AMD Vega MegaThread! FAQ and Resources

Page 29 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Status
Not open for further replies.
if you already have 1070 the move to Vega might not worth cost versus the performance uplift you got from it. Vega can be very fast (almost as fast as 1080ti) but the game need to take advantage Vega specific feature set or else it will perform mostly on the same level as 1080. if you have 1070 i think it is much wiser to wait for next gen GPU.
 

Embra

Distinguished
The issues with AC are mostly cpu based. It will use 8+ cores and some feel the anti-cheating security software(40% CPU usage recorded purely due to the DRM layer) is to blame for the frame drops.
 


i don't think it is related though. intel interest with mantle is mostly about looking at the spec itself since AMD said anyone is free use mantle at the very beginning of mantle introduction (despite only game developer get access to it). and back then AMD did try to take advantage intel interest towards mantle as a marketing bullet point to promote mantle. hence intel immediately responding by saying they are committed towards DX12 development so the public did not get the wrong idea about their intention to get access to mantle spec. those that hangs out at TR comment section get more details about this story even before they become a news :)
 


I'm thinking along the lines that it allowed Intel to get a good look at AMD's lower level controls. The new interface that Intel developed was possibly influenced by something they learned from Mantle. At the time, they were just looking it over, but you never know, it may have been the proverbial snowflake that started the avalanche.
 

goldstone77

Distinguished
Aug 22, 2012
2,245
14
19,965
Is Nvidia a threat to Intel. INTC stock $46.52 vs. NVDA stock $209.53 2:02 p.m. EST. The future of the world is A.I., and I've kind of been hitting this hard in my commentary over the last year with the projection of strong growth in AR/VR over the next 5 years. Over the next 5 years we will see an integration of AR/VR into the commercial sector. This will increase the demand for video cards, which Nvidia controls the market. I personally believe that within the next 10 years we should see a push from conventional cell phones into AR glasses. Cell phones will reach a point at which they won't offer anything really new, and people will upgrade less often. We seen this trend with desktop computing. IMO AR glasses will be the new thing. Intel can deflate Nvidia to a certain degree by using AMD instead of Nvidia for graphics. The problem is that I feel the shift is too late. Intel has already helped create the monster, and I think it's spread into sectors beyond Intel's control. Intel is playing catch up at this point.
 
Well, Mr Raja "butterfingers" Koduri has decided to leave AMD after his away time. What does that say about the drive inside RTG? Will they keep GCN past Navi? He was not involved in the conception of GCN nor HSA, but I would imagine he had involvement in the roadmaps.

It would also be interesting to put a point on the table with Intel buying GPUs from AMD that, maybe, Intel would have a say in how the GPU is now made? Will they influence that?

Also, would Mr. Raja go to Intel? Go back to Apple? Retire?

Cheers!
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator


We are starting to get off topic here, but very importantly you cannot compare two businesses via their stock price.
Using a real measure of the size of a business - Market capitalization, Intel is nearly double the size of Nvidia.

While many of your points are valid, Intel has more than enough R&D resources to find a way to make it work. They are behind, but they have the resources and money to fix it, in time.
 


Counterpoint: smartphones.

Sometimes, just having the money to burn does not mean you'll be able to succeed. If you want another, less apples to apples example, you can investigate why the USA big 3 car companies have issues having market penetration in Japan as well :D

But yes, kind of deviating from the main topic of the thread.

Cheers!
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator


Counter counterpoint - find me a current smartphone with Nvidia Tegra in it.

While I agree about just having money to burn doesn't help. Intel is unbelievably innovative, hence my point about resources. My prior company sold them equipment and worked on R&D with them, they will find a way.

Ok now we are really off topic.

Back on. So the pump on my Vega 64LC is kind of noisy. I love the card otherwise, looks beautiful, but you can hear that pump chugging away when a game starts up. Obviously I then drown it out with the game music. But even at idle you can hear a low drone.
 


i don't think you can use nvidia as counterpoint when it comes to smartphone. because nvidia was never being the leader in that segment. just like intel, nvidia is the challenger to the existing player like Qualcomm. nvidia giving up pretty much early even after acquiring Icera. intel? they spend billions even going as far using contra revenue strategy by "giving away" their SoC to certain phone maker to penetrate the market and they still failed to displace even the likes of mediatek in smartphone market. so Yuka have a point about having a lot of money does not always lead to success.
 


I saw that and, although it hurts a bit to read, it does make sense to a degree. That would also put more trust in the ongoing rumour he wanted to get RTG off AMD and into (by the looks of it) Intel's hands.

Cheers!
 



Plus, with his expertise, he can make the Intel/AMD chips integrate much better. However, from that article, it almost sounds like Intel is looking to integrate Radeon chips into the CPU. Maybe Intel is giving up on it's IGP and going with a Vega based IGP Also leads to speculation that Intel could be looking to buy RTG from AMD, which would pretty much be a death knell for AMD.
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator


I agree which is why I pointed out Nvidia is nearly nonexistant in the current segment, he brought them up. The discussion was Nvida vs Intel. While Nvidia has had mobile processors (Tegra) that were used in smartphones, the last one to use one was the 2 year old Pixel C. The Tegra however has made its way into other devices (Nintendo Switch).

Intel has had many failures, but they are still the 800lb gorilla against these guys. Its only a matter of time. And now they picked up Raja, its only going to get better for them.

As an aside, no he was not a mole. At the level he is at in the tech industry if he "moled" anything, he would be facing a boatload of lawsuits. More likely was he wanted out of AMD and may have been part of the deal that is putting Vega into Intel mobile chips. And so his access was cut back in the later months, and then he "took a break" so they could move the business on without him and he would not ave access to any new info, just in case.
 


It will depend on how AMD is selling the GPU component. That is to say, if they sold the "IP blocks" to build the GPU, Intel might be able to create an APU right away, but from what I understood, this is similar to an OEM type of deal, with very little "custom" in it. Like the flamboyant video Intel created shows, their first approach is to put the GPU+HBM next to the CPU to bypass all MoBo circuitry first, but the next step might be beefing up their own iGPU by learning from how AMD integrates their GPU into HBM and creating their own APU.

AMD opening the flood gates is a double edged sword. I just hope they have their eyes very open here.

Cheers!
 


My guess is this is a direct response to nVidia not renewing / extending intel's gpu tech agreements.

The way I see this panning out is this- initially Intel will buy AMD gpu's... longer term I think AMD will licence Radeon tech to Intel and they will move into the same silicone as the cpu- and will likely also form the basis for Intel's discrete gpu tech.

The thing is though that Intel won't be able to just ditch the AMD ip, even if they build a new design (which is why you haven't seen any improvements to Intels igpu since the nV deal ended)- they have to have IP support. If AMD have been smart they'll probably have a deal which grants them a royalty for each Intel chip produced using their IP- so even once Intel move away from buying AMD gpu's they should still be getting revenue from it.

I think the way this has played out (and the fact AMD have made a point of stating RTG is being moved closer into the company again) says they won't be selling RTG to Intel- however they are probably going to help Intel sort it's own gpu out with a licencing deal- which ultimately still benefits AMD. My only concern is how RTG is going to do long term without someone like Raja at the helm. It would be a shame if the GPU market became nVidia / Intel only.
 

goldstone77

Distinguished
Aug 22, 2012
2,245
14
19,965
I wouldn't worry about RTG just yet. If you remember Raja left, and went to apple for 4 years(what did he do there?) then came back to AMD. Would you consider anything he has done since he came back in 2013 an innovative success or more of the same? I'm sure a lot of people feel he under-delivered on Vega, maybe some people think he should be fired anyway! Let's see what the next person to take over RTG does, and then we can compare. Also, let's see what he does at Intel.
 


The next leader of RTG wont have a lot of control over Navi though. Navi, like Vega, has been in the pipeline for quite a while now and unless they want major delays, I think only tweaks can be done now.

I'd say Navi will be more of Raja's legacy.
 
My guess is this is a direct response to nVidia not renewing / extending intel's gpu tech agreements.

in this case i think it is more about intel want to do away from nvidia rather than nvidia did not want to renew/extend the existing agreement. plus the initial agreement between the two should expire in 2011 anyway. but when both company decided to settle the issue they have since 2008 they use the agreement they made in 2004 as "official" means why intel give that 1.5Bil to nvidia. but the most important thing for intel back then the settlement ensure that nvidia will be forever shut out from licensing x86 related stuff. but even without x86 nvidia continue becoming more and more of a threat to intel. so they need to stop pumping more money into nvidia. this new collaboration with AMD is to attack nvidia source of revenue more directly. intel specifically mention this new AMD GPU + intel CPU is focused more on AAA gaming. true nvidia venture in other market other than gaming are growing but gaming still nvidia bread and butter. for Q3 2017 59% of nvidia revenue still coming directly from selling gaming GPU. and this is what fueling majority portion of nvidia R&D.

The way I see this panning out is this- initially Intel will buy AMD gpu's... longer term I think AMD will licence Radeon tech to Intel and they will move into the same silicone as the cpu- and will likely also form the basis for Intel's discrete gpu tech.

honestly i don't know. my gut telling me this partnership might not be a long one (just like about Raja will not going back to RTG after his long vacation). also i don't think intel is lacked when it comes to graphic IP.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.