2016 nMP

[koyoot]

Ashes of singularity is sponsored by AMD... And so is Hitman... Talk about objectivity... Do you want me to post some benchmark of NVidia gamework enabled game and how they perform on AMD cards...

First, there’s the fact that Oxide shares its engine source code with both AMD and Nvidia and has invited both companies to both see and suggest changes for most of the time Ashes has been in development. The company’s Reviewer’s Guide includes the following:

[W]e have created a special branch where not only can vendors see our source code, but they can even submit proposed changes. That is, if they want to suggest a change our branch gives them permission to do so…

This branch is synchronized directly from our main branch so it’s usually less than a week from our very latest internal main software development branch. IHVs are free to make their own builds, or test the intermediate drops that we give our QA.

Oxide also addresses the question of whether or not it optimizes for specific engines or graphics architectures directly.

Oxide primarily optimizes at an algorithmic level, not for any specific hardware. We also take care to avoid the proverbial known “glass jaws” which every hardware has. However, we do not write our code or tune for any specific GPU in mind. We find this is simply too time consuming, and we must run on a wide variety of GPUs. We believe our code is very typical of a reasonably optimized PC game.

We reached out to Dan Baker of Oxide regarding the decision to turn asynchronous compute on by default for both companies and were told the following:

“Async compute is enabled by default for all GPUs. We do not want to influence testing results by having different default setting by IHV, we recommend testing both ways, with and without async compute enabled. Oxide will choose the fastest method to default based on what is available to the public at ship time.”

Second, we know that asynchronous compute takes advantages of hardware capabilities AMD has been building into its GPUs for a very long time. The HD 7970 was AMD’s first card with an asynchronous compute engine and it launched in 2012. You could even argue that devoting die space and engineering effort to a feature that wouldn’t be useful for four years was a bad idea, not a good one. AMD has consistently said that some of the benefits of older cards would appear in DX12, and that appears to be what’s happening.

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/2...ashes-of-the-singularity-directx-12-benchmark

Yeah, Lets say that DirectX 12 was sponsored by AMD from the ground up, and there is no objectivity.

 

[tuxon86]

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/2...ashes-of-the-singularity-directx-12-benchmark

Yeah, Lets say that DirectX 12 was sponsored by AMD from the ground up, and there is no objectivity.

And if you go to the game website you see that they are sponsored by AMD... Again, do you want to compare with NVidia sponsored titles?

 

[koyoot]

And if you go to the game website you see that they are sponsored by AMD... Again, do you want to compare with NVidia sponsored titles?

Yes, they are. Show me Gameworks Titles, where you need GTX 980 Ti for having 60 FPS on 1080p.

This game is showing of DirectX 12 capabilities, not GPU specific vendor. It was many times said.

 

[goMac]

That's a single game... Not a trend. I know that you like to fish for single thing to push your agenda but can you at least wait until there is more than one unfinished and unoptimized video game before declaring victory.

Eh. You're going to see this more and more. Posters here have tried to break down the technical reasons this is going to happen... and have been ignored...

The new Nvidia cards are going to possibly be a lot better when it comes to DX12 competitiveness. The older ones cut corners that were aligned with the corners that older graphics APIs cut.

If you read the comments people are trying to make the exact same point of this only being one benchmark, with other people pointing out that Nvidia is failing at every single DX12 benchmark.

What's actually really interesting is the multi GPU benchmark where they run with a Fury X and a 980 ti in tandem, and that ends up being the fastest config. It's like the strengths of each card is outweighing the faults of the other.

You also notice that the 680 ti, which was the last card where Nvidia didn't cut corners, also sees very good gains from DX12.

 

[ManuelGomes]

DDR3 and DDR4 prices almost similar now, since nMP shouldn't drop in price, better profits for Apple

 

[koyoot]

Interesting. 32 GB of DDR4 2400 MHz, without ECC can be bought for as little as 120$. And that gives me an idea.

I do not need ECC. Is it possible to use non-ECC memory in Mac Pro?

For sure it would be MUCH cheaper to get the config I would prefer.

 

[tuxon86]

Interesting. 32 GB of DDR4 2400 MHz, without ECC can be bought for as little as 120$. And that gives me an idea.

I do not need ECC. Is it possible to use non-ECC memory in Mac Pro?

For sure it would be MUCH cheaper to get the config I would prefer.

Nope... Ecc ram dimm are keyed differently and shouldn't fit in your sockets.

 

[koyoot]

Nope... Ecc ram dimm are keyed differently and shouldn't fit in your sockets.

Thank you

 

[koyoot]

One another info. Looks like AMD supplies of GPUs are draining heavily. On Amazon R9 3XX GPUs are mostly out of stock, or removed completely.

Bestselling R9 390 from MSI has been completely removed from the database. Most of the GPUs that are under Fury - they are vanishing.

Looks like Polaris may launch way earlier than anyone thought.

 

[goMac]

One another info. Looks like AMD supplies of GPUs are draining heavily. On Amazon R9 3XX GPUs are mostly out of stock, or removed completely.

Bestselling R9 390 from MSI has been completely removed from the database. Most of the GPUs that are under Fury - they are vanishing.

Looks like Polaris may launch way earlier than anyone thought.

At this rate Nvidia better release in April or else they're in a heap of trouble.

 

[koyoot]

At this rate Nvidia better release in April or else they're in a heap of trouble.

Even if Nvidia will release Pascal quite fast - don't expect miracles. Pascal is what Maxwell V2 was supposed to be on 20 nm, but TSMC was not able to deliver the node. Thats why Nvidia castrated Maxwell of FP64, and other compute capabilities and sold it as Maxwell V2. Pascal IS true Maxwell from the ground up. It can be seen even in official Nvidia roadmaps.

Notice no Pascal? It is from 2013.

And this is one year later.

Pascal will bring doubling of performance of Maxwell on similar size of die. And compute capabilities of course. The problem is this.

Imagine situation where Pascal GM200 die is 600mm2 and accounts for 6144 CUDA cores. And AMD is able to achieve that amount on 350 mm2. It is only analogy, Im not saying this will be true.

But be warned about that this is pretty reasonable possibility.

 

[Hank Carter]

so, what are we thinking? March or June for release?

 

[pat500000]

One another info. Looks like AMD supplies of GPUs are draining heavily. On Amazon R9 3XX GPUs are mostly out of stock, or removed completely.

Bestselling R9 390 from MSI has been completely removed from the database. Most of the GPUs that are under Fury - they are vanishing.

Looks like Polaris may launch way earlier than anyone thought.

Pink panther says, "BRING EM."

 

[MacVidCards]

One another info. Looks like AMD supplies of GPUs are draining heavily. On Amazon R9 3XX GPUs are mostly out of stock, or removed completely.

Bestselling R9 390 from MSI has been completely removed from the database. Most of the GPUs that are under Fury - they are vanishing.

Looks like Polaris may launch way earlier than anyone thought.

Fell out of my chair again.

Went on Newegg, they have 25 different R9 380s in stock.

Not 25 cards, 25 different cards.

R9 390, at least 8.

On Amazon, 8 different. R9 390, many more 390X.

And don't forget, the "390" = "290" since AMD didn't have any cards to release they just renamed the ones they had laying around.

And Amazon still has MSI R9 290s to unload...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HQJBN6I?keywords=r9 290&qid=1456466425&ref_=sr_1_5&s=pc&sr=1-5

And then I did a search for "r9 380"...WHOA ! At least 75 AMD cards came up.

So the breathless AMD Press releases can stop. There isn't a run on the stores, plenty of the old heat machines to go around.

 

[koyoot]

so, what are we thinking? March or June for release?

I will say Q2 at least, because of the Broadwell EP possible availability.

 

[Mago]

I will say Q2 at least, because of the Broadwell EP possible availability.

Maybe Apple fully skips Broadwell and goes for Zen+Full Polaris custom architecture at years end.

 

[koyoot]

I think it would be too much for very large portion of Apple customers

I do not agree or disagree with that Idea however. Only Apple knows what they will do with MP.

If you would ask me - I would rather Broadwell EP CPUs, and Polaris/Vega 10 GPUs combo. But those are only my preferences.

Edit: Little info on Pascal:
http://www.sweclockers.com/nyhet/21783-nvidia-geforce-pascal-till-computex-2016

the company intends to announce the architecture Pascal for consumers at Computex 2016, which focused primarily will be on gaming notebooks.

The plans may be subject to change. According to the same data are ambiguities around when Pascal is ready, then Nvidia encountered problems. The goal is to launch sharply in mid-June, but the likelihood that the launch window will be moved to later described as great.

As the focus of the launch of Pascal is expected to be on laptops

 

[Mago]

I think it would be too much for very large portion of Apple customers

Don't dare Apple, don't dare...

If they decide to do that I'll be the least surprised.

I agree with you Apple should release an update on Haswell-EP // Polaris + Vega and wait at least for the next cycle on Zen.

The good (theoretical only, Zen still Vaporware) is that Zen at least promises an better single thread execution and configured as Apu with Polaris and HBM, could allow multiple Apu on the nw Mac Pro form factor upto 3 APU maybe. While being away Intel's unpredictable delays is an good thing for Apple.

At least seems the iMac will be the first Mac with Zen APU at years end.

 

[koyoot]

Don't dare Apple, don't dare...

If they decide to do that I'll be the least surprised.

I agree with you Apple should release an update on Haswell-EP // Polaris + Vega and wait at least for the next cycle on Zen.

The good (theoretical only, Zen still Vaporware) is that Zen at least promises an better single thread execution and configured as Apu with Polaris and HBM, could allow multiple Apu on the nw Mac Pro form factor upto 3 APU maybe. While being away Intel's unpredictable delays is an good thing for Apple.

At least seems the iMac will be the first Mac with Zen APU at years end.

Do you have any proof for that? ;>

 

[Mago]

Do you have any proof for that? ;>

I don't know, but makes sense, also opens an terrific possibility, with an custom cpu Apple may request custom microcode/instructions making these mac's the only capable to run OS/X, kicking away for ever the Hackintosh.

At least an iMac with an good Zen APU would worth to try.

 

[koyoot]

Custom APU. Thats interesting...

Very interesting...

 

[Zarniwoop]

..and AMD is going to release something at Game Developer Conference next month... The conference will be held between 14th and 18th of March.

https://twitter.com/GChip/status/700076659546796035?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

More VR content or VR hardware.. or news about new GPU's?

https://twitter.com/GChip/status/700420476070301697

Are these next GPU's names? "Anaheim or jalapeño or cayenne or habanero or bhut jolokia or all the way up to *pure capsaicin*?" - as Raja Koduri teases there..? Bye bye islands..? Self-irony from AMD (hot, hotter and volcano hot chips)?

Hmm... could those hot pepper names refer to Zen? Are "Anaheim or jalapeño or cayenne or habanero or bhut jolokia or all the way up to *pure capsaicin*?" names for up-coming APU's? We'll know after two weeks.

And speaking of Zen, Sony is releasing Playstation VR system next fall, it could mean also the release of new Playstation 5 with UHD BluRay (Sony would like to see a 4k UHD player in every household) and HDMi 2.0. And what PS5 needs is a custom made Zen. Now PS4 has 1.84 TFLOPs GPU with ~100W TDP, Polaris could deliver ~7 TFLOPs with 100W.. exactly what 4k needs (and VR too). Also HBM2 should deliver almost four times the memory bandwidth of PS4.

 

[goMac]

I don't think Apple is moving away from Intel as their CPU vendor. It really doesn't make much sense, as there really isn't anything for Apple to gain. I also don't think Apple is interested in custom microcode. Not only does that cause compatibility problems, but they just don't care about Hackintoshes that much.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Custom made Zen could end up in next gen Apple TV / Mac mini.

But for nMP... I don't think so.

 

[Mago]

I don't think Apple is moving away from Intel as their CPU vendor. It really doesn't make much sense, as there really isn't anything for Apple to gain. I also don't think Apple is interested in custom microcode. Not only does that cause compatibility problems, but they just don't care about Hackintoshes that much.

The fact is Apple ordered a customized APU presumible based on Zen, Google it, I don't think it may end on the Mac mini or an Macbook at least not the first generation of Zen APU, most likely is targeted at the iMac and as second choice the Mac Pro (most announced Zen configurations are targeted at servers and workstations).