually seen any GPU compute benchmarks for Navi - have you?

I think the compute driver stack is still catching up. Navi isn't yet supported on the latest Linux release.

Not that I disagree about GFX908 being Vega-based nor about RDNA possibly even representing the bifurcation of their consumer & professional lines, as Lisa Su recently alluded. I just don't want to prejudge Navi's compute capabilities before we have some good data on it. I'm also not sure we won't eventually see RDNA in server products.

Consider that Nvidia's Volta core is faster at both gaming and compute workloads. AMD certainly could've achieved a similar accomplishment.
Regarding what they can accomplish, they have to make the most of their smaller R&D budget.

Frankly AMD's actions with their Instinct line (and their focus on gaming with Navi) had me doubting Navi's compute chops more than anything else. That aside, perhaps you're right. Their drivers are early, and the only compute I'd really seen was LuxMark. That has Vega beating the snot out of Navi at Luxmark but there's probably some serious software stack problems there. When I crunch the numbers, Vega and Navi have the same FLOPs per MHz per shader. At least on paper.

So perhaps they just don't want to spend the time and effort (and precious R&D budget) releasing a Vega 20 sized Navi, only to end up with merely the SAME compute performance. If that's the case they may be waiting until their future architecture is baked.