Samsung GPU in summer 2015

Gregster · 5 Dec 2014 at 17:56

Work in progress

Samsung is having another crack at building a GPU.

This is not company's first attempt to make a GPU and this time it is meant to be used with its SoC and not in graphics cards. Samsung has announced last year that it wants to make its System on Chips based on in-house 64-bit architecture but we still have to wait and see one eventuate.

Samsung is trying to make a GPU for years and enter this already crowded GPU IP market. Qualcomm uses Adreno, Nvidia uses Geforce and wants to license it to others. Apple uses PowerVR while Mediatek uses ARM owed Mali graphics for newer processors while using PowerVR for some older parts. Intel is using PowerVR G6430 for its mobile processors such as Atom Z3580 Moorefield while AMD has its own graphics that it can use for future SoCs and APUs. Intel owns Intel HD graphics that dominates the integrated CPU market especially for notebooks.

Samsung currently uses Mali graphics but this might change. If its team is successful, it might come with its own graphics and jack them under the bonnet of its own Exynos processor by the next summer.

All the sudden Nvidia's lawsuit against Samsung makes more sense.

Samsung is trying to get into Nvidia space and the company doesn’t like it. Even if Samsung manages to make a successful GPU, the competition is hard. Even with years of trying Samsung is mostly using Exynos for its own tablets and some phones. Most Samsung high end phones use Qualcomm Snapdragons as these tend to have better LTE modems and are widely available.

According to the Korean ZDnet the company might talk about the GPU as early as February at the Solid Circuits Society (ISSCC) conference with the official announcement scheduled for summer 2015.

So SoC for now but if it works, I could see them taking on nVidia and AMD. It would be good to have a third player as well and Samsung are big enough to go the whole distance.

shankly1985 · 5 Dec 2014 at 18:02

Posted while back that this is only for the mobile market. Nothing will come from them desktop side.

Gregster · 5 Dec 2014 at 18:06

shankly1985 said:
Posted while back that this is only for the mobile market. Nothing will come from them desktop side.

For now it is for the mobile market but if successful, there is zero reason why they couldn't jump into the discrete market. Samsung are very big players, so certainly don't underestimate them.

shankly1985 · 5 Dec 2014 at 18:08

So is Snapdragon they own a good chunk the mobile market. If it was that simple am sure they would also be trying to enter the desktop scene.

Orangey · 5 Dec 2014 at 18:11

Zero reason?

Freddie1980 · 6 Dec 2014 at 09:26

Gregster said:
For now it is for the mobile market but if successful, there is zero reason why they couldn't jump into the discrete market. Samsung are very big players, so certainly don't underestimate them.

Besides the fact that the discrete market and a declining market (not to mention mature and consolidated).

I'm not sure why Samsung would want to do this I would have thought if they wanted there phones to be more vertically aligned they would be better off following Apple's approach and work with ARM to develop a custom SoC.

Martini1991 · 6 Dec 2014 at 09:53

I'd fist myself if Samsung try to compete with Nvidia or AMD in the discrete GPU's at the high end.

Dirk Diggler · 6 Dec 2014 at 10:24

Martini1991 said:
I'd fist myself if Samsung try to compete with Nvidia or AMD in the discrete GPU's at the high end.

I don't think you'll be punching yourself in the bum any time soon.

Stanners · 6 Dec 2014 at 10:31

I think they would be more likely to buy a struggling company as a way in if they were.

Jono8 · 6 Dec 2014 at 10:36

Stanners said:
I think they a would be more likely to buy a struggling company as a way in if they were to it.

Like AMD?

*runs*

I kid, I kid.

Gregster · 6 Dec 2014 at 10:37

Freddie1980 said:
Besides the fact that the discrete market and a declining market (not to mention mature and consolidated).

I'm not sure why Samsung would want to do this I would have thought if they wanted there phones to be more vertically aligned they would be better off following Apple's approach and work with ARM to develop a custom SoC.

Pre-built PC's have declined in sales but hardware has risen. People are building their own systems or at least getting someone to build them. I seriously believe that Samsung would have a fair run in the discrete section but the more I think on it, the less I think they would do it.

Wishful thinking on my part perhaps

Jono8 · 6 Dec 2014 at 10:39

It would be great if we got a third player. Might kick both Nvidia and AMD in the chops to release faster cards more frequently instead of just renaming old ones.

Jamielicious · 6 Dec 2014 at 10:43

Actually I wouldn't be shocked if Samsung did buy AMD to take on Intel, Nvidia and ARM all at once.

Doogles · 6 Dec 2014 at 15:14

Jono8 said:
Like AMD?

*runs*

I kid, I kid.

It might not be the worst thing to happen imo, might even do well with the CPU side of things also...

humbug · 6 Dec 2014 at 20:27

Jamielicious said:
Actually I wouldn't be shocked if Samsung did buy AMD to take on Intel, Nvidia and ARM all at once.

Samsung and AMD seem to be buddying up these days, who knows, one day in the future... i wouldn't mind if Samsung bought AMD, or if they went into partnership.

AMD's IP and expertise together with Samsung's expertise and Resources.... Drool.

Marine-RX179 · 6 Dec 2014 at 22:04

What about PowerVR make a return to desktop graphic with the help of Samsung? That I would very much like to see!

Both AMD and Nvida need a serious kick up their hinds to catch up with the development of higher resolution. We have had 1920 res since 2006, and we are still getting graphic cards that are struggling to max some games on it...

I remember the days of moving gen we were getting 60-100% performance increase over the previous gen, not these joke of a 10-20% increases...

Stanners · 6 Dec 2014 at 22:30

Marine-RX179 said:
What about PowerVR make a return to desktop graphic with the help of Samsung? That I would very much like to see!

Both AMD and Nvida need a serious kick up their hinds to catch up with the development of higher resolution. We have had 1920 res since 2006, and we are still getting graphic cards that are struggling to max some games on it...

I remember the days of moving gen we were getting 60-100% performance increase over the previous gen, not these joke of a 10-20% increases...

+1

drunkenmaster · 6 Dec 2014 at 23:29

Gregster said:
For now it is for the mobile market but if successful, there is zero reason why they couldn't jump into the discrete market. Samsung are very big players, so certainly don't underestimate them.

THere are many many many many reasons. Intel are a MUCH bigger player, they attempted a potentially gaming gpu, screwed that up, sell more gpu's than AMD and Nvidia combined, still can't make good drivers.

The difference between making gpu's in SOC's with limited power and a very strict ecosystem with pretty basic gaming usage and making a gpu that can run on a variety of systems with a variety of screens at a variety or resolutions is completely different.

Any of the current places could package their gpu's up with 16x pci-e controller and some more memory added to make a desktop version, it would take a very large very experienced team YEARS to make a product that was worth buying for gaming now.

There is a reason none of the main gpu makers in mobile have attempted to make a desktop gpu and there is effectively zero chance of Samsung or PowerVR making desktop cards.

PowerVR were trying to produce a very limited card just for ray trace acceleration... it's dead in the water. It lacked features, support, performance and Caustic/the hardware is all but wiped from the PowerVR website. Even getting into an incredibly limited market with a performance advantage they got absolutely no where. This is working with afaik a single limited program with one api and one function, it still failed. Making a graphics card people would want in a PC now would be almost impossible.

I do wonder what the image in the first post is, it's talking about a stock then custom 64bit cpu, it's got nothing to do with what gpu they'd use.

Orcvader · 7 Dec 2014 at 00:17

Qualcomm is planning to move into the server market but apart from that I don't think any other mobile SoC developer plans to shift to the server/desktop side of things. I don't think there will be any promising looking competitors to AMD and Nvidia for a very long time. They seem more interested in SoC designs instead of a stand alone GPU.

Avenged7Fold · 7 Dec 2014 at 03:25

No matter the sheer amount of resources and weight that Samsung has to throw around, i doubt they can make a discrete desktop GPU with the power to compete with whats out there now.

It would be sweet if they partnered/bought AMD. If they got a big resource boost similarly to Nvidia in the past, I would expect some exciting products from both sides to appear within a few years.