Rare GPUs / Unreleased GPUs

[Fouquin]

If the V540 works and is a 2x8GB 2xNaviGL card, I might have to pick one up in June.

There is no 'if', it currently has no drivers but it is 2x8GB as others here have already confirmed. There's nothing left up to guesswork now that hundreds of these cards are out there, we have the specs pretty much nailed down.

The closest anyone has got to making the card work was Wendell and Giga at Level1Techs, they got a single GPU to appears as a compute device in Linux but it was trapped at the ULPS state of 297MHz. The MxGPU capabilities are still hidden. Hopefully the next release of Amernime has support, but there's precious little to build a driver from since Navi12 was fairly exclusive of general consumers except for the 2020 MBP16.

 

[LabRat 891]

There is no 'if', it currently has no drivers but it is 2x8GB as others here have already confirmed. There's nothing left up to guesswork now that hundreds of these cards are out there, we have the specs pretty much nailed down.

The closest anyone has got to making the card work was Wendell and Giga at Level1Techs, they got a single GPU to appears as a compute device in Linux but it was trapped at the ULPS state of 297MHz. The MxGPU capabilities are still hidden. Hopefully the next release of Amernime has support, but there's precious little to build a driver from since Navi12 was fairly exclusive of general consumers except for the 2020 MBP16.

The 'if' was based on the questionable "4GB" portion of the specific eBay listing-title for a V540. With Engineering Samples, I assume just about anything is possible.
(like, laser or firmware 'cutting' portions of vRAM/access to vRAM. IIRC each GPU has 2x HBM dies, so theoretically a 4GB Navi12GLXT would just lack/lack use of one HBM die.)

Also, the (hopeful) developments on the Amernime drivers, were a bit of a condition of my interests in 'throwing money at this kit, for fun'.

 

[Fouquin]

The 'if' was based on the questionable "4GB" portion of the specific eBay listing-title for a V540. With Engineering Samples, I assume just about anything is possible.
(like, laser or firmware 'cutting' portions of vRAM/access to vRAM. IIRC each GPU has 2x HBM dies, so theoretically a 4GB Navi12GLXT would just lack/lack use of one HBM die.)

Also, the (hopeful) developments on the Amernime drivers, were a bit of a condition of my interests in 'throwing money at this kit, for fun'.

The seller is just wrong because they're not well informed. It's so often the case. The R9 285X I bought was listed as an RX 570 4GB. It was neither an RX 570, nor 4GB. But I knew that since the specification of the R9 285X was already well known, and we had it in our database here.

 

[PixelButts]

The 'if' was partially based on the questionable "4GB" portion of the specific eBay listing-title for a V540. With Engineering Samples, I assume just about anything is possible.
(like, laser or firmware 'cutting' portions of vRAM/access to vRAM. IIRC each GPU has 2x HBM dies, so theoretically a 4GB Navi12GLXT would just lack/lack use of one HBM die.)

This is also why I'm kinda just buying it to see if theres any variance between the one on the last page, and another sample given the listing's name. I'm sure they're fairly uniform but it cant hurt too much.

Also, the (hopeful) developments on the Amernime drivers, were a bit of a condition of my interests in 'throwing money at this kit, for fun'.

I just think they're neat. Althought I do not intend to collect many GPUs since I do plan to use them mainly for work, I do like the idea of owning unusual ones for novelty alone. My use case is obviously not as complex or compute heavy as yours may be, but it's a use case all the same.

@Fouquin any ideas as to why the v540 may have been dropped the way it was? Seems odd to have something like this be made then just abandoned. Just better options beyond it?

 

[Fouquin]

@Fouquin any ideas as to why the v540 may have been dropped the way it was? Seems odd to have something like this be made then just abandoned. Just better options beyond it?

The cards are being retired from AWS is what I've heard. A lot of the time you see ES/QS marked cards put into final use scenarios, it's possible the servers these were in were kept online after delivery for various reasons and now that they're being retired these are the first to get onto the open market. That said the card I received was essentially brand new, down to the smell of the flux wash from the board assembly. In that case I believe these were kept as backup options to be swapped when a hardware failure occurred, and obviously if the machines are being phased out then backups don't need to be kept.

And yes for MxGPU cloud visual computing there are much newer and faster options. Navi12 is approaching 4 years old, and not just lacking in performance but also programmable features and accelerators.

 

[PixelButts]

The cards are being retired from AWS is what I've heard. A lot of the time you see ES/QS marked cards put into final use scenarios, it's possible the servers these were in were kept online after delivery for various reasons and now that they're being retired these are the first to get onto the open market. That said the card I received was essentially brand new, down to the smell of the flux wash from the board assembly. In that case I believe these were kept as backup options to be swapped when a hardware failure occurred, and obviously if the machines are being phased out then backups don't need to be kept.

And yes for MxGPU cloud visual computing there are much newer and faster options. Navi12 is approaching 4 years old, and not just lacking in performance but also programmable features and accelerators.

Thank you very much for the explanation, that does line up with what I would expect for a lot of them coming to market. Use case, I wouldn't have expected AWS to have used these (assuming it's true, but again not too important). It makes me wonder what other odd ones are around that remain undocumented.

Your response also made me remember this listing is still up https://www.ebay.com/itm/325411745461 can you explain what these are exactly? I'm not super well versed on these kinds of things and a light search did tell me they're clearly for AI Cloud compute of some sort, but nearly 1k for 7 potentially super-niche cards is not a spend I was willing to make. The cards certainly looked cool though.

 

[Fouquin]

Use case, I wouldn't have expected AWS to have used these

AWS offers virtual machines for engineering and CAD which need GPU acceleration, AMD offers the V series for exactly that purpose.

Your response also made me remember this listing is still up https://www.ebay.com/itm/325411745461 can you explain what these are exactly?

Yeah they're huge multi-pipelined FPU cards, basically. Similar to a GPU but without all that graphics, back end logic, and fixed function junk in between the FP blocks. They are pretty specialized for ML and utilize their own programming model. Not really much more than a curiosity to the average tech enthusiast, but I haven't looked into what it takes to run one effectively.

 

[PixelButts]

The v540 arrived, it's basically brand new. I have also severely underestimated how hot it gets and am investing in a proper solution. I got it to at least get into windows, but GPU-Z could not detect any gpu. Hardware manager reported that there was an unknown PCIE device and 2 video output devices so that is at least a step in the right direction though no Windows support to begin with as expected.

I fired up my live linux usb and unfortunately the boot took unusually long. So long that the over temp alarm kicked in. So for now, while I wait on some better cooling solutions, I can at least say - Damn this card looks nice, it's basically brand new. Not even fingerprints were on it.

Compared to the other one posted on the last page, pretty close between serial number so I doubt much will have changed software wise.



Edit: I made it work for the mean time. Not my cleanest job ever but it does what it needs to albeit a bit loud. Here's some info I got out of it.
Heat: I have already burned my finger on it, I am okay. I'm using an 80mm fan dangling out of the back of my workstation to pull the air out now and it is quite audible.
Bootup: Takes a really long time to boot with this thing in it on linux, like unusually long. I did not end up getting to anything graphical.
Driver: I threw the RX5700 XT drivers at both of them, both were detected so in theory both of them work independently as one expects.
GPU-Z: See attachment I guess, nothin crazy. BIOS is exactly the same as the others, so unless someone gets lucky it should be uniform.

 

[LabRat 891]

The v540 arrived, it's basically brand new. I have also severely underestimated how hot it gets and am investing in a proper solution. I got it to at least get into windows, but GPU-Z could not detect any gpu. Hardware manager reported that there was an unknown PCIE device and 2 video output devices so that is at least a step in the right direction though no Windows support to begin with as expected.

I fired up my live linux usb and unfortunately the boot took unusually long. So long that the over temp alarm kicked in. So for now, while I wait on some better cooling solutions, I can at least say - Damn this card looks nice, it's basically brand new. Not even fingerprints were on it.

Compared to the other one posted on the last page, pretty close between serial number so I doubt much will have changed software wise.

Edit: I made it work for the mean time. Not my cleanest job ever but it does what it needs to albeit a bit loud. Here's some info I got out of it.
Heat: I have already burned my finger on it, I am okay. I'm using an 80mm fan dangling out of the back of my workstation to pull the air out now and it is quite audible.
Bootup: Takes a really long time to boot with this thing in it on linux, like unusually long. I did not end up getting to anything graphical.
Driver: I threw the RX5700 XT drivers at both of them, both were detected so in theory both of them work independently as one expects.
GPU-Z: See attachment I guess, nothin crazy. BIOS is exactly the same as the others, so unless someone gets lucky it should be uniform.

On the 5700 XT drivers, does it render a video output or work as a GPGPU?

I wonder what would happen if you tried these drivers:

https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-5000m-series/amd-radeon-rx-5000m-series/amd-radeon-rx-5600m

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/apple-boot-camp

edit: I cannot imagine it hasn't already been tried. Though, somehow a year ago some user got a V520 to run 3dm: https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/windows-driver-for-radeon-pro-v520/td-p/531112
Regardless, I look forward to the next Amernime driver release. Hopefully, this card is as unpopular as the MI25 was, and myself and others can get one (once drivers are available)

Thank You for purchasing one; you've satisfied more than just your own curiosity ^^

 

[Fouquin]

The v540 arrived, it's basically brand new. I have also severely underestimated how hot it gets and am investing in a proper solution. I got it to at least get into windows, but GPU-Z could not detect any gpu. Hardware manager reported that there was an unknown PCIE device and 2 video output devices so that is at least a step in the right direction though no Windows support to begin with as expected.

I fired up my live linux usb and unfortunately the boot took unusually long. So long that the over temp alarm kicked in. So for now, while I wait on some better cooling solutions, I can at least say - Damn this card looks nice, it's basically brand new. Not even fingerprints were on it.

Compared to the other one posted on the last page, pretty close between serial number so I doubt much will have changed software wise.
View attachment 294348


Edit: I made it work for the mean time. Not my cleanest job ever but it does what it needs to albeit a bit loud. Here's some info I got out of it.
Heat: I have already burned my finger on it, I am okay. I'm using an 80mm fan dangling out of the back of my workstation to pull the air out now and it is quite audible.
Bootup: Takes a really long time to boot with this thing in it on linux, like unusually long. I did not end up getting to anything graphical.
Driver: I threw the RX5700 XT drivers at both of them, both were detected so in theory both of them work independently as one expects.
GPU-Z: See attachment I guess, nothin crazy. BIOS is exactly the same as the others, so unless someone gets lucky it should be uniform.
View attachment 294381

If GPU-Z can't see any of the clock/therm sensors than it's almost guaranteed it won't detect as a usable device to any software. Windows will gladly report it as any card you like as long as it can install a driver.

On the 5700 XT drivers, does it render a video output or work as a GPGPU?

No device that I have attempted to force it as has allowed it to function as a compute or render device.

Somebody recently mentioned on the Amernime Discord that they can possibly get the AWS Windows host driver. We'll see if that bears any fruit, I suspect it won't.

 

[PixelButts]

If GPU-Z can't see any of the clock/therm sensors than it's almost guaranteed it won't detect as a usable device to any software. Windows will gladly report it as any card you like as long as it can install a driver.

It registered some sensors when I had a driver going. Looking back I could have installed the MS basic display driver...

Somebody recently mentioned on the Amernime Discord that they can possibly get the AWS Windows host driver. We'll see if that bears any fruit, I suspect it won't.

Let us hope that happens but let us also hope it does not compromise their employment first and foremost.

Thank You for purchasing one; you've satisfied more than just your own curiosity ^^

Good because I wont use it until I have a proper chassis for this thing. I regret opening it from the ESD bag though, I think it was quite literally never opened until then. What I really wonder is the cost of this thing since pricing wise I cant even find an estimate for the v520. v340 I get ~1,000-1,100, so I cant imagine this is very far off. I don't plan on reselling it I just wonder how much they're being undersold.

 

[LabRat 891]

Good because I wont use it until I have a proper chassis for this thing. I regret opening it from the ESD bag though, I think it was quite literally never opened until then. What I really wonder is the cost of this thing since pricing wise I cant even find an estimate for the v520. v340 I get ~1,000-1,100, so I cant imagine this is very far off. I don't plan on reselling it I just wonder how much they're being undersold.

Please, please please, tell me you took a nice big whiff when you opened that bag
I know it's technically toxic but 'fresh component smell' is one of my favorites. The Fry's I used to frequent in Vegas, and the Tustin, CA MicroCenter always smelled like a brand new motherboard. Loved it.

Dunno the 'bulk' unit pricing that places like Amazon get, but I feel like I stumbled across them being $1400-1500+/unit cards, originally.
Regardless, It's not being undersold at all. The folks asking several hundred $ - $1K+ are absolutely 'off their rockers'.
Same for the MI25... $69-100 is about right. Even with 90+% the functionality of a Vega 64 FE, it's an unsupported, and purpose-made card.
Cards like these are only interesting to a (seemingly) small corner of the PC enthusiast/gamer 'crowd'.

I honestly feel that there's more 'retro' folks willing to throw around money, than those looking to mod and use recently-obsolete purpose-made kit. (my anecdotal evidence: "how fast the topic of LGR/PhilsComputerLab latest video sells out on eBay". Versus, "how long the MI25 has been an easy mod, and how there is still a glut of them on eBay")

These Navi12 cards were purpose-made for cloud hosting and are (nearly) without practical and utilitarian value (for most). Even if drivers do begin to appear for HBM-equipped Navi12, they're 'unsupported' devices and drivers.


As far as the AWS driver. I ran across an Amazon support article that seemed to imply that an independent developer should be able to get access to the driver(s).

AMD drivers for your EC2 instance - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

AMD driver information and install instructions for EC2 instances.

docs.aws.amazon.com

Spoiler: Instructions from Article

AMD driver download

If you aren't using an AMI with the AMD driver installed, you can download the AMD driver and install it on your instance. The AMD driver is only supported for Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 operating systems.


These downloads are available to AWS customers only. By downloading, you agree to use the downloaded software only to develop AMIs for use with the AMD Radeon Pro V520 hardware. Upon installation of the software, you are bound by the terms of the AMD Software End User License Agreement

.

Prerequisites​

• 
  Configure default credentials for the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell on your Windows instance. For more information, see Getting Started with the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell in the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell User Guide.
  
• 
  Your user or role must have the permissions granted that contains the AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess policy. For more information, see AWS managed policy: AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess in the Amazon Simple Storage Service User Guide.
  

To install the AMD driver on your Windows instance​

1. 
   Connect to your Windows instance and open a PowerShell window.
   
2. 
   Download the drivers from Amazon S3 to your desktop using the following PowerShell commands.
   

• $Bucket = "ec2-amd-windows-drivers"
  $KeyPrefix = "latest"
  $LocalPath = "$home\Desktop\AMD"
  $Objects = Get-S3Object -BucketName $Bucket -KeyPrefix $KeyPrefix -Region us-east-1
  foreach ($Object in $Objects) {
  $LocalFileName = $Object.Key
  if ($LocalFileName -ne '' -and $Object.Size -ne 0) {
  $LocalFilePath = Join-Path $LocalPath $LocalFileName
  Copy-S3Object -BucketName $Bucket -Key $Object.Key -LocalFile $LocalFilePath -Region us-east-1
  }
  }
  
• 
  Unzip the downloaded driver file and run the installer using the following PowerShell commands.
  

Expand-Archive $LocalFilePath -DestinationPath "$home\Desktop\AMD\latest" -Verbose
$Driverdir = Get-ChildItem "$home\Desktop\" -Directory -Filter "*WHQL*"
Write-Host $Driverdir

Now, check the name of the new directory. The directory name can be retrieved using the Get-ChildItem PowerShell command.




Get-ChildItem "$home\Desktop\AMD\latest\"

The output should be similar to the following:

Directory: C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\AMD\latest

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
d----- 10/13/2021 12:52 AM 210414a-365562C-Retail_End_User.2

Note the correct file path and install the drivers:

• pnputil /add-driver $home\Desktop\AMD\latest\210414a-365562C-Retail_End_User.2\packages\Drivers\Display\WT6A_INF/*.inf /install
  
• 
  Follow the instructions to install the driver and reboot your instance as required.
  
• 
  To verify that the GPU is working properly, check Device Manager. You should see "AMD Radeon Pro V520 MxGPU" listed as a display adapter.
  
• 
  To help take advantage of the four displays of up to 4K resolution, set up the high-performance display protocol, NICE DCV.
  

Also, apparently it is possible to Download and convert AMIs to a bootable VM. (-doubt there are any 'public' AMIs) Which, then could theoretically have the drivers extracted from it.

 

[masterdeejay]

Not rare but interesting.
Tesla P4 (low profile, single slot, GP104 (Full GTX1080 core) with 8Gb GDDR5 75w TDP)


Vram is Samsung K4G80325FB-HC25 like on a GTX 1070 but much lower clocks (only 1500mhz instead of 2000mhz)

 

[DFX87]

Here is a GTX 1080 with an unfinished raw aluminum cooler and A00 PCB:

 

[Ruru]

6800 Ultra AGP here.

 

[masterdeejay]

About the v540 driver searching.

I contacted the amd support, they don't give any driver or support for the card, answer is the same: Contact the cloud provider...
I registered to the amd community support but my first post for the driver marked as spam and waiting for a moderator...i think i get banned soon.
I also contacted a few ebay and aliexpress BC-160 card (same as v520) sellers, they don't have any driver for the card.
Amernime (guru3d custom driver) working on it (or i hope so)
Linustechtips forum, a few user bought the card, no driver yet.
Hungarian Prohardver forums, they don't know anything. I am the only one who bought this card...
I registered to amazon aws, but there is no demo or trial for the Amd radeon pro windows vm-s so i cant download there.
I'm out of ideas...so waiting for Amernime custom driver.

Interesting but the with RX 5700 driver don't give error just the card lacks any acceleration. It is like when a tesla card in TCC mode.
What if it is something in the card bios that prevents using it as an 3d accelerator?
Can someone disassembly the card bios?

 

[DD0]

I recently added some rare AMD GPUs to my collection:

- ASUS HD 5870 Matrix P
- MSI R9 290X Lightning
- MSI HD 7970 Lightning

Just beatiful cards I love those old school high end GPUs, those were really special..

 

[TheTechWizard]

I recently added some rare AMD GPUs to my collection: View attachment 295145

- ASUS HD 5870 Matrix P
- MSI R9 290X Lightning
- MSI HD 7970 Lightning

Just beatiful cards I love those old school high end GPUs, those were really special..

Nice set of graphics card I like the matrix ones and msi lightning ones i need to pick a few more up my self . dont have many matrix one or msi ones . I have the matrix gtx 285 inbox in my collection and the sapphire vapor x r9 290x 8gb and 4gb ones

 

[PixelButts]

I registered to amazon aws, but there is no demo or trial for the Amd radeon pro windows vm-s so i cant download there.

Theres a price they list of like 1.6 dollars per hour or something for Windows Server 2016/9, and Linux. https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/...c-6dd0-4d1e-8196-0a1d1857229b&filters=CREATOR
But you are correct, no free trials. Even so, it only mentions the v520, not v540 (I know it's 2 v520 on the same board but still) so whether we'd even get the right one is still up in the air.

Here is a GTX 1080 with an unfinished raw aluminum cooler and A00 PCB:

I like that rough look it has. Adds character.

 

[Fouquin]

What if it is something in the card bios that prevents using it as an 3d accelerator?

Then it wouldn't work with the host driver as an MxGPU 3D accelerator. MxGPU is a firmware blob that drivers interface. We lack the drivers, the card does not lack the capability. It's as simple as that.

 

[PixelButts]

Then it wouldn't work with the host driver as an MxGPU 3D accelerator. MxGPU is a firmware blob that drivers interface. We lack the drivers, the card does not lack the capability. It's as simple as that.

My understanding of MxGPU drivers is not the best, but from what I understand it's intended to be a method in which virtualized machines can utilize the full GPU power through a few layers right? I ask because I would assume this means an MxGPU driver must only work when in a virtualized enviornment rather than on bare metal, or am I mistaken and this does work, but potentially with some reasons not to?
I'm speaking to a few buddies that might be able to get the drivers, but even if that happened I personally wouldn't know what to do here since most of this is foreign to me. I also noticed the amdgpu package supposedly supports the v520/v540 under Linux which seems weird because it seems to have been there for a while now.

Secondary question, again I'm not the most educated on the matter, if the card has 2 GPUs on board, and both act independently, how does that work out if both are under load on the same PCIe slot? Is this not a problem on Gen4 due to bandwidth but may be a problem on Gen3?

 

[LabRat 891]

Secondary question, again I'm not the most educated on the matter, if the card has 2 GPUs on board, and both act independently, how does that work out if both are under load on the same PCIe slot? Is this not a problem on Gen4 due to bandwidth but may be a problem on Gen3?

I hadn't closely examined the Chip, but it looks like either an FPGA or PCIE bridge/switch is present on the rear of the V540, between the two GPUs.

AMD has been using PLX switches for many of their mGPU cards over the years. However, the (single GPU, quadNVMe-integrated) Radeon Pro SSG used an FPGA 'configured' with PCIe switch programming (amongst other capabilities)

So, yes: PCIe 4.0 and managed PCIe switching makes bandwidth not a problem.

 

[PixelButts]

Was a pain but I managed to get the Windows driver for the v540. WIll spend some time when I get proper cooling setup to deal with it.

 

[Fouquin]

Was a pain but I managed to get the Windows driver for the v540. WIll spend some time when I get proper cooling setup to deal with it.

That is significant progress if it ends up simply working on any Navi12 card.

 

[PixelButts]

That is significant progress if it ends up simply working on any Navi12 card.

I don't know if I can upload those drivers anywhere so just putting that forward now. Rationale being I have no idea what kind of things I've signed my soul away to with Amazon just to get it, and while it's just drivers, I don't plan on dealing with lawyers to find out.

That said, for confirmation purposes only, I have the drivers running in a bare metal setup because I lack a proper Windows Server 2019 install. It did not automatically detect the hardware, though they were added. PCI Controller seems to be the only thing I cant force a driver on. Forgive me, this is just not my expertise.

I'm certain a proper virtualized setup would be more ideal here. If anyone wants to give pointers or suggestions here I'll gladly give a crack at it.

Edit: nothin changed after usign DDU, but I did get a nice pic of it in Ubuntu at least. Not official drivers butI've been trying for a week to get this far. Takes way too long.