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AMD Polaris architecture – GCN 4.0

humbug said:
No there not, at this point AMD only have one or two GPU options, the rest are all Intel Iris Pro and all of them are Intel CPU's.
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AMD are in the imac 27", mac pro and macbook pro - the imac and pro have 4-5 AMD options each
the article just says that polaris will be coming to Apple desktop and laptop options

so how is that any different to now?

AMD (or possibly just WCCF) are portraying this as some big win, but its just a continuation of an existing contract

we already know that AMD have a tendency to over-egg the pudding when it comes to press releases (like saying they were partnering with Oculus on Oculus Ready PC's when all the options on the Oculus site default to nvidia and didn't even have AMD as an option)

its not really surprising that no one uses AMD CPU's when even their reps use intel
 
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andybird123 said:
AMD are in the imac 27", mac pro and macbook pro - the imac and pro have 4-5 AMD options each
the article just says that polaris will be coming to Apple desktop and laptop options

so how is that any different to now?

AMD (or possibly just WCCF) are portraying this as some big win, but its just a continuation of an existing contract

we already know that AMD have a tendency to over-egg the pudding when it comes to press releases (like saying they were partnering with Oculus on Oculus Ready PC's when all the options on the Oculus site default to nvidia and didn't even have AMD as an option)

its not really surprising that no one uses AMD CPU's when even their reps use intel
Click to expand...


MacBook = 2 variants: Intel only
MacBook Air = 2 variants: Intel only
MacBook Pro = 2 variants: Intel Iris Pro or R9 M370X
iMac 21.5" 4K = 3 variants: Intel only
iMac 27" 5K = 3 variants: M380 - M390 - M395

So no, "AMD are also already the only option in Apple's range" they are an option in 4 out of Apples 12 in range.

If AMD can kick those Iris Pros out on the other 8 AMD will be sitting pretty.

I can't link Apples page cuz rulz, Google it.
 
For AMD to kick out the Iris Pros they would also have to replace Intel for CPUs. I expect once Zen based APUS are out with HBM2 next year then AMD will get a good look in form Apple.
 
So what other discrete GPU can you have in a MacBook pro then? Er that would be none, so they are already the only option, andy was quite correct. ;)
 
As for the rebrands in the mobile GPU's, it does seem a bit strange, seeing as the new Polaris GPU's should be very good for this.

These all seem to be either Oland or Cape Verde based except for the top M470X which is Bonaire based. the M385X is a 75w part and if the new Polaris 10 in the leak was a 100w part then surely in mobile form it would have been ideal, let alone the smaller Polaris 11, which we would expect to have a much lower TDP.

So why update you mobile line up with out of date parts if you have ideal new parts just waiting to go a couple of months later. Seems very strange to me.
We have to assume that AMD know what they are doing, well we can at least hope they do. :)
 
D.P. said:
For AMD to kick out the Iris Pros they would also have to replace Intel for CPUs. I expect once Zen based APUS are out with HBM2 next year then AMD will get a good look in form Apple.
Click to expand...

HSA could be a really huge deal for a company with such control over the software used on their laptops. A Zen APU with HSA and a company like Apple to optimise their tougher software to make use of the gpu, unified memory, hbm2 on die, Zen could be extremely interesting for Apple in terms of achievable performance. There are already a few minimal things that run insanely well using HSA, with a competive single thread performance and a up to date gpu, modern process, they could be absolutely killer.

Thing is if Apple decided to do that then a lot of competitive software suites for PCs would have to follow suit in terms of optimising gpu acceleration and you suddenly have demand for Zen all over the place.
 
bru said:
As for the rebrands in the mobile GPU's, it does seem a bit strange, seeing as the new Polaris GPU's should be very good for this.

These all seem to be either Oland or Cape Verde based except for the top M470X which is Bonaire based. the M385X is a 75w part and if the new Polaris 10 in the leak was a 100w part then surely in mobile form it would have been ideal, let alone the smaller Polaris 11, which we would expect to have a much lower TDP.

So why update you mobile line up with out of date parts if you have ideal new parts just waiting to go a couple of months later. Seems very strange to me.
We have to assume that AMD know what they are doing, well we can at least hope they do. :)
Click to expand...

I agree I thought the point of Polaris 11 was for laptops?.
 
drunkenmaster said:
HSA could be a really huge deal for a company with such control over the software used on their laptops. A Zen APU with HSA and a company like Apple to optimise their tougher software to make use of the gpu, unified memory, hbm2 on die, Zen could be extremely interesting for Apple in terms of achievable performance. There are already a few minimal things that run insanely well using HSA, with a competive single thread performance and a up to date gpu, modern process, they could be absolutely killer.

Thing is if Apple decided to do that then a lot of competitive software suites for PCs would have to follow suit in terms of optimising gpu acceleration and you suddenly have demand for Zen all over the place.
Click to expand...

Exactly this.

Apple love people thinking their tight control on software gives them an edge in performance due to the OS and their API's, it is of corse 'for the most part' nonsense.

But, HSA is one of those things that could make this idea very true.
Certainly no one on the PC side is remotely interested in HSA (Because it doesn't work with Intel's bronze-age compilers, its not the same as the way we have been doing it for 20 years, we don't like to changing the status-Quo or like any change at all)

If Apple are smart, and they are, they will make use of new technologies like this and then boast about how their performance software makes PC look like its 20 year old technology, like completely binary and ridged X86.....



 
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humbug said:
Exactly this.

Apple love people thinking their tight control on software gives them an edge in performance due to the OS and their API's, it is of corse 'for the most part' nonsense.

If Apple are smart, and they are they will make use of new technologies like this and then boast about how their performance software make PC look like its 20 year old technology, like completely binary and ridged X86.....
Click to expand...

Hey now, they do, do a lot of optimization for some of their software. Final Cut Pro X on a Macbook Pro gives Adobe Premiere Pro on a custom High end PC a spanking for video work.

I for one miss FCPX so damn much, darn shame the last Mac Pro hasn't been updated it what feels like forever. Although if they adopt Zen from AMD, a certain custom build might be in order.

If they went for a Unified system like HSA they could do so much more with the limited specs they have. I for one look forward do it, as more companies adopting the Hardware can only be good.

 
bru said:
As for the rebrands in the mobile GPU's, it does seem a bit strange, seeing as the new Polaris GPU's should be very good for this.

These all seem to be either Oland or Cape Verde based except for the top M470X which is Bonaire based. the M385X is a 75w part and if the new Polaris 10 in the leak was a 100w part then surely in mobile form it would have been ideal, let alone the smaller Polaris 11, which we would expect to have a much lower TDP.

So why update you mobile line up with out of date parts if you have ideal new parts just waiting to go a couple of months later. Seems very strange to me.
We have to assume that AMD know what they are doing, well we can at least hope they do. :)
Click to expand...

Probably due to a few things:
1.)They probably already have inventory they need to run down
2.)Polaris 11 probably costs more than an equivalent sized GCN part so it is being used for higher margin SKUs
3.)Moving to a new node would mean contested volume for a few months
4.)OEMs,want to have "new parts" available in volume for summer
 
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N19h7m4r3 said:
Hey now, they do, do a lot of optimization for some of their software. Final Cut Pro X on a Macbook Pro gives Adobe Premiere Pro on a custom High end PC a spanking for video work.

I for one miss FCPX so damn much, darn shame the last Mac Pro hasn't been updated it what feels like forever. Although if they adopt Zen from AMD, a certain custom build might be in order.

If they went for a Unified system like HSA they could do so much more with the limited specs they have. I for one look forward do it, as more companies adopting the Hardware can only be good.

Click to expand...

If AMD pulled their finder out and actually went to Apple to sell the technology Apple would give AMD a pile of cash for exclusive IP rights and drop Intel from all their systems virtually overnight.
Intel only put these huge iGPU's on their chips because Apple said "your CPU's are fine but AMD's iGPU's are much better"

AMD are useless at that ^^^
Or maybe they have, maybe in a years time everything Apple will have HSA enabled Zen chips in them.
 
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