Discussion: Polaris, AMD's 4th Gen GCN Architecture

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I think it's still too much of a niche. If more people used a multi-gpu setup the support would be here.
 
my understanding with dx12 is that it does drop a lot of that into the developer's lap and off the drivers themselves. they have a lot of options for multi-gpu and can code in what they want and forget about what they don't.
 


I don't agree, that is backwards thinking. It should be that you can add an additional GPU and boost any game (because the drivers do it). Making devs have to worry about every different setup and having to program it in will make them not waste the time/money to do it because its a niche group that wants to spend $1000+ on multiple gpus (in some cases).
 
When it comes to multi gpu the best one to implement the solution still is gpu maker themselves. Think about it for a second. Multi gpu only involving pc gamer. On console there is no such setup. Then add the fact thay only small subset of pc gamer have such setup. Now as a developer what initiative they have to support multi gpu? they already have to worry about post launch patch now you want them to work on something that can only benefit small group of people? Worse thing multi gpu tend to have problem that not exist on single gpu setup. Heck even supporting DX12 itself already complicating their work.
 


The drivers should do it for every game automatically. Maybe I'm dreaming, but they shouldn't have to release a new graphics driver that has specific support for specific games. It never seemed right to me and still doesn't.

I blame today's programmers, they don't code like the guys in the past, the 90s, etc. did.
 


You are contradicting yourself? You said it should be up to the Devs but then the drivers should do it for every game. The drivers should do it for every game automatically but SLI and Crossfire are not refined enough yet (even after all these years) that they work seamlessly. Thats up to AMD and Nvidia to figure out not the game devs who work within what Nvidia and AMD tell them works using their APIs.

Todays programmers are building games that are hundreds of times more complex than anything made in the 90's, in game AI and so on is beyond anything anyone even considered then. They don't code like guys in the past because they have a crapload more to deal with with less time to do it in.
 
The objective is giving the developers sufficient control so they can get multi-GPU to work easily, with the driver interfering as little as possible, and the particulars of which GPUs being largely irrelevant.

GPUs are massively parallel, so it's not like it's an unreasonable objective. It's just not been quite as easy as you'd think.
 
The developers would be doing pretty much the same thing AMD and nVidia do with profiles me thinks. Plus, from what I know, the Devs usually tell AMD and nVidia how to create the profiles. Am I wrong in this last point?

I think the biggest frameworks will just include some sort of solution for this using DX12 anyway.

Cheers!
 
Well, if I knew how to make a game, I guess I would be able to provide some input, but as of now it's all just me questioning things. I think if it is up to the GPU company drivers, they should somehow make it so it plain-out supports every game period. Not an entire driver update to support some random game. If it's up to the developers, I'd be more happy than the condition SLI and CF works with driver updates for individual games. I feel a game should be its own entity of code that doesn't require additional code from specific drivers just to work properly. Part of my graphics driver on my computer is data for Fallout 4, and I don't even own the game. But, I really don't know. It's probably not easy like you said for drivers to just globally support multiple GPUs. Way beyond my knowledge. I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.
 


The problem is that everything has gotten infinitely more complicated over the years so that people programming one part of the game have no idea about other parts that other people program. It's just too much data to chew for one person in too little time.
In general it is like you said: pretty much every single game is supported but so many variables make it impossible for anyone to predict how exactly said game will strain the GPU and that is why there are optimization patches for big titles to smoothen the experience.
 


I suppose so. I have done some collaborative programming of just 2D online games in the past with some people, and I can tell you it is not easy programming with other people. When I am programming something all by myself, it's easy because I made all the code and know all the code. but these days half the stuff is outsourced to other companies and code is borrowed from large libraries which confuses things a whole lot more.
 
http://wccftech.com/amd-rx-480-1500mhz-overclocking-tool-voltage-2/

"AMD RX 480 Can Hit 1.5Ghz+, New Overclocking Tool With Voltage Control Coming"

Apparently in this article 1.5GHz and ABOVE is possible on air cooling alone.

It makes you wonder what will be possible with water!

While still unlikely to match the 1070 at such speeds, for the price you pay for a 1070 vs the 480's price, this is interesting to say the least for those with a limited budget.
 


Crossfire and SLI are quite different from DirectX 12 multi-GPU. And of course the developer has a much better idea about what's going on in the game engine than the driver or the AMD/Nvidia engineers making the driver, so they are in a better position to optimize things.

I think it's kinda sad when AMD/Nvidia have to go and fix/workaround half-broken game engines through game-specific driver changes, and it happens way too often.
 


A couple of benchmakrs that are doing the rounds suggest a RX 480 @ 1400 is around same speed as a 1070 at stock settings. Of course once you overclock the 1070 it's out of reach again, but that is impressive for quite a small decidedly mid range gpu like this.
 
I know that wasn't realized yet, but the hype man, I can't handle my curiosity. Do you guys think that my PSU will be able to handle the 480? I read about "leaked" models with 6+8pins connectos and that will probably be too much, but at least the reference model should pass, right? I once asked about the quality of my psu and someone said that the only18A on the +12V rail is a bad thing, but I don't know shit about energy and how PSU works so I'm on the dark.

COkG4av.jpg


Sorry, my configurations right now are i5 3470, 2x4gb 1600mhz, HD 7770.
 
@Sakkura are SLI/Xfire going to be different in dx12? I know there's a new type of multi GPU support in the form of explicit multi adapter, but I don't think that necessarily means that SLI/Xfire need to change/go away. Unless you've heard otherwise.
 


Nvidia are dropping 3 and 4 way SLi, so that's a change.
 


Blurring out the model isn't going to help, and it depends a lot on the rest of your configuration.
 
it's supposed to be a 150w card so that psu should be enough, even if it is a bit on the low quality side. i'm sure the "beast mode" cards won't be so low powered but a stock card should be no problem based on what amd has said. won't know much more than that until the cards are reviewed in a couple weeks.

and you quote by clicking the 'reply to" link on the bottom right of the post you wish t quote :)
 


Well, Crossfire/SLI the traditional way aren't really DX12 features, it just carries over what was possible under older APIs. DX12 adds explicit multiadapter. No telling if that'll actually be widely adopted by developers in place of Crossfire/SLI.
 
So if my CPU has roughly 100tdp (it is a little less accourding to intel) my psu should have enough power to accommodate 8pin+6pin gpu (432 - 100w = 332, 8+6pin connection is 275w)?

Sorry if I'm being a nuisance, but I really would like to understand more how this works.
 
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