The AMD Vega GPU Architecture Teaser: Higher IPC, Tiling, & More, Coming in H1’2017
by Ryan Smith on January 5, 2017 9:00 AM ESTFirst Thoughts: A Peek At What’s To Come
Wrapping things up, while today’s reveal from AMD is only a teaser of what they have been working on over the last few years with Vega, it’s none the less an important one. Based on what we know so far, Vega stands to be the biggest change to AMD’s GPU architecture since GCN 1.0 was released 5 years ago, and the changes to the ALUs, the ROPs, the memory structure, and other aspects of Vega reinforce this notion. To be sure, Vega is not a wholly new architecture – it is clearly a further refinement of GCN – but then this is exactly why GCN was designed to be able to evolve through refinements over a very long period of time.
What we have for now then is a quick look at what’s to come from AMD. There are still many things we don’t know, not the least of which is the actual GPU configurations. But for a teaser it’s enough to show that AMD has been hard at work. It sets the stage for the hardware and marketing ramp-up to come over the next few months.
But for now, let’s close with an image. As I mentioned before, the first Vega has taped out, and Radeon Technology Group’s frontman and Chief Architect, Raja Koduri, has one. The chip was just a few weeks old as of December, and while trying to discern die size may be a little too error-prone, we can see one important detail: 2 HBM2 packages.
Raja and AMD will not tell us what chip we’re looking at – like Polaris, two Vega chips have been confirmed – but either way we are looking at one of them in all its alpha silicon glory. Bearing in mind HBM2’s much greater bandwidth per pin, we could very well be looking at a design for a Fiji-like 512GB/sec of memory bandwidth in the chip Raja holds. And for AMD, that is one more teaser for today to keep attention focused right where they want it: on Vega ahead of its H1’17 launch.
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ddriver - Friday, January 6, 2017 - link
You should really add <sarcasm> tags cuz someone might think you are being serious :)AMD stepping out of consumer products will have a terrible effect, on us as consumers, and on amd as a business entity, even as lousy as it is. Sure, if they COULD sell all their chips in enterprise products, they would have done it.
svan1971 - Thursday, January 5, 2017 - link
And a moe as well...Michael Bay - Thursday, January 5, 2017 - link
I`m moe as hell, true.kaidenshi - Friday, January 6, 2017 - link
Michael Bay is one of the oldest surviving trolls here at AnandTech, don't feel bad that you fell for his crap.satai - Thursday, January 5, 2017 - link
No.johnnycanadian - Thursday, January 5, 2017 - link
With grammar like that, how can anyone not take you seriously? You're obviously incredibly articulate. I mean, never mind such brilliant statements like "newfangled machine bullshit"; the "DATS WHERE DEM ..." etc. phrase solidifies your rank as a profoundly gifted scholar.MapRef41N93W - Thursday, January 5, 2017 - link
It's cute because you don't understand such obvious sarcasm. Typical AMD idiot too stupid to see what's so obviously in front of them.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, January 5, 2017 - link
You appear to be assuming a brand bias based on a comment someone is making about word choice and grammar. You're then using that assigned bias as a fulcrum to toss out an insult. It raises two concerns the first of which is:-Why would you feel so strongly about one particular video card manufacturer that you find it worth the effort to insult someone on the internet that you've never met and hasn't made a brand biased statement?
The second is:
-Does the irony of calling someone an idiot under these circumstances escape your notice?
LG25 - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
Don't mind him, he's likely a democrat. Accusing everyone of racism to hide their own is par for the course. He sees "fanboys" everywhere, like the rest of the NVidia sheep.WinterCharm - Thursday, January 5, 2017 - link
Lol, this clown.