AMD VEGA confirmed for 2017 H1

Rroff · 14 Mar 2017 at 17:28

N19h7m4r3 said:
Who knows what's going on there, shame AMD has a contract with them really.
They use TSMC's 16nm FinFet for the Xbox SoC refresh, shame they can't use it for Polaris. Would certainly allow higher clocks.

Been doing some googling - seems GF's 14nm is still exhibiting unstable yields and clock speeds around 20% down what a similar product can manage on TSMC 16nm or Intel's 14nm. AMD really need shot of them if even with a revision they are still behind Samsung's main line let alone TSMC.

N19h7m4r3 · 14 Mar 2017 at 17:32

Rroff said:
Been doing some googling - seems GF's 14nm is still exhibiting unstable yields and clock speeds around 20% down what a similar product can manage on TSMC 16nm or Intel's 14nm. AMD really need shot of them if even with a revision they are still behind Samsung's main line let alone TSMC.

Yup, that's the issue with darn contracts really. Could also be a prime reason vega isn't here yet either. Shoddy yields, and dodgy clocks do not go well with a brand new flagship architecture.

Considering AMD sent their finest binned RX460's to Apple, I can see that happening with Vega/Instinct as well.
I'm sure if they had the Option to get Vega and Polaris made at TSMC they'd jump at it, but they're stuck with GF for now.

queamin · 14 Mar 2017 at 17:50

GF's has had a few problems over the years and has hurt AMD

Sargatanas2511 · 14 Mar 2017 at 18:50

humbug said:
They do....

Another 290X to 390X while the 390X is still faster.

From what I can see there's nothing but speculation on this so don't take it as concrete fact.

DONOHUE07 · 14 Mar 2017 at 19:19

I'm expecting all but the new flagship GPU to be cheaper rebrands on the rx4XX series, hope I'm wrong though, I want to replace my r9 290 with a another £300 GPU but there's nothing that warrants the price to be a worth while upgrade yet (currently gaming at 60hz 1080p)

BigBANGtheory · 14 Mar 2017 at 21:22

I'm wondering also if the silicon yields/performance is below AMD's expectations which is why we've not heard much. I keep coming back to the promise of 4K gaming with 1080Ti just about delivering on that, I fail to see a Vega solution below 1080Ti performance as being a 4K gaming GPU. Pricing competitively or not a 4K gaming GPU needs some serious GPU horse power under its hood.

LoadsaMoney · 14 Mar 2017 at 21:53

BigBANGtheory said:
I'm wondering also if the silicon yields/performance is below AMD's expectations which is why we've not heard much. I keep coming back to the promise of 4K gaming with 1080Ti just about delivering on that, I fail to see a Vega solution below 1080Ti performance as being a 4K gaming GPU. Pricing competitively or not a 4K gaming GPU needs some serious GPU horse power under its hood.

The Furys are 4K gaming GPUs.

JediFragger · 14 Mar 2017 at 22:18

BigBANGtheory said:
I'm wondering also if the silicon yields/performance is below AMD's expectations which is why we've not heard much. I keep coming back to the promise of 4K gaming with 1080Ti just about delivering on that, I fail to see a Vega solution below 1080Ti performance as being a 4K gaming GPU. Pricing competitively or not a 4K gaming GPU needs some serious GPU horse power under its hood.

Medium settings

JediFragger · 14 Mar 2017 at 22:18

LoadsaMoney said:
The Furys are 4K gaming GPUs.

Low settings

LoadsaMoney · 14 Mar 2017 at 22:23

JediFragger said:
Low settings

In other news.

Thread Scheduling
We have investigated reports alleging incorrect thread scheduling on the AMD Ryzen™ processor. Based on our findings, AMD believes that the Windows® 10 thread scheduler is operating properly for “Zen,” and we do not presently believe there is an issue with the scheduler adversely utilizing the logical and physical configurations of the architecture.

https://community.amd.com/community/gaming/blog/2017/03/13/amd-ryzen-community-update?sf62109582=1

JediFragger · 14 Mar 2017 at 22:26

Yup, just use Windows 7 and sorted

Baboonanza · 14 Mar 2017 at 22:31

JediFragger said:
Yup, just use Windows 7 and sorted

D for reading comprehension

Finally, we have reviewed the limited available evidence concerning performance deltas between Windows® 7 and Windows® 10 on the AMD Ryzen™ CPU. We do not believe there is an issue with scheduling differences between the two versions of Windows. Any differences in performance can be more likely attributed to software architecture differences between these OSes.

JediFragger · 14 Mar 2017 at 22:45

Baboonanza said:
D for reading comprehension

Any bets on that coming from M$?

Panos · 14 Mar 2017 at 22:47

JediFragger said:
Yup, just use Windows 7 and sorted

I will post my findings over the next weekend

Cyber-Mav · 15 Mar 2017 at 04:10

queamin said:
GF's has had a few problems over the years and has hurt AMD

U do know global foundries is Amd's own fab right? Amd split their foundry assets into the seperate company in fear of bankruptcy so that they would not loose all of their fabrication plants. Sneeky move which im surprised most people dont remember.

Panos · 15 Mar 2017 at 06:11

Cyber-Mav said:
U do know global foundries is Amd's own fab right? Amd split their foundry assets into the seperate company in fear of bankruptcy so that they would not loose all of their fabrication plants. Sneeky move which im surprised most people dont remember.

Yep. In addition they jump completely the 10nm process and are ready for 7nm production this October for next year AMD products.
When both Intel and Nvidia going to be stuck on bigger nodes during 2018.

Cyber-Mav · 15 Mar 2017 at 06:40

Nvidia have been on bigger nodes than amd before and provided far better performance and power consumption too.

TNA · 15 Mar 2017 at 06:49

Cyber-Mav said:
U do know global foundries is Amd's own fab right? Amd split their foundry assets into the seperate company in fear of bankruptcy so that they would not loose all of their fabrication plants. Sneeky move which im surprised most people dont remember.

Huh? I thought they split and sold most or all of it off? I recall something like 70% and the sold some more after to Arab investors. They don't own much if any of it now. Making new fabs costs lots of money AMD have not had for ages.

N19h7m4r3 · 15 Mar 2017 at 09:06

TNA said:
Huh? I thought they split and sold most or all of it off? I recall something like 70% and the sold some more after to Arab investors. They don't own much if any of it now. Making new fabs costs lots of money AMD have not had for ages.

That's true they only owned around 35% of GlobalFoundries from the start and Mubadala owned the majority, and also owns 19.9% of AMD themselves.
https://arstechnica.com/business/20...balfoundries-stake-gets-more-fab-flexibility/

http://blog.timesunion.com/business/sale-of-globalfoundries-could-have-impact-on-amd/71010/amp/

BigBANGtheory · 15 Mar 2017 at 09:07

LoadsaMoney said:
The Furys are 4K gaming GPUs.

Yeah exactly the sort of credibility issue that worries me.