AMD Polaris Rumors and Discussion

[lanek]

32GB is vram is pretty insane to me. Would it be possible to even use this card if my PC only has 8GB of system ram?

Not really new on AMD profressional cards, both S9170 and W9100 have 32GB ( with one gpu chips on it ( no dual ).

This card, is mostly here for expand the Radeon Pro lineup, who was based on Polaris when they have still the high end under the "old" FirePro brand ( W9xxx etc )

 

[Blazkowicz]

This reminds me of the dual Radeon in the Apple Mac Pro especially. This didn't work so well, what with people lacking the option to only buy a single GPU and other issues with the computer ; but I don't wish to derail the discussion into one of inadequacy of Apple hardware (or software) for professional workstation users.

Seen on hardware.fr : they sum up some AMD PR about the Radeon Pro Duo (but without pasting a sliding gallery of slides for this one), saying AMD has glorious benches agaisnt the Titan X in Adobe Premiere Pro CC and Blender (of course these being very well behaved applications for the architecture). They conclude with the launch price being $999.
So, with the large memory (really 16GB per GPU) this makes it competition for the GTX Titan series this time, it's easier to make sense of it than the former dual Fury card.

 

[pharma]

AMD’s New Radeon Pro Duo is Slower, Cheaper Than Its Predecessor

With Vega supposedly shipping in the next few months, it’s a little surprising to see AMD pushing a midrange dual GPU rather than waiting for a higher-end variant of its upcoming architecture. One possible explanation is that the Pro Duo is explicitly intended for developers who want to optimize per-eye VR rather than using a single GPU to render first one eye than the other.

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/248302-amds-new-radeon-pro-duo-slower-cheaper-predecessor

 

[kalelovil]

128 TMUs and 36 CUs is an odd configuration. I didn't know it was possible to disable just TMUs, or has AMD supplied incorrect information?

For now, the 2xFijji Pro Duo are still in stock at US$750-800.

 

[monstercameron]

It's more like 16GB effectively, anyway, except maybe in HPC workloads.

Sent from my Archos 50 Helium Plus using Tapatalk

Or sfr maybe.

 

[Kaotik]

Or sfr maybe.

While it would be possible at least in theory (API specs), in practice every single SFR-solution currently would still get just 16GB effectively

 

[xEx]

The moment when the games you've being promoting as one of ur ASes actually heavily favors ur competitor....

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Performance_Analysis/Prey/4.html

the 970 is better than the 480 at 1080p.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

The moment when the games you've being promoting as one of ur ASes actually heavily favors ur competitor....

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Performance_Analysis/Prey/4.html

the 970 is better than the 480 at 1080p.

Has AMD ever shown Prey in anything other than Vega hands-on previews? (This is Polaris' thread BTW).


I see some notable differences between Prey and other UE4 releases, like support for Multi-GPU through AMD's latest driver. Could this mean that Prey is UE4's first adoption of forward rendering?
Also in the works are UE4's support for Vulkan in Windows.
EDIT: It's using CryEngine 3, not UE4.

A patch for the a new API could be coming at the same time as Vega's launch, which is why there wasn't a lot of work done for the current DX11 version.
The same happened last year with Doom in idTech6, also from Bethesda.

 

[Clukos]

Prey is using Cryengine 3 iirc.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Oops, you're right. I corrected the post.

Regardless, CryEngine V already supports DX12 and the next release coming up late May will support Vulkan.
How likely is it for the game to be upgraded to CryEngine V + DX12/Vulkan during Vega's release in June?

It's strange that AMD would use a game with such an old engine stuck to an old API to promote a brand new card.


Going on-topic, here is the game running with a single RX480 @ 1415MHz:

and now with dual-RX480 Crossfired but with a slight downclock in the memory:

From 50-70 FPS in single to 100-120 FPS in dual GPU mode. The game scales pretty well with Crossfire.

 

[Malo]

Maybe they had Bethesda implement Primitive Shaders? Which we won't know until Vega release.

Or it's merely a collaborative marketing agreement for bundling only to get some copies of the game out there upon Vega release.

 

[Kaotik]

Has it actually been promoted in any Vega-related context, or just Ryzen? CPU tests is what we need (and preferrably with AMD cards, too, since the performance anomalies NVIDIA has shown on Ryzen)

 

[ImSpartacus]

Has it actually been promoted in any Vega-related context, or just Ryzen? CPU tests is what we need (and preferrably with AMD cards, too, since the performance anomalies NVIDIA has shown on Ryzen)

Yes, this is mostly the hard evidence of the extent of the marketing campaign. It's a couple months old.

https://www.techpowerup.com/230699/...y-to-amds-vega-possible-hint-at-launch-window

I was hoping for a Vega-prey bundle, but oh well. Looks like that isn't super likely.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Has it actually been promoted in any Vega-related context, or just Ryzen?

It has, during an event in Frankfurt back in February for PCGamesHardware.de:

Prey 2 is optimized for AMD's new VEGA architecture, which is also indicated by a sign at the entrance of the hands-on room, unlike the CES and Doom, but only one R9 Fury X was installed, no Vega-10 card.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Ooops, looks like we posted practically at the same time.

I was hoping for a Vega-prey bundle, but oh well. Looks like that isn't super likely.

Just to finish this offtopic, there's a rumour/leak of a Vega box art showing that Quake Champions is the game being bundled:

All of these are Bethesda games.


But since Vega 10 will probably have to co-exist with Polaris 10 for at least another year due to the RX500 rebrand, we should expect AMD-Bethesda optimizations to extend to pre-Vega hardware.


http://www.anandtech.com/show/11164...ction-for-vr-vega-gets-a-server-customer-more

AMD and Bethesda want to get Vulkan in all of Bethesda’s games in order to leverage the many benefits of low-level graphics APIs we’ve been talking about over the past few years.

More snippets pointing to Prey possibly getting an upgrade to Vulkan when Vega releases.

 

[Malo]

More snippets pointing to Prey possibly getting an upgrade to Vulkan when Vega releases.

I sincerely doubt that. Prey has been in development for a few years on an older version of Cryengine. There are no Vulkan conversions of CE anywhere, with Starcitizen only starting work on that now with their Lumberyard version. The marketing/resources agreement with Bethesda will be for future titles, not ones that have been worked on previously, especially using an engine Bethesda doesn't really work with.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I sincerely doubt that. Prey has been in development for a few years on an older version of Cryengine.

Doom was in development hell for the better part of its 8-year production time. It launched for OpenGL in May 2016 and got a Vulkan patch in August.



As I stated above, I just find it strange that AMD would chose a game with an old engine and old API to show off their new card.
But if Vega actually performs well on older engines and APIs then all the better, actually.

 

[DavidGraham]

There are no Vulkan conversions of CE anywhere, with Starcitizen only starting work

I guess if the game was using the OpenGL path on PCs, then the Vulkan conversion will be much easier. Just like Doom. But Prey is DX11 only.
Quake Champions is using DX11 as well in it's current state, though Bethesda is promising to add a OpenGL path, as well as a Vulkan one.
https://www.techpowerup.com/232086/...ns-with-vulkan-support-and-ryzen-optimization

Some Quake Champions DX11 beta benchmarks:
http://gamegpu.com/mmorpg-/-онлайн-игры/quake-champions-beta-test-gpu
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Quake...ls/Beta-Benchmark-Test-Review-Engine-1226705/

 

[Malo]

As I stated above, I just find it strange that AMD would chose a game with an old engine and old API to show off their new card.

That's why I think it's purely a marketing agreement. The release is was coinciding and part of the contract between them was promotion of the game+vega. I doubt it's anything more than that.

But if Vega actually performs well on older engines and APIs then all the better, actually.

Yep that's a big hope as well and even with some minor driver optimizations, Prey is DX11 so if it performs well it will be a decent indicator.

Quake Champions is using DX11 as well in it's current state

A Quake game using DirectX? I assume it would have been Vulkan from the outset.

AMD really failed to get the right alignment on this.

 

[Anarchist4000]

But since Vega 10 will probably have to co-exist with Polaris 10 for at least another year due to the RX500 rebrand, we should expect AMD-Bethesda optimizations to extend to pre-Vega hardware.

If they just focus on FP16 they should manage that. AMD demoed it with hair, but it likely applies to HDR and particle effects as well.

The marketing/resources agreement with Bethesda will be for future titles, not ones that have been worked on previously, especially using an engine Bethesda doesn't really work with

I wouldn't be so sure. Fallout 4 VR might make sense with a Vulkan rework. Even if just a test bed for future titles.