The "2900 XT Lacks UVD" Thread

[Sampsa]

Still waiting for reply how to set up hardware accelerated HD-DVD playback testing environment with Radeon HD 2900 XT. I'll post info and results as soon as I get them.

 

[Geo]

I see Derek over at Anandtech is getting it off his chest as well in regards to this matter.

I thought it fairly sleazy to suggest it is there and broken unless he has proof of the matter. I wonder if that was "suggested" to him by others. Tho he's been deeply annoyed with AMD graphics for some months. He threw a fit awhile back, I seem to remember.

 

[mushroom]

The whole point, of course, is that they didn't know it would be 5 months late when this decision was made. Which was probably sometime beginning 2006 at the latests....

I think the whole issue is not so much about the fact the top line product HD2900XT doesn't have UVD, or that AMD should have delayed R600 just to include it...
It is that the general perception shaped directly or indirectly by AMD that R600 does have UVD when in fact it doesnt have... people get pissed because they feels deceived by AMD.. this whole issue wouldn't have existed at all if AMD have been upfront about this fact...

 

[nicolasb]

Do you think ATI should have delayed the whole schedule of R600 by, say, 4 months, just to make sure it had exactly the same video decoding features?

The important question is not "why doesn't R600 have UVD?" but "why did AMD mislead everyone into believing that it did?" That's what everyone is so angry about.

I see Derek over at Anandtech is getting it off his chest as well in regards to this matter.

Indeed. He sounds quite sour.

A huge number of press and channel partners were given the impression by AMD that their R600 GPU used to build the new Radeon HD 2900 XT contained UVD hardware. AMD's press materials are incredibly vague about the issue: they never explicitly state that the HD 2900 XT does or does not physically have UVD hardware. They do list R600 as having AVIVO HD, which they explained includes GPU offload of the entire video decode pipeline in their press materials.

In other slides and presentations, AVIVO HD and UVD have been presented as synonymous. As the entire HD 2000 line is supposed to support AVIVO HD, how could we assume that UVD hardware wasn't included on the GPU?

It seems that AMD is now trying to make it clear that R600 (the 80nm GPU for the HD 2900 XT) does not include UVD, but supports the same video decode features as the X1950.

And, in his conclusion:

We are left with the feeling that AMD wanted this to be ambiguous for as long as possible (whether this is true or not). The reasoning for this is are certainly not attractive, and range from blatant deception (i.e. suggest there's at least one feature on HD 2900 that you couldn't get from 8800 GTS/GTX) to a last minute problem with UVD on R600 that kept them from enabling it.

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

When even the AIB partners are incorrectly putting UVD on the boxes, then AMD has completely failed to communicate what new R6xx product has what features. If the AIB partners selling the cards have got the wrong end of the stick, then it's no surprise that customers and press got the wrong idea too.

There's only three possible conclusions I can draw from this:

1. AMD is stupid. They really don't understand what they are selling and just got it wrong for months and miscommunicated to everyone while no one inside the company corrected things. Homer Simpson is running the company.

2. AMD deliberately misled people to cheat them. Monty Burns is running the company.

3. At the last minute UVD was found to be broken, and AMD ran around like headless chickens inadvertently (but still dishonestly) misleading people by accident. Maybe there was some hubris on their part that it might get fixed in drivers, or they would jump straight to R650. That's still no excuse. Bart Simpson is running the company.

 

[jb]

OT:
Ok so we can take it that BZB is a big simpsons fan

 

[Rufus]

I thought it fairly sleazy to suggest it is there and broken unless he has proof of the matter. I wonder if that was "suggested" to him by others. Tho he's been deeply annoyed with AMD graphics for some months. He threw a fit awhile back, I seem to remember.

That certainly seems like it is the case. It's not every day you have a journalist name their PR contact and then give a mini-rant about how they left left and that the rest of the department is nowhere near as good:

With our go-to man for graphics at AMD, Will Willis, having quit shortly after the R600 launch, and most of the other PR people we used to work with from ATI already absent, we have been a little worried about the situation. Losing Will will certainly be a blow for AMD PR, as he was by far the most helpful guy around. Having a key member of the PR team depart just after a launch like this also doesn't feel good. Hopefully, the replacement AMD finds for Will can fill his shoes, and hopefully we will get some answers soon.

 

[3dilettante]

Does that mean AMD is shedding elements of ATI's marketing?

Shouldn't they be booting the less impressive of the two marketing departments?
From what I've seen of the old AMD's marketing, I'd be keeping the ATI folks.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I think we're all missing the most important bit of that article, Will Willis has left AMD and did so shortly after the R600 launch.

Who else left around that time, anyone know?

 

[Sampsa]

Now AMD's Dave Orton is saying that R600 has UVD:

"AMD's Dave Orton told the press that attended the Press Conference that the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT in deed does UVD, but due to the power full shader engine in the GPU, it is done in software rather than in hardware as is the case with the HD 2600 and HD 2400 series."

http://www.tweaktown.com/computex2007/13/index.html

 

[AlexV]

Because everything that has to do with the launch of this card must be scrambled beyond comprehension. We don`t but we do which we don`t because we do...delays, drivers, UVD, everything must be mushed and murked until it turns into an entropic porridge.

 

[neliz]

Now AMD's Dave Orton is saying that R600 has UVD:

"AMD's Dave Orton told the press that attended the Press Conference that the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT in deed does UVD, but due to the power full shader engine in the GPU, it is done in software rather than in hardware as is the case with the HD 2600 and HD 2400 series."

http://www.tweaktown.com/computex2007/13/index.html

well he's absolutely right, software is "Universal Video Decoder" and Hardware is "Unified Video Decoding" .. but the situation is like poo on their fingers with no tissue around..

 

[Geeforcer]

So, the strategy is:

1) Sit tightly and not say a word as both the websites and partners unwittingly misinform the public.
2) When pressed, admit that R600 does not have "UVD", aka universal media decoder.
3) Redefine what UVD stands for?

At least they don't do soft launches.

 

[cho]

i think the r600 have a "universal media decoder", but this r600 version "universal media decoder" lack the harewire VLD part that is the most important part of UVD .

 

[Aerows]

i think the r600 have a "universal media decoder", but this r600 version "universal media decoder" lack the harewire VLD part that is the most important part of UVD .

Via 3rd party apps, such workarounds are simply just not in all OSes natively. That's how Linux users coped for years.