News AMD Has Now Definitively Confirmed Big Navi

[Admin]

However, that doesn't necessarily mean it will be an "Nvidia Killer"

AMD Has Now Definitively Confirmed Big Navi : Read more

 

[bit_user]

you'll notice that Dr. Su talks about what we should expect, and not what we can expect.

This is splitting hairs. There's no way she's going to say something like that, when it turns out that they have no high-end product in the near future.

Whether or not it's Navi, strictly speaking, is the only fudge worth considering. However, with this latest statement, I guess we can safely assume that it is.

Anyway, I hope AMD drops GCN compatibility from it. While that made sense for Navi 10, the industry will have had nearly a year to tune for the new architecture, and I suspect GCN compatibility came at a fairly high cost. I suspect the main reason they did it was mostly to give games consoles backwards-compatibility. Since games consoles won't be using Big Navi, they can just drop GCN and move on.

Without it, you could easily imagine something that would beat Vega 20 by as much as the RX 5700 XT beat the RX 580, all while hitting a lower price point than Radeon VII's $700.

 

[derekullo]

The even more important question is if Navi "kills" a Geforce 2080Ti or the upcoming Ampere

 

[alextheblue]

Anyway, I hope AMD drops GCN compatibility from it.

What do you mean?

 

[bit_user]

The even more important question is if Navi "kills" a Geforce 2080Ti or the upcoming Ampere

It seems like this is a fairly knowable answer. If someone had some details on current 7 nm pricing, you could pick a price point and scale up Navi 10 performance to that amount of die area.

Anyway, let's be realistic. Navi is good, but not that good. Perhaps it could tangle with the 2080 Ti, but I'm sure the 3080 Ti will be on another level.

 

[bit_user]

What do you mean?

Navi 10 introduced a new microarchitecture, which AMD calls RDNA. However, it also features built-in hardware compatibility with code written for their GCN GPUs, which started with the HD 7000 series, launched in 2012, and (probably) finished with 2019's Radeon VII and their upcoming Renoir APU.

 

[alextheblue]

Navi 10 introduced a new microarchitecture, which AMD calls RDNA. However, it also features built-in hardware compatibility with code written for their GCN GPUs, which started with the HD 7000 series, launched in 2012, and (probably) finished with 2019's Radeon VII and their upcoming Renoir APU.

Do you have a source for that? Seems strange to have two different architectures in a compute unit. I thought the was the whole point of them keeping Vega for the pro market, Navi isn't as good at certain crunching use cases.

 

[spongiemaster]

The even more important question is if Navi "kills" a Geforce 2080Ti or the upcoming Ampere

How about we set realistic expectations. We're still waiting for the 1080Ti killer that's been rumored since at least mid 2017.

 

[dorianh94]

How about we set realistic expectations. We're still waiting for the 1080Ti killer that's been rumored since at least mid 2017.

While that is true, I have no doubt that it will beat the 1080Ti by a fair margin, seeing how 5700XT is already very close to 1080Ti level of performance.

 

[derekullo]

While that is true, I have no doubt that it will beat the 1080Ti by a fair margin, seeing how 5700XT is already very close to 1080Ti level of performance.

A 3 year old graphics card should be a low bar to clear.

To be fair, I would rather AMD focus on CPU than GPU.

On the CPU side Intel has been pretty much sitting on their butt since at least the i7-4th Generation if not earlier.

If 14nm++++ wasn't such a tragedy it would be funny.

Nvidia's ray-tracing looks nice and may be controversial, but at least Nvidia is trying something new / progressing with tech.

 

[bit_user]

Do you have a source for that?

Yes, and - in a rare move for me - I'm not even going to cite one. You can literally go back and read any of the Navi launch coverage and they'll highlight this point.

Seems strange to have two different architectures in a compute unit.

Yes! AFAIK, it's unprecedented, for a GPU!

I thought the was the whole point of them keeping Vega for the pro market, Navi isn't as good at certain crunching use cases.

We'll see.

GCN was billed as a throughput-oriented architecture, whereas Navi is more latency-sensitive and less dependent on concurrency to achieve good utilization. However, I wonder if they'll really stick with GCN in any market, since it has certain significant weaknesses - like, poor scalar performance.

 

[bit_user]

We're still waiting for the 1080Ti killer that's been rumored since at least mid 2017.

My guess is that was just an optimistic projection of Radeon VII's performance. It's not too far off, IIRC.

 

[bit_user]

To be fair, I would rather AMD focus on CPU than GPU.

One word: consoles. If AMD didn't have Navi, it mightn't have gotten the upcoming console design wins. To the extent that more consoles lie in the future, AMD cannot afford to rest. It must keep trying to catch Nvidia.

Also, another word: Stadia. I wonder just how many millions of Vega GPUs they're selling to Google, to power this effort.

And the last word I'll leave you with is: APUs. With Intel's new focus on their GPU performance, AMD needs its iGPUs to stay competitive.

AMD cannot afford to take its foot off the gas, in the GPU department. The more progress it can make, the better for consumers. Even if you'd never buy an AMD GPU, you obviously win from them putting pricing pressure on Nvidia.

While not as big as its rivals, AMD has shown it can walk & chew gum, at the same time.