Highlights from AMD Earnings Call: Hardened "Zen2" and 7 nm "Vega" by 2019

[btarunr]

Following its Q4 and 2017 Annual financial results reveal, AMD CEO Lisa Su, in the company's post-results earnings conference call, made some notable disclosures and guidance. The most interesting - and which shouldn't come as a surprise - is that AMD expects revenues to grow by a staggering 30 percent quarter-over-quarter in Q1-2018, riding on the blockchain (crypto-currency mining) wave. The company's graphics processors offer high efficiency at mining popular crypto-currencies, such as Ethereum, Z-cash, and Bitcoin.

Moving on, Su commented on how her company is coping with the "Meltdown" and "Spectre" CPU vulnerabilities, and reaffirmed that AMD's x86 architectures are slightly safer by design against some of the vulnerabilities; that while the upcoming "Zen+" CPU micro-architecture, which is essentially an optical-shrink of "Zen" to the 12 nanometer process will ship with microcode-level patches against the vulnerabilities, its successor, the "Zen2" micro-architecture, which will be built on the 7 nm process, will feature architecture-level hardening against the vulnerabilities. "Zen 2" tapes out towards the end of 2018, and could see production and marketing in 2019. The other big reveal is the taping out of an optically-shrunk "Vega" architecture implementation on the 7 nm process, taping out within 2018. This isn't "Navi," but possibly a bigger "Vega" chip that leverages 7 nm to have acceptable power/thermals. AMD could tap into the machine-learning market with this silicon first.

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[cdawall]

AMD GPU's are notably slower at Zcash (equihash) and you don't mine bitcoin on GPU's.

 

[evernessince]

AMD GPU's are notably slower at Zcash (equihash) and you don't mine bitcoin on GPU's.

You can mine bitcoin on GPUs, it just isn't wise. I don't know why people both playing semantic games when it always comes back to bit them. Also, who cares that AMD is slower at Zcash when they are faster at everything else? Why even bother coming here to post that cherry picked result?

There's a reason Vega 56 sells for more than the 1080 Ti right now, demand.

 

[cdawall]

You can mine bitcoin on GPUs, it just isn't wise. I don't know why people both playing semantic games when it always comes back to bit them. Also, who cares that AMD is slower at Zcash when they are faster at everything else? Why even bother coming here to post that cherry picked result?

There's a reason Vega 56 sells for more than the 1080 Ti right now, demand.

AMD Polaris cards aren't faster in "everything else" there are more algorithms they are slower in than faster.

Let's go down the list of common algos

Ethash - > fastest common card is a 1080ti/vega. 1070 beats out the 480/580 and the p104-100 beats out both of those.

Cryptonight - > amd biased

Lyra2rev2 - > nvidia biased

Neoscrypt - > nvidia biased

Equihash - > nvidia biased

Timetravel2 - > nvidia biased

Lyra2h - > nvidia biased

Groestl - > nvidia biased

Keccak - > nvidia biased

Lbry - > nvidia biased

Pascal - > nvidia biased

Also the common price of a 1080ti is $1500 vega 56/64 runs $1200 give or take and you can get fe cards for less than that. The 1080ti also makes more money per day. I have both. I watch values pretty heavily and move to coins that make the most. I have my 1080tis pushing $12-15 a day as long as pool luck doesn't tank on me again. My Vega cards do $8-10.

OH and if you find a bitcoin with a gpu you let me know. As of right now in the realm of feasibility you cannot mining bitcoin with gpus.

I don't know why people both playing semantic games when it always comes back to bit them.

Heed your own advice.

 

[ratirt]

I don't think many people care about crypto currency. Actually if you are a slacker then maybe it comes valuable. For me I don't need crypto but i'd buy a card for games mostly and to play with it. With crypto craze it's kinda hard now to get anything for reasonable price. That really bugs me out honestly.

 

[medi01]

It's funny to see the person who claimed "AMD is saved by mining" in the other thread, to argue AMD cards are not good for mining in this one.

 

[bug]

Ouch, they're still clinging onto Vega till 2020? Here's hoping they get tile based rendering working. Or that Vega scales better on lower nodes.

Edit: Also, I was right on the money when I said AMD will do what Intel did and offer hardware fixes, but only in Zen2.

 

[T1beriu]

"Zen 2" tapes out towards the end of 2018

Tape outs happen at least a year before the product becomes publicly available for purchase. Tape outs are needed in advance for engineering samples and qualification, validation and partners to build their products around them (like motherboards). Zen 2 should be already tapped out.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

IF Vega on 7 nm can get boost clock (with lower power draw) similar to Nvidia and will also implement Gddr 6 it could be a competitive option imo

 

[Vya Domus]

and will also implement Gddr 6 it could be a competitive option imo

GCN is designed with high memory bandwidth requirements and low latency in mind , pairing Vega with anything else than HBM would be a disaster , you'd nullify every advantage the node shrink would bring performance wise.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

Yeah, I've realised that now...

 

[Xajel]

Tape outs happen at least a year before the product becomes publicly available for purchase. Tape outs are needed in advance for engineering samples and qualification, validation and partners to build their products around them (like motherboards). Zen 2 should be already tapped out.

Between Tape outs and release is not a minimum of 1 year, it's 9 Months but it can be a year or more if there's some problems in the design or in first production.

The original AMD statement was the Tape out will be in 2H18, meaning it can be from July to December, so if we're lucky to have the earliest assumption, it will be like End of 1Q19 like April, same timeframe as the original Zen & the launch time of Zen+.. if we're not lucky then we might get it at the end of 2019.

 

[bug]

GCN is designed with high memory bandwidth requirements and low latency in mind , pairing Vega with anything else than HBM would be a disaster , you'd nullify every advantage the node shrink would bring performance wise.

GCN has been with us for exactly 6 years now and most of that time it has been using GDDR5 just fine, so you probably meant to say something else.
Plus, GDDR6 can have the same bandwidth as HBM3 so it wouldn't even be a limiting factor.

 

[ratirt]

It's funny to see the person who claimed"AMD is saved by mining" in the other thread, to argue AMD cards are not good for mining in this one.

Zip it really and don't twist sentences and words.

 

[cdawall]

It's funny to see the person who claimed "AMD is saved by mining" in the other thread, to argue AMD cards are not good for mining in this one.

Everything is based on ROI. The 470/480/570/580 could do 32mh/s in ethash algorithms for $179-229 up until fourth quarter. Nvidia did not have a competitor for that. Now that price point has more than doubled, that isn't the same story.

Ethereum is a massive network and one of the most well known. Tons of FUD spins around the web telling people amd is better in everything and we have massive sales on both sides.

I don't think many people care about crypto currency. Actually if you are a slacker then maybe it comes valuable. For me I don't need crypto but i'd buy a card for games mostly and to play with it. With crypto craze it's kinda hard now to get anything for reasonable price. That really bugs me out honestly.

500 billion market cap for just cryptocurrency we won't get into volume of sale for gpus.

"slackers" don't buy Boeing 747's filled with gpus and fly them to Iceland. That's how far crypto has gone this year. This isn't kids using mom's basement for video cards.

 

[xkm1948]

Now I am OK with miners, but they better not be still around when I upgrade to consumer Volta/Ampree.

Still, mining is one of the stupidest thing ever. Basically wasting computing resources.

 

[cdawall]

Now I am OK with miners, but they better not be still around when I upgrade to consumer Volta/Ampree.

Still, mining is one of the stupidest thing ever. Basically wasting computing resources.

You should look into some of the coins out there that do positive things.

RNDR coin is aimed at making cloud gaming more doable, there is talk of using blockchain tech to track diamonds (preventing blood diamond trade), there is already stuff out for F@H style coins.

 

[xkm1948]

You should look into some of the coins out there that do positive things.

RNDR coin is aimed at making cloud gaming more doable, there is talk of using blockchain tech to track diamonds (preventing blood diamond trade), there is already stuff out for F@H style coins.

Nah, 99% of those coins are being mined by lazy f*ucks who just wanna grab quick cash while wasting energy. That is the majority.

Human nature i guess.

 

[cdawall]

Nah, 99% of those coins are being mined by lazy f*ucks who just wanna grab quick cash while wasting energy. That is the majority.

Human nature i guess.

So you are saying massive mining farms which is who mines most of the coins are lazy...Must be lazy to maintain 100,000 GPU's then I guess. Who knew.

 

[xkm1948]

So you are saying massive mining farms which is who mines most of the coins are lazy...Must be lazy to maintain 100,000 GPU's then I guess. Who knew.

Lazy as not contributing much to the advancennt of human civilization besides wasting computation power for direct personal profit. The same amount of computing power can be used for loads of other stuff that will both advance science as well as profit the owner. However given the chance almost all people would choose direct self profit over anything else.

Don't get me wrong. Nothing wrong with that. All living organism does it, every living thing is there only for the survival of themselves.

 

[cdawall]

Lazy as not contributing much to the advancennt of human civilization besides wasting computation power for direct personal profit. The same amount of computing power can be used for loads of other stuff that will both advance science as well as profit the owner. However given the chance almost all people would choose direct self profit over anything else.

Don't get me wrong. Nothing wrong with that. All living organism does it, every living thing is there only for the survival of themselves.

Better go round up most for profit companies out their and shoot them then. That is how the world works and right now advancing blockchain as a whole is showing the largest banking change we have seen since the debit card. As I have said before there is gobs of blockchain technology being used for good things.

 

[bug]

Lazy as not contributing much to the advancennt of human civilization besides wasting computation power for direct personal profit. The same amount of computing power can be used for loads of other stuff that will both advance science as well as profit the owner. However given the chance almost all people would choose direct self profit over anything else.

Don't get me wrong. Nothing wrong with that. All living organism does it, every living thing is there only for the survival of themselves.

Many things we learn about in history classes started with someone knowing better what individuals should do. Just sayin'.

And here's proof that not all miners are selfish bastards:
https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/27/...on-from-philanthropic-bitcoin-pineapple-fund/
https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-charity-sends-free-software-foundation-1-million-donation/

 

[ratirt]

Everything is based on ROI. The 470/480/570/580 could do 32mh/s in ethash algorithms for $179-229 up until fourth quarter. Nvidia did not have a competitor for that. Now that price point has more than doubled, that isn't the same story.

Ethereum is a massive network and one of the most well known. Tons of FUD spins around the web telling people amd is better in everything and we have massive sales on both sides.



500 billion market cap for just cryptocurrency we won't get into volume of sale for gpus.

"slackers" don't buy Boeing 747's filled with gpus and fly them to Iceland. That's how far crypto has gone this year. This isn't kids using mom's basement for video cards.

I'm talking people. I know this market has grown exponentially but it's not like one person buys 1 card. They go with 10's and up. They don't buy Boeing 747 is not people but transportation companies. why "slacker" they buy 30 cards and rig it all up to get cash instead of a decent job And yeah most of them are in mom's basement They just want to grab easy cash and this doesn't exist. I bet that this crypto is really periodical not long term even if it does hold longer than I've anticipated. I can wait and see how it goes. I really don't mind.

So you are saying massive mining farms which is who mines most of the coins are lazy...Must be lazy to maintain 100,000 GPU's then I guess. Who knew.

Isn't that the core of lazy? Let somebody or something (common now-days) do it for you while you gobble tons of burgers and ribs sitting in the patio doing nothing getting your ass grow faster than greatest crypto mining rig? Maintain the rig? You don't need to maintain anything use a bot that will do it for you. Just get rid of broken equipment and replace it done. You can even outsource it if you want. What year you live in bro?

 

[cdawall]

I would bet you money there are far less mom's basement people then this "gamer elite" seem to think.

But let's do some quick math at msrp 30 580's is $6900 just in graphics cards, 30 1070's is $12000 just in graphics cards. Most of mom's basement kids don't have 8-15 thousand dollars just sitting there. Just put some perspective in that.

And the Boeing comment matches the news story that hit here of investors renting Boeing 747's to pick up gpus. That isn't lazy.

Your description of lazy apparently is everyone in any kind of supervision roll though. I take it you are a low level employee who works and gets mad the guys above him in your eyes don't?

 

[vega22]

I would bet you money there are far less mom's basement people then this "gamer elite" seem to think.

But let's do some quick math at msrp 30 580's is $6900 just in graphics cards, 30 1070's is $12000 just in graphics cards. Most of mom's basement kids don't have 8-15 thousand dollars just sitting there. Just put some perspective in that.

And the Boeing comment matches the news story that hit here of investors renting Boeing 747's to pick up gpus. That isn't lazy.

Your description of lazy apparently is everyone in any kind of supervision roll though. I take it you are a low level employee who works and gets mad the guys above him in your eyes don't?

depends on when they got in on bitcoin tbh :lol:

but to return to an earlier point you made. most are optimised for nv cards as they have more cards out in the wild. they have lead the market share for a few years and as such the demand to make the most of the available hardware trumps any need to optimise them for the better hardware.