AMD - Piledriver chitchat

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

A whole lot of slides about Carizzo which were posted on Anandtech forums:

http://i.imgur.com/sT1nNVq.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/4RQwUDB.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/YbP5NdK.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/xwdUf6T.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/YWQeNBt.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/iiFijOJ.jpg?1



http://i.imgur.com/6GFHGEd.jpg?1



It appears Excavator has 5% more IPC than Steamroller but the cores consume 40% less power and are 23% smaller on the same process node.

The whole Carrizo SOC is the same size as Kaveri but does not need a southbridge so will be cheaper to make it appears.

[watercooled]

Any idea if this is their first commercial product with the high density libraries? Considering Kaveri didn't use HDL it would seem so. As expected it looks like it's more beneficial at lower powers, and considering it looks like it evens out and reverses beyond ~20W per module, I wonder if that's why there's no big push for socketed Carrizo?

It looks like the NDA is the 23rd (Monday) so we shouldn't have long to wait to find out more.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Nvidia marketshare is now more than AMD's INCLUDING IGPs:

http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-C...ains-AMD-falls

They are down to 25% of the discrete market - they were not even that bad during the R600/RV670 and G80/G92 days.

For all the talent at AMD(especially the graphics side)they seem to be run by totally inept management.

[watercooled]

Are you sure that's with IGPs? Because Intel isn't listed, and they outsell everyone by a fair margin AFAIK?

[watercooled]

Looking at those JPR numbers, there's nothing overly surprising there IMO. Don't forget percentage swings can look more dramatic when you're only comparing two companies.

I'm not trying to imply it's not negative for AMD of course, but especially after new releases I would've thought swings like that were more normal.

On that subject, it would be interesting to see sales graphs for specific cards over time i.e. if they start off high then tail off.

Edit: I wonder if it includes laptops? It mentions Chromebooks and Tablets explicitly OTOH.

[scaryjim]

It's Add In Board figures, so it doesn't include IGPs, as they aren't add in boards. And the market for AIBs overall fell 17.5% year on year, so it isn't great news for either company.

Also worth noting: this is graphics shipments within the quarter, not overall installed market share, and NVidia had a major high-end release just before the start of the quarter. NViidia should have sold a lot more boards than AMD last quarter.

I would assume since it's an AIB report it would include discrete graphics in laptops, even thought the articles don't mention it specifically, but I'm afraid I'm far too tight to either buy the report or take a subscription to JPR to get a full copy

[watercooled]

Apparently AMD are planning to outline their product roadmap in May: http://wccftech.com/amd-future-gpu-cpu-roadmap/

That would definitely be interesting to see after near-silence for so long!

[watercooled]

It seems the 390X has been used at GDC as suspected: http://wccftech.com/amd-reveals-radeon-r9-390x-gdc-wip/

I thought the Titan X announcement seemed a bit premature and wondered if they knew something we didn't. Cores? don't know. Launch date? Not telling you. Price? You'll have to wait.

As I read somewhere else it was more like an announcement that they're going to announce it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is quite interesting that one of the major Chinese SOC design companies is licensing AMD graphics IP for use in its chips:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...%28Phoronix%29

[watercooled]

Interesting! I wonder if it's 'just' a graphics IP licensing deal, or some sort of semi-custom thing?

AFAIK the Wii U licensed the graphics IP although the SoC itself is a Nintendo design.

[watercooled]

Bored.

I've been trying to find out *something* about 390X or it's release time-frame and the net is still just running on speculation.

I can really understand why people are getting frustrated; first we're expecting early 2015, and now there are claims of CeBIT, April or even June or later. @amd_roy on Twitter has replied to a couple of people which is about as close to 'official' as we have:
https://twitter.com/amd_roy/status/573304652982190082
https://twitter.com/amd_roy/status/576384949286084609
https://twitter.com/amd_roy/status/573910202086395904

I know it's normal for AMD to be secretive but there's just nothing to go on; it's borderline insulting to expect someone to wait for their GPU without releasing any information about it whatsoever.

The new Titan might only be a partial announcement but it's at least something - it just seems like a missed opportunity to stay so secretive, even having a confirmed product and rough release date would be something to wait for rather than being expected to wait indefinitely for something which could still be months off. And a few people are likely to get ticked off if they've waited and waited only to buy an existing product, followed by a 390X release out of the blue shortly thereafter.

[kalniel]

Do we still have a tame AMD rep on these boards?

[watercooled]

I doubt staff would be able reveal anything we don't already know anyway.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do we still have a tame AMD rep on these boards?

AMDMatt is anything but tame!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

http://videocardz.com/55124/amd-rade...d-this-be-real

[watercooled]

It matches up with one set of rumours and doesn't seem obviously faked. However it still doesn't give us an idea of the date.

One concern was the 8GB version would need to be an even later release so I wonder if the 'up to 8GB' part implies we could see a 4GB part first? Granted you'll probably see fantards claiming how the 12GB of the Titan is necessary for anything other than Minecraft though.

On that subject, it will be interesting to see how that 12GB is actually used in gaming i.e. if it's just a 'biggar numbahs' thing. Even the 8GB 290X doesn't seem to make a huge difference over the standard card.