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Rumor: PS4 GPU based on AMD's GCN 2.0 architecture?

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
So much unfunny in one thread.

Everyone's a
bad
comedian.
 
Few days ago,a AMD employee in chinese forum also talked about this

http://i.minus.com/ilbCScleHe1sD.jpg (Since he ask people don't quote him i won't use )

He said both PS4&720's GPU are GCN 2.0,and both even use same GPU,just MS ask AMD delete 6CUs for ESRAM,reason?other than DDR3,some people in that forum also think it's for BC.
 

Takuya

Banned
I thought that wasn't possible:/

It isn't an architectural change per se, and a lot of the devkits are running "close-to spec" PC-equivalent hardware and not the specific PS4 hardware that will be present in the final box.
 

Elios83

Member
things are subject to change which is why they didn't even have hte ps4 ready to show. still working on it as they go. hopefully by E3 they have everything finalized which sounds like they will unless tretton is a big lair

APU is done, there's nothing to change at this point. Suppliers will start mass manufacturing of components in Q2 with assembling of retail units in Q3.
 
Well,few days ago,a AMD employee in chinese forum also talked about this

http://i.minus.com/ie8Mxp0nEY3Cs.jpg (Since he ask people don't quote him i won't use )

He said both PS4&720's GPU are GCN 2.0,and both even use same GPU,just MS ask AMD delete 6CUs for ESRAM,reason?other than DDR3,some people in that forum also think it's for BC.[/QUOTE]
Thats BS, the 720's GPU has less CUs, less ROPS, less texture units.. less everything.
 
I'll say the same thing I said when 720 was rumored to have GCN2 which is, it's nothing to get terribly excited for. Changes seem minimal at best. Still good news though.
 

Boss Man

Member
According to what we know, kind of know, and don't know, it's looking to me like Durango will have a significantly more powerful CPU and PS4 will have a signicantly more powerful (and well-fed) GPU.

Gonna probably have a lot of threads about GPU computing after MS unveils, to figure out how these differences might play out. Also probably gonna see a lot of people try to downplay GPU computing as a buzzword or something like the GDDR5 stuff that's happening now.
 

i-Lo

Member
I don't know(not really following spec),but since he angry about MS's next console not as good as PS4(he is MS fan),i choose wait and see.

It was rumoured (for MS) that it was based on the GCN2.0 + Cape Verde with CUs added. If the Sea Island equivalent of Cape Verde (8770) has 12CUs then it would be proper match with core being down-clocked.
 

nib95

Banned
I did say instead of 8gb GDDR5 they should have gone with a better gpu or GCN2. Looks like they may have done both! I hope this is true!
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
If this is true, Sony made huge modifications last minute.

I heard yonks ago that Sony was optimising for 'fine grained compute' (and tessellation, fwiw - not sure these ACE improvements have any relevance there).

Cerny mentioned in his presentation that they'd customised the chip so it could perform better for GPGPU.

This talk about ACE modification is in line with those things.

Doesn't mean the chip is vanilla GCN 2.0, though - not sure what AMD's plans are for ACE config in GCN 2.0.
 
According to what we know, kind of know, and don't know, it's looking to me like Durango will have a significantly more powerful CPU and PS4 will have a signicantly more powerful (and well-fed) GPU.

Gonna probably have a lot of threads about GPU computing after MS unveils, to figure out how these differences might play out. Also probably gonna see a lot of people try to downplay GPU computing as a buzzword or something like the GDDR5 stuff that's happening now.
Doesnt matter, if the rumors are true, there is going to be a noticeable difference in game performance.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Was there any talk about the 14+4 CU distribution, or the lack thereof? The press release document lists the 18 CUs as being at disposal to be used for anything with no limitations - but Cerny has also said in his speech that they've "made computing easy" for developers or something to that effect, which I thought was maybe hinting at 4 CUs being isolated primarily for that purpose, as rumored.

Cerny mentioned in his presentation that they'd customised the chip so it could perform better for GPGPU.
Yes, I wonder now if the comment was about this modification.
 

Elios83

Member
According to what we know, kind of know, and don't know, it's looking to me like Durango will have a significantly more powerful CPU

Emmm no, don't be disappointed later. We had enough of secret sauces.
CPU is the same setup of 8 Jaguar cores. Even if there are further tweaks they won't lead to anything like 'significaly more powerful'.
 

Reiko

Banned
Emmm no, don't be disappointed later. We had enough of secret sauces.
CPU is the same setup of 8 Jaguar cores. Even if there are further tweaks they won't lead to anything like 'significaly more powerful'.

The CPU in the PS4 and Durango won't be identical.
 
According to what we know, kind of know, and don't know, it's looking to me like Durango will have a significantly more powerful CPU and PS4 will have a signicantly more powerful (and well-fed) GPU.

Gonna probably have a lot of threads about GPU computing after MS unveils, to figure out how these differences might play out. Also probably gonna see a lot of people try to downplay GPU computing as a buzzword or something like the GDDR5 stuff that's happening now.

Wasn't it rumoured that Durango had more cores closed off for OS and other functionality ? I wonder if that is still the case, and if so, how it will enter into the equation. There has only been one source that claims the CPUs are different however, so it would be nice to have some other sources indicate as such.
 

Takuya

Banned
Was there any talk about the 14+4 CU distribution, or the lack thereof? The press release document lists the 18 CUs as being at disposal to be used for anything with no limitations - but Cerny has also said in his speech that they've "made computing easy" for developers or something to that effect, which I thought was maybe hinting at 4 CUs being isolated primarily for that purpose, as rumored.

As far as we know right now all 18CUs are available, and none are "reserved", giving the developers the ability to use them and assign them as they please (hence making it easier for developers). For other tasks like the OS and video decoding/encoding, they use custom hardware.
 
Isn't GPU processing all about parallelism? And this makes it even more so? Is it developer input driven or hardware driven?

Precisely because GPU processing depends on parallelism, you need to ensure that you keep it well fed otherwise massive amounts of the GPU will stall.
 

Elios83

Member
The CPU in the PS4 and Durango won't be identical.

It's still a 8 cores Jaguar setup based on all the sources which proved to be legit (vgleaks, edge, eurogamer) It won't have magically twice the flops if that's the rumor people are referring to ;)
 

Reiko

Banned
It's still a 8 cores Jaguar setup based on all the sources which proved to be legit (vgleaks, edge, eurogamer) It won't have magically twice the flops if that's the rumor people are referring to ;)

Vgleaks will reveal the CPU info soon:)
 

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
Yes, I wonder now if the comment was about this modification.

Probably.

He said exactly:

Earlier I said we were using a 'highly enhanced' PC GPU. Principally we've modified the GPU to make compute easier. Which is to say, we've made it practical to use the GPU as a general purpose computational device.

He then went on to show the 'million objects' Havok demo.

One of the complaints I saw about GCN wrt GPGPU was that mixed tasks and mixed scheduling was not optimal. Indeed, AMD recommended in APU+GPU setups to put GPGPU on the APU and graphics on the separate GPU to avoid this problem. I would guess the beefing up on the ACE side here is to relieve that problem on a single GPU.

It also jives with the earlier idea of improving 'fine grained' compute performance - fine-grained = lots of switching = need good scheduler and switching performance to keep things chugging along optimally.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Wow, would be awesome if true. Seems like GCN2 is more of an improvement than I was told as well. It would definitely take PS4's performance up quite a notch in terms of rendering and would make it even more useful for compute data.

I'm also expecting Durango to be GCN2, given the lower clock speed and the fact we've been hearing that about it for a while.

Really curious for more hard details about the CPU. Seems like we have the least amount of info on that so far. GPU and RAM are in great shape, so I hope to be pleasantly surprised by the final CPU setup. PS4 sounds way more custom than I think anyone was expecting.
 

Boss Man

Member
Wasn't it rumoured that Durango had more cores closed off for OS and other functionality ? I wonder if that is still the case, and if so, how it will enter into the equation. There has only been one source that claims the CPUs are different however, so it would be nice to have some other sources indicate as such.
I think there were actually a couple, and both were rather legitimate. It also makes sense given what we think MS is going for.
 

i-Lo

Member
Precisely because GPU processing depends on parallelism, you need to ensure that you keep it well fed otherwise massive amounts of the GPU will stall.

So, to clarify, CGN2.0 brings greater efficiency by splitting up instructions/data even further (meaning, it hypothetically acts as if it had 2x stream procesor)? If that's the case would the developers have to spend more time to capitalize on benefit of the extra parallelism or would the hardware by itself process that task?

I think there were actually a couple, and both were rather legitimate. It also makes sense given what we think MS is going for.

Would the Kinect have it's own rudimentary (first step) processor or will it rely on the actual console (which would lend more sense to MS's modifications with the CPU being more drastic than PS4's)?
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Wasn't it rumoured that Durango had more cores closed off for OS and other functionality ? I wonder if that is still the case, and if so, how it will enter into the equation. There has only been one source that claims the CPUs are different however, so it would be nice to have some other sources indicate as such.

I've been hearing 2 cores closed off for various reasons in Durango and half a core reserved for OS in PS4. Not sure how legit those numbers are though. It would be interesting to see how it would pan out between Durango having a higher flop rated CPU with fewer cores available versus PS4 with less flops but more cores.
 
Emmm no, don't be disappointed later. We had enough of secret sauces.
CPU is the same setup of 8 Jaguar cores. Even if there are further tweaks they won't lead to anything like 'significaly more powerful'.

I agree. I followed that Durango 'more efficient CPU' rumour from its inception.

It seems to trace back from a guy on B3D who said that was his 'interpretation' of the Durango CPU looking at the VG Leaks leaked specs. Then, soon after a poster here called Bgassassin said basically that this is all true...

So I wouldn't put much substance into that. Having said that I am open to changing my mind if someone can send me another source to this CPU rumour.
 

Boss Man

Member
Would the Kinect have it's own rudimentary (first step) processor or will it rely on the actual console (which would lend more sense to MS's modifications with the CPU being more drastic than PS4's)?
To be clear: I do not have any inside information. But I would guess that it would be both, although focusing on a more powerful/efficient CPU would be there mostly for apps and OS functions not necessarily just Kinect.
 
I've been hearing 2 cores closed off for various reasons in Durango and half a core reserved for OS in PS4. Not sure how legit those numbers are though. It would be interesting to see how it would pan out between Durango having a higher flop rated CPU with fewer cores available versus PS4 with less flops but more cores.

Who/what is the source of that rumour? It seems very spurious to me considering that none of the main leaks covered it in any way.

Both CPUs are the same imo until I hear something from a credible source and not just a post on a forum.
 

Reiko

Banned
Who/what is the source of that rumour? It seems very spurious to me considering that none of the main leaks covered it in any way.

Both CPUs are the same imo until I hear something from a credible source and not just a post on a forum.

Vgleaks have been uncovering SuperDaE's leaks in slowmotion to garner more website hits.
 
So, to clarify, CGN2.0 brings greater efficiency by splitting up instructions/data even further (meaning, it hypothetically acts as if it had 2x stream procesor)? If that's the case would the developers have to spend more time to capitalize on benefit of the extra parallelism or would the hardware by itself process that task?

Well, first of all, the rumor itself does not mention GCN2.0 at all, just an hardware change from normal GCN. Second, such a modification would essentially add hardware responsible for handling the job distribution and keeping the GPU fed. The developer time involved to take advantage of it would be minor to non existent depending on the implementation.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
That and something else. But I'll see if that checks out.
.

You need to knock this shit off. You don't know anything that isn't public.You running back and forth to B3D and using selective rumor mining is not inside knowledge.
 

2MF

Member
Same processing power, but work can be divided into more parallel threads. That will increase efficiency, especially if you mix rendering and compute jobs.

What are you talking about... Having more threads with the same total raw performance is never an improvement. Better dispatching yeah, that's an improvement.
 

i-Lo

Member
To be clear: I do not have any inside information. But I would guess that it would be both, although focusing on a more powerful/effecient CPU would be there mostly for apps and OS functions not necessarily just Kinet.

That would make sense, thanks.

Well, first of all, the rumor itself does not mention GCN2.0 at all, just an hardware change from normal GCN. Second, such a modification would essentially add hardware responsible for handling the job distribution and keeping the GPU fed. The developer time involved to take advantage of it would be minor to non existent depending on the implementation.

Appreciate the explanation.
 

Reiko

Banned
You need to knock this shit off. You don't know anything that isn't public.You running back and forth to B3D and using selective rumor mining is not inside knowledge.

I know you want both consoles to be identical, but they probably won't be.

I know you probably want the PS4 to have an edge on everything too, but with a fucking powerful GPU why would they even need it?

You ever thought the Durango might need a slightly better CPU to power Kinect?

Relax, it's not a big deal.
 

ascii42

Member
What are you talking about... Having more threads with the same total raw performance is never an improvement. Better dispatching yeah, that's an improvement.
Well, more hardware threads would reduce overhead from context switching.
 
This got old fast :/ people should stop shitting every theead with this.

To continue with the topic, Since I'm no tech savvy how does this helps game development?

Since I "shat" on the thread. I'll help you out.

It'll allow better management of compute (things like physics) and non-compute tasks on the GPU. Basically making it a GPGPU (General-Purpose GPU). It's not saying that it's BAD at graphics, but it's saying it can act as a CPU if needed. Adding ACE's will allow this to happen without hitches.

In the end, the most apparent advantage is better graphics and physics without having the GPU take an unnecessary hit.
 

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
I know you want both consoles to be identical, but they probably won't be.

I know you probably want the PS4 to have an edge on everything too, but with a fucking powerful GPU why would they even need it?

You ever thought the Durango might need a slightly better CPU to power Kinect?

Relax, it's not a big deal.

None of these respond to his actual post, where he says you need to can it with the subtle BS hints that you have insider knowledge.

He's right, you really do need to knock that shit off.
 
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