Friday, August 3rd 2018
AMD Unveils its Most Powerful Semi-custom SoC for a Chinese OEM
Chinese PC maker Zhongshan Subor believes that there is space for a class of devices between game consoles and gaming desktops, targeted at Chinese gamers that game a lot online, and won't mind a little productivity on the side. The same class of people are repulsed by the idea of gaming desktops from traditional OEMs, which tend to be overpriced; and don't want to burn their hands building their own PC. For them, there's a new console-desktop; which runs common PC OS, plays PC versions of games, and runs PC apps, while exhibiting some characteristics of a console (perhaps a dashboard, and a highly customized user-interface stack), called simply SUBOR.
A part of what makes SUBOR affordable compared to OEM gaming desktops is because every component is purpose-built, including the SoC at the heart of it. This semi-custom SoC is codenamed "Fenghuang." The chip is a cut above the one that powers the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X. It combines a 4-core/8-thread CPU based on AMD's latest "Zen" architecture, compared to the low-power "Jaguar" derivatives that power the fastest consoles. The CPU runs at up to 3.00 GHz of clocks, and has 4 MB of L3 cache. The GPU is equally impressive: based on "Vega," it packs 24 NGCUs, translating to 1,536 stream processors, and the latest feature-set, including DirectX 12 and Vulkan. The GPU engine ticks at up to 1.30 GHz. 8 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide interface, is hardwired to the SoC (no memory expansion). The SUBOR will be unveiled at China Joy 2018.
A part of what makes SUBOR affordable compared to OEM gaming desktops is because every component is purpose-built, including the SoC at the heart of it. This semi-custom SoC is codenamed "Fenghuang." The chip is a cut above the one that powers the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X. It combines a 4-core/8-thread CPU based on AMD's latest "Zen" architecture, compared to the low-power "Jaguar" derivatives that power the fastest consoles. The CPU runs at up to 3.00 GHz of clocks, and has 4 MB of L3 cache. The GPU is equally impressive: based on "Vega," it packs 24 NGCUs, translating to 1,536 stream processors, and the latest feature-set, including DirectX 12 and Vulkan. The GPU engine ticks at up to 1.30 GHz. 8 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide interface, is hardwired to the SoC (no memory expansion). The SUBOR will be unveiled at China Joy 2018.
52 Comments on AMD Unveils its Most Powerful Semi-custom SoC for a Chinese OEM
One thing I don't see mentioned much.. and it's not to be offensive.. but the Chinese are kind of wasteful. Many don't seem to have the same love/attention to detail/care for their property or tools, in many cases. I have to wonder if they even have a strong PC building culture there.
It goes for their buildings, or their bikes, or their cars. And I can see them being just as disposable with their computers. If a bike breaks, you might just find it left to rot and they buy a new one.
PCs are considered luxury items in China, so most people in China keep on using PCs running Windows XP/7 from 10+ years ago.
Speaking of PC building culture, we have two large factions here: one is the Chiphell/Graphics Card forum faction while the other one is called the Tulatin faction.
Chiphell faction guys buy everything latest and greatest. Cost is no object. For example, one of their forum members is the son of a Chinese real estate mogul.
On the Tulatin side, they mainly source parts from Taobao, which in turn sources their parts from international recycling companies. The mainstay of the Tulatin faction are LGA775/771/1366 chipsets, while LGA2011 is gaining traction.
Stupid but true, we value consumer electronics more than anything else.
By the way, the company building this 'gaming PC' is famous in China for building cheap NES knockoffs. Few people in China know NES, but all of them know 'Xiaobawang'(Subor).
They advertise this thing for being 'piracy-proof', yeah a pirate against piracy.:roll:
In case of NUC w/ Vega 24 the gaming performance was on par with GTX1060 Max-Q, so I'm sure that even with GDDR5 it will be enough for any currently popular MoBa/MMO/FPS and not just in china. Something like Dota2 or LoL will probably run just fine even in 4K.
And, if AMD will use a full-featured desktop Ryzen core instead of a mobile counterpart (like intel did), then it might become a "Hades Canyon killer". In this case I can easily see it pushing 1080p @ 120-144Hz in most popular online shooters.
I'd love to get me one of those once it comes out (need to find a GF in China ASAP, since it's for "internal market only")...Lol. I just wanted to say that, and then scrolled down to comments.
calling it a console-desktop is also wrong (it's diminishing what the machine is really ...) ... since it can run any PC OS the only difference with my Alpha R1 is the CPU and GPU are in a SOC (and probably quite more powerful)
oh well can't beat a "single word post" :laugh:
Intel's NUC, in contrast, is a full-fledged PC with DDR4 system memory and dedicated HBM2 graphics memory, fully windows-compatible and can run whatever all PCs run. Though, the price tag still scares me.
In regards to AMD counterpart, I'm not sure about pricing and it's hard to make predictions, but it should be in a ballpark of ~$500-600(maybe a bit cheaper).
Not so sure about this "Windows 10 IoT Gaming OS", cause first of all it does not make sense to make a gaming OS out of stripped down windows kernel meant for remotely managed low-power devices, and second : W10 IoT only supports UI apps written for UWP (Win32 console apps do work, cause they don't need legacy GUI libraries).
* it's an R5 1350 (downclocked version of R5 1400)
* TDP is limited to 100W, which means it's definitely a desktop
* Preliminary pricing is set at 4998 Yuan (~$730)
* They will release 2 versions of this thing (same hardware): one is a PC, and another one is a console running "customized OS".
3dnews.ru/973484
community.amd.com/community/gaming/blog/2018/08/03/new-amd-semi-custom-soc-combines-the-power-of-amd-ryzen-cpu-and-amd-vega-gpu-for-gamers-in-china
www.overclock3d.net/news/systems/amd_partners_with_zhongshan_subor_to_create_a_custom_high-performance_ryzen_vega_soc_console/1read the OP:What it means (and what I understand from AMD's press-release), is that GDDR5 is embedded onto the module. If it had any traditional RAM, I'm sure someone would've mentioned it, or at least asked AMD to clarify.
Another reason why I'm 100% sure it's definitely a unified memory pool, is that AMD had plans for it on PCs since 2012-2013 with their older APUs, but the only platforms using it are PS4/Pro and XBOne X consoles. This is not just a side-hassle to sell some custom chips... AMD has put their name on it because this console will be a showcase for AMD's new tech (both MCM and unified memory).
The thing in the picture looks like a hybrid of last gen consoles by the design...
Why do they try and make the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro into everything but just a games console is beyond me...
tho ... did a switch and a Dreamcast had access to the whole PC library? aside that this "console" will not have access to the exclusive title library if the other console (just like a PC also )well in that respect it's a thin client :laugh:
So, both CPU and GPU are on the same die(which is probably better)...
Though, this pic only confirms the initial RAM info: it's 8xGDDR5 chips (can't see the markings, but it might be Samsung K4G80325FB-HC03, same as on PS4), each in 256x32 config totaling 8GB GDDR5 with combined 256-bit bus width. No DDR3/4 RAM, no slots either.
What's interesting, is that SSD is not soldered (I was afraid it would be), so not only can you upgrade that 1TB SATA HDD, but also throw-in a larger/faster M.2 SSD.That's more like it.
For those unfamiliar: Win10 IoT Enterprise is pretty much a re-marketed Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB, only with trendy abbreviation IoT slapped on it and distributed mostly through hardware OEMs (IoT gateways, industrial mini-PCs etc).
Basically the best and the most lightweight version of Windows 10, 'cause it has no windows store, no crapware, no unnecessary services.
I kinda want that SoC on my PC.