Monday, October 29th 2018
AMD "Vega 20" GPU Not Before Late Q1-2019
AMD "Vega 20" is a new GPU based on existing "Vega" graphics architecture, which will be fabbed on the 7 nanometer silicon fabrication process, and bolstered with up to 32 GB of HBM2 memory across a 4096-bit memory interface that's double the bus-width of "Vega 10". AMD CEO Lisa Su already exhibited a mock-up of this chip at Computex 2018, with an word that alongside its "Zen 2" based EPYC enterprise processors, "Vega 20" will be the first 7 nm GPU. AMD could still make good on that word, only don't expect to find one under your tree this Holiday.
According to GamersNexus, the first "Vega 20" products won't launch before the turn of the year, and even in 2019, one can expect product launches till the end of Q1 (before April). GamersNexus cites reliable sources hinting at the later-than-expected arrival of "Vega 20" as part of refuting alleged "Final Fantasy XV" benchmarks of purported "Vega 20" engineering samples doing rounds on the web. Lisa Su stressed the importance of data-center GPUs in AMD's Q3-2018 earnings call, which could hint at the possibility of AMD allocating its first "Vega 20" yields to high-margin enterprise brands such as Radeon Pro and Radeon Instinct.
Source:
GamersNexus (YouTube)
According to GamersNexus, the first "Vega 20" products won't launch before the turn of the year, and even in 2019, one can expect product launches till the end of Q1 (before April). GamersNexus cites reliable sources hinting at the later-than-expected arrival of "Vega 20" as part of refuting alleged "Final Fantasy XV" benchmarks of purported "Vega 20" engineering samples doing rounds on the web. Lisa Su stressed the importance of data-center GPUs in AMD's Q3-2018 earnings call, which could hint at the possibility of AMD allocating its first "Vega 20" yields to high-margin enterprise brands such as Radeon Pro and Radeon Instinct.
39 Comments on AMD "Vega 20" GPU Not Before Late Q1-2019
Click bait 2/8. Fabricated story 5/7.
What a long corner indeed!
How do you know that ? You worked at AMD designing GCN and know every nook and cranny of it in order to tell us that it can't be redesigned?
Just from tapeout of the final design to market, it usually takes one year or more. Any extra tweaks or bugfixes adds 4-5 months. End to end it takes 3-5 years to design a new chip, depending on how much is redesigned.The transition to 7 nm is going to be slow. Even when the first chips arrive next year, shipping volumes will be limited throughout most of 2019, if not even longer.
AMD's next consumer lineup (Navi) is scheduled for mid to late 2019, if things go according to plan.
And yes, I know thr difference between Vega and Vega Pro is mostly in the driver, but has AMD ever stated officially that they plan to do the same with Vega 20?
I know there's a good chance Vega 20 will make it to the consumer space, I was just asking if this was ever confirmed by AMD or it's still our wishful thinking and/or educated guess.
Don't see how this is news, really.
I think Vega 20 is too expensive to produce to be competitive in the gaming market, that is why it won't launch in any consumer products till yields improve enough to be mass produced at a good price point.
AMD moved from two CU lanes with 32 ROPS 7970 in December 2011 to four CU lanes with 64 ROPS R9-290X in year 2013. From 2013 to 2018, there was no increase in CU lane and ROPS count, while NVIDIA GPUs scaled towards 88 to 96 ROPS.
Raja "TFLOPS" Koduri joined AMD in 2013.
Source or it didn't happen, most of what you're saying only happens in your head.Nice find and linking of those facts. It will be interesting putting those next to what Raja's going to produce for Intel.
GCN was already up for a radical redesign in 2013 in every way and Hawaii was already scaled up too far, its a diminishing returns fiesta. At that point it was rapidly losing ground in perf/watt, ran into heat problems, and lacked optimization and focus compared to the competition. Its clear AMD has done everything in the book to stretch the 'old' GCN out for several more years with minimal effort and investment (and make it viable for emerging markets, too, quite a feat if you think of it, its the only way their HBM focus makes sense). Does that mean it is end of life? Not sure you can say that, it still has potency, but it fails to extract that proper for specific use cases (such as gaming). The way I see it, GCN can only survive when it gets more specialized, narrowed down and split up into branches for specific markets.