AMD GPU sales tanking

[Murphy]

Something which is annoying on the Ryzen Z1 Extreme - the CPU will sit there at idle barely using any power, the GPU part of the SoC is still guzzling down 4-5 watt despite hardly doing anything.

It's super complex, everything can have an effect power efficiency from the obvious like the size and design of the transistors themselves to the architecture all the way through to the software stack (firmware/drivers).

WikiChip Fuse did an article on the first RDNA (RX 5700) a few year back that may give you a better idea of the sorts of architectural design choices AMD made and how everything from what type of signalling is used on the memory to the width of internal buses can effect power efficiency.

Radeon RX 5700: Navi and the RDNA Architecture

A look at AMD's Radeon RX 5700 GPU built on a 7-nanometer process based on the new Navi microarchitecture and RDNA graphics architecture.

fuse.wikichip.org

 

[humbug]

They are making one for laptops with a 40CU IGP called Strix Halo:

AMD reaffirms Zen5-based "Strix Point" APUs on track for 2H 2024 launch - VideoCardz.com

Zen5 APUs: Strix Point on track to launch this year, Strix Halo reportedly features 40, 32, 24 and 20 CU RDNA3.5 variants AMD is reaffirming that Zen5 Ryzen products will be introduced this year. CEO Dr. Lisa Su claims that the introduction of these next-gen Ryzen “Strix Point” mobile processors...

videocardz.com

Strix Halo LP, that's going to be for the next generation handhelds.

 

[Raelgun]

Isn't the whole consumer market for basically everything tanking? Aside from business to business, stuff made for your average Joe is in the down, likely back to precovid levels it seems.

With gpus still at a high price, it's going back to obscurity unless the mid range is back to decent pricing.

 

[Sythe79]

New cards are around the corner, so it's expected. In better times when things were in black and white now might be the time there would be deep discounts on current stock, the trouble is even cards AMD have discounted hardly seem like good deals.

 

[Gerard]

New cards are around the corner, so it's expected. In better times when things were in black and white now might be the time there would be deep discounts on current stock, the trouble is even cards AMD have discounted hardly seem like good deals.

Discounted prices are pretty much the prices they should have been at launch.

 

[ooStevo]

Laaate reply, but high end APU would choke on DDR4, not enough bandwith (they said)

Oh yeah I totally forgot about that. So is DDR 5 enough for a 40cu Apu?

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Oh yeah I totally forgot about that. So is DDR 5 enough for a 40cu Apu?

Strix Halo apparently uses 256 bit LPDDR5X-8533 with a bandwidth of up 500GB/s and also has a 32MB L4 cache too.

 

[Murphy]

Oh yeah I totally forgot about that. So is DDR 5 enough for a 40cu Apu?

No, like Hook said it's a bandwidth thing, DDR uses a 64bit bus GDDR uses a 256/512 bit bus.

Theoretically you can increase the size of the bus used on DDR but then you'd need more pins/connections. Currently a 64 bit DDR bus needs 288 pins so if you wanted to use a 256 bit bus you'd need RAM modules with something like +1k pins, that many pins on something like a stick of RAM would come with obvious drawbacks.

 

[ooStevo]

Strix Halo apparently uses 256 bit LPDDR5X-8533 with a bandwidth of up 500GB/s and also has a 32MB L4 cache too.

Yeah so is that embedded memory? Lp usually associates with laptops doesn't it? Regardless, that sounds really impressive to me. If it comes to fruition I'd imagine it will sell like hotcakes and kill the low end GPU market. I know I'd buy one.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeah so is that embedded memory? Lp usually associates with laptops doesn't it? Regardless, that sounds really impressive to me. If it comes to fruition I'd imagine it will sell like hotcakes and kill the low end GPU market. I know I'd buy one.

Yep,it's embedded as part of the CPU package.

 

[ooStevo]

It will definitely be interesting to see if AMD pull this off. It could open a whole new market.

 

[PeegeeTips]

Oh yeah I totally forgot about that. So is DDR 5 enough for a 40cu Apu?

256bit ddr5 with 32mb infinity cache should be.

 

[ooStevo]

256bit ddr5 with 32mb infinity cache should be.

Great username btw

*Off topic....... Is anyone suffering with really bad hay fever? I'm dying right now. Alexa says raw weed or something is in the air along with high pollen counts.

 

[Rroff]

Great username btw

*Off topic....... Is anyone suffering with really bad hay fever? I'm dying right now. Alexa says raw weed or something is in the air along with high pollen counts.

Not bad hay fever but I've got the slightly choked up feeling today I get when nettle pollen is bad, but I can't see any kind of significant nettle growth - usually I only get it when the verges, etc. are thick with nettles.

 

[ooStevo]

I get hay fever every year,but the last week has been brutal. Stinging itchy eyes,and constant nausea. It's making me depressed tbh. Doesn't help that I have a cat which sheds at a rate I've never seen in any animal in my life. Even the slightest pet results in hairs flying everywhere. Sorry for off topic.

 

[humbug]

40 RDNA 3.5 CU's, 500 GB/s memory bandwidth.

By comparison:

RX 7600. 32 RDNA 3 CU's, 288 GB/s memory bandwidth.

It should blow that ^^^^ out of the water...

RX 7700 XT, 54 RDNA 3 CU's, 432 GB/s memory bandwidth.

Probably closer to that ^^^ than the RX 7600, equivalent to an RTX 4060 ti. which i believe in a laptop is an RTX 4070.

 

[MCFC_ANDY]

£599 7900xt is Back in stock btw

I'm stuck on work argg

 

[humbug]

Frankly i can't believe how long its taken AMD to get to this point, they could have done this years ago.

When talking about OEM's no one wants AMD's add-in GPU's, but they do want AMD's APU's, they like those, so make them an APU so powerful it doesn't need an add-in GPU even if you're talking about a gaming laptop.

"Yes please, i'll have a few million of them..."

 

[tamzzy]

When talking about OEM's no one wants AMD's add-in GPU's, but they do want AMD's APU's, they like those, so make them an APU so powerful it doesn't need an add-in GPU even if you're talking about a gaming laptop.

i'd take this in a heartbeat for my laptop

 

[humbug]

Yeah me too...