MS xCloud joins Google in thier use of AMD GPU's for Game Streaming

humbug · 10 Jun 2019 at 12:40

This is an old article but i think its passed us by.

Recently Google announced they will be using AMD GPU's for their game streaming service "Stadia", it seems Microsoft are already there also using AMD's GPU's for xCloud.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/microsoft-project-xcloud-game-streaming-service

I guess it makes sense given that Microsoft already have a long history of using AMD's hardware in their game consoles, with the next generation using Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000) processors and Navi GPU's, Microsoft claim Project Scarlett will be four times more powerful than the xBox One X.

This is great news for AMD who have landed yet another major contract and revenue stream to keep up their R&D to continue the good work they started with Ryzen back in 2016.

Edit: It seems that Sony are partnering with Microsoft to use their AMD based Azure cloud service.

https://medium.com/swlh/explaining-the-sony-and-microsoft-cloud-partnership-e1dbbe5f4b8b

LePhuronn · 10 Jun 2019 at 13:00

Intel and Nvidia seriously need to pull their fingers out and start being competitive across the entire semiconductor ecosystem; it really won't matter if AMD can never close the gap to Nvidia's halo PC gaming cards if they're restricted purely to that market niche as AMD romp away covering every other industry sector. Same with Intel, and fingers-crossed their graphics aspirations are successful, because if they don't diversify and sort their house AMD are just going to soak up everything else.

Sargatanas2511 · 10 Jun 2019 at 15:08

LePhuronn said:
Intel and Nvidia seriously need to pull their fingers out and start being competitive across the entire semiconductor ecosystem; it really won't matter if AMD can never close the gap to Nvidia's halo PC gaming cards if they're restricted purely to that market niche as AMD romp away covering every other industry sector. Same with Intel, and fingers-crossed their graphics aspirations are successful, because if they don't diversify and sort their house AMD are just going to soak up everything else.

Yep, AMD might not be matching Nvidia at the high end but they are getting their fingers in many pies. Lisa Su is doing a great job with AMD, making them more competitive and giving them a bright future.

Nasher · 10 Jun 2019 at 18:59

Nvidia seems to be intent on pricing themselves out of the market and scaring everyone away with that CEO.

It's hard to tell where they are going. They ramped up prices to the point where people stopped buying their stuff. So what now? They don't seem to have any direction to go in except backwards, which will annoy shareholders.

Jimmy Weirdarms · 10 Jun 2019 at 19:33

LePhuronn said:
Intel and Nvidia seriously need to pull their fingers out and start being competitive across the entire semiconductor ecosystem; it really won't matter if AMD can never close the gap to Nvidia's halo PC gaming cards if they're restricted purely to that market niche as AMD romp away covering every other industry sector. Same with Intel, and fingers-crossed their graphics aspirations are successful, because if they don't diversify and sort their house AMD are just going to soak up everything else.

Nvidia effectively have machine learning sewn up at the moment with CUDA, they have a huge niche of their own there.

LePhuronn · 10 Jun 2019 at 19:38

Jimmy Weirdarms said:
Nvidia effectively have machine learning sewn up at the moment with CUDA, they have a huge niche of their own there.

Intel will have something to say about that next year I'm sure.

Jimmy Weirdarms · 10 Jun 2019 at 19:53

LePhuronn said:
Intel will have something to say about that next year I'm sure.

Let's hope so - competition is good, and we all get nice things as a result!

humbug · 10 Jun 2019 at 21:16

Nasher said:
Nvidia seems to be intent on pricing themselves out of the market and scaring everyone away with that CEO.

It's hard to tell where they are going. They ramped up prices to the point where people stopped buying their stuff. So what now? They don't seem to have any direction to go in except backwards, which will annoy shareholders.

When you become so big and greedy a few hundred million is no longer worth your time people take you for a difficult snob.

drunkenmaster · 10 Jun 2019 at 21:33

Jimmy Weirdarms said:
Nvidia effectively have machine learning sewn up at the moment with CUDA, they have a huge niche of their own there.

Nvidia's biggest market is still gaming and their gaming revenue dropped just about in half, causing their revenue to drop 31% Q/Q and 24% Y/Y, their revenue dropped almost a billion because of lower sales in the gaming market...... gaming is still exceptionally important to them and dropping further will affect their R&D spending along with everything else.

XeNoNF50 · 13 Jun 2019 at 08:36

drunkenmaster said:
Nvidia's biggest market is still gaming and their gaming revenue dropped just about in half, causing their revenue to drop 31% Q/Q and 24% Y/Y, their revenue dropped almost a billion because of lower sales in the gaming market...... gaming is still exceptionally important to them and dropping further will affect their R&D spending along with everything else.

It's incredible how much it dropped considering the 2000 series isn't that old

Panos · 13 Jun 2019 at 09:10

XeNoNF50 said:
It's incredible how much it dropped considering the 2000 series isn't that old

Yet is too expensive for what it is. Ray Tracing performance is crap, with only the £1100 GPU barely managing.
NVidia also pulls stunts like the GTX1650. A worse product than the competitor at higher price. This shows hubris.

D.P. · 13 Jun 2019 at 09:34

LePhuronn said:
Intel will have something to say about that next year I'm sure.

Momentum is against them though. CUDA is the defacto industry standard against which almost all such software is written, and which all ML coding experts understand. This is why AMD have failed to take much market share here. This is the advantage of being first to market.

D.P. · 13 Jun 2019 at 09:35

drunkenmaster said:
Nvidia's biggest market is still gaming and their gaming revenue dropped just about in half, causing their revenue to drop 31% Q/Q and 24% Y/Y, their revenue dropped almost a billion because of lower sales in the gaming market...... gaming is still exceptionally important to them and dropping further will affect their R&D spending along with everything else.

True, but the drop is mostly due to Crypto crash.

The HPC and DL business is still increasing rapidly.

Datacenter will catch up with gaming ina few years
https://www.nextplatform.com/2018/02/09/just-large-can-nvidias-datacenter-business-grow/

LePhuronn · 13 Jun 2019 at 10:03

D.P. said:
Momentum is against them though. CUDA is the defacto industry standard against which almost all such software is written, and which all ML coding experts understand. This is why AMD have failed to take much market share here. This is the advantage of being first to market.

Indeed, but Intel have bazillions more pots 'o gold than AMD so can throw money at the problem for longer. Whether anything actually comes from it remains to be seen.

drunkenmaster · 13 Jun 2019 at 10:08

D.P. said:
True, but the drop is mostly due to Crypto crash.

The HPC and DL business is still increasing rapidly.

Datacenter will catch up with gaming ina few years
https://www.nextplatform.com/2018/02/09/just-large-can-nvidias-datacenter-business-grow/

For gaming that isn't that relevant. Put it this way, if a gpu company is making 2 billion from gaming and 500mil from data centre, then R&D will be focused on gaming performance and adding more compute functionality. If gaming revenue drops to 500mil and data centre increases to 2 billion, where will their R&D focus be, what products will they make? Even if they have the same money, with the profit increasing in one area and decreasing in another gaming performance won't be anywhere near their highest priority or where most of their R&D spend goes. In fact if the revenue split that way they'd almost certainly start making a completely dedicated computer/data centre/ai cards and gaming cards without any of the functionality and the gaming cards would end up suffering as a result most likely.

Panos · 13 Jun 2019 at 11:36

Lets not forget, AMD put it's hand on another pie yesterday.

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/mi...amd_could_power_nintendo_s_switch_successor/1

bru · 13 Jun 2019 at 14:26

Panos said:
Lets not forget, AMD put it's hand on another pie yesterday.

https://www.overclock3d.net/news/mi...amd_could_power_nintendo_s_switch_successor/1

That article doesn't seem to say anything one way or the other, it really is an 'it could happen, but nothing is confirmed' article.

h4rm0ny · 13 Jun 2019 at 15:59

humbug said:
This is an old article but i think its passed us by.

Recently Google announced they will be using AMD GPU's for their game streaming service "Stadia", it seems Microsoft are already there also using AMD's GPU's for xCloud.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/microsoft-project-xcloud-game-streaming-service

I guess it makes sense given that Microsoft already have a long history of using AMD's hardware in their game consoles, with the next generation using Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000) processors and Navi GPU's, Microsoft claim Project Scarlett will be four times more powerful than the xBox One X.

This is great news for AMD who have landed yet another major contract and revenue stream to keep up their R&D to continue the good work they started with Ryzen back in 2016.

Edit: It seems that Sony are partnering with Microsoft to use their AMD based Azure cloud service.

https://medium.com/swlh/explaining-the-sony-and-microsoft-cloud-partnership-e1dbbe5f4b8b

It's like watching an army of peasants begin surrounding the castle.

rubberduck · 14 Jun 2019 at 07:50

drunkenmaster said:
For gaming that isn't that relevant. Put it this way, if a gpu company is making 2 billion from gaming and 500mil from data centre, then R&D will be focused on gaming performance and adding more compute functionality. If gaming revenue drops to 500mil and data centre increases to 2 billion, where will their R&D focus be, what products will they make? Even if they have the same money, with the profit increasing in one area and decreasing in another gaming performance won't be anywhere near their highest priority or where most of their R&D spend goes. In fact if the revenue split that way they'd almost certainly start making a completely dedicated computer/data centre/ai cards and gaming cards without any of the functionality and the gaming cards would end up suffering as a result most likely.

This is mostly false and a ridiculous over simplification of how companies invest R&D spend.

StriderX · 14 Jun 2019 at 11:38

I'd personally invest the money from my biggest revenue earner into future revenue, considering the future revenue of gaming is rather... limited, i would spend it in the professional/scientific field instead.

I don't know why they would spend the majority of money on something they've had such a big lead on for so long when they need to diversify, i think the last year has proven this.