AMD, Samsung Partnership to See Variable Rate Shading, Ray Tracing on Exynos SoC

[Raevenlord]

AMD at its Computex event shed some light on its IP partnership with Samsung. We already knew this was going to be a closer collaboration than most IP licensing deals, as AMD themselves announced this would be a semi-custom solution designed between both companies. AMD CEO Lisa Su described the technology to be embedded in the upcoming Samsung Exynos SoC as being based on RDNA2 - but this likely is just a marketing and clarity perspective on AMD's technology being implemented, since between the design of RDNA2 and the announcement of the Samsung partnership a lot of water has necessarily run under AMD's graphics IP bridge.

Lisa Su did however confirm that two key RDNA2 technologies will find their way into Samsung's Exynos: Variable Rate Shading (VRS) and Raytracing. This isn't he first time VRS has made an appearance on a mobile SoC - it's already been implemented by Qualcomm in the Adreno 660 GPU (part of the Snapdragon 888 SoC design). However, Raytracing does seem to be a first for the SoC market, and Samsung might just edge out competition in its time to market with this technology. more details will certainly be shared as we get closer to the fabled AMD-partnered Exynos release.



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[watzupken]

While I am excited to see what RDNA2 can do for mobile SOCs, I am highly skeptical about RT on mobile devices. If something like a RTX 3080 struggles at high resolution, imagine a phone or tablet's resolution can be higher, resulting in poor performance.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

While I am excited to see what RDNA2 can do for mobile SOCs, I am highly skeptical about RT on mobile devices. If something like a RTX 3080 struggles at high resolution, imagine a phone or tablet's resolution can be higher, resulting in poor performance.

Don't think you can base prospective performance on a windows/x86 system compared to an ARM/android system.... Sort of like how consoles fare better with less powerful hardware due to not having to run the windows resource hog and having a more streamlined ecosystem.

On another note, this could be a huge income source for AMD since this will be their first major venture into the world of mobile/Android devices.

 

[z1n0x]

FSR on phones, maybe?
Extend the battery life.

 

[Colddecked]

While I am excited to see what RDNA2 can do for mobile SOCs, I am highly skeptical about RT on mobile devices. If something like a RTX 3080 struggles at high resolution, imagine a phone or tablet's resolution can be higher, resulting in poor performance.

While the RT units in this thing probably wont be enough for a high fps action game, the more RT hw that's out there, the more developers can learn how to optimize its use. Plus I have a feeling the R&D AMD is putting towards this, is being used to develop their next gen of RT hw.

 

[Camm]

I just want a SHIELD like device that doesn't have terrible CPU cores > <.

Samsung/AMD - make it happen! .

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

While the RT units in this thing probably wont be enough for a high fps action game, the more RT hw that's out there, the more developers can learn how to optimize its use. Plus I have a feeling the R&D AMD is putting towards this, is being used to develop their next gen of RT hw.

And they have said they will use evolving designs with Samsung.

 

[mtcn77]

Variable rate shading is important, but the integration with game engines is key. There mustn't be finite screenspace zones. It is a form of antialiasing that does not need to cause further artifacts. The game engines draw positive lod levels too well all the while depth requiring center fields aren't rendered too good. Either it is forced obsolescence, or somebody is doing lousy at their desk duty.
PS: AF can work out fine at near field, but image looks out of focus when antialiasing is lacking at depth when the sharpness is not like infinite focus lens. Variable shading can counterbalance this.

 

[Naito]

...due to not having to run the windows resource hog and having a more streamlined ecosystem.

I think you overestimate how much of an impact Windows has. It is more to do with the fact that any PC environment requires a 'one-size-fits-all' approach which means the platform doesn't see the same optimizations the down-to-the-metal consoles enjoy. In regard to phones, there's only a handful of SoC developers and each manufacturer optimizes the software for their hardware.

 

[renz496]

Don't think you can base prospective performance on a windows/x86 system compared to an ARM/android system.... Sort of like how consoles fare better with less powerful hardware due to not having to run the windows resource hog and having a more streamlined ecosystem.

On another note, this could be a huge income source for AMD since this will be their first major venture into the world of mobile/Android devices.

even if there is other SoC maker use AMD GPU in mobile it won't generate major income. even with samsung the new chip will not going to power all samsung phones.

 

[Mussels]

Wait til we see this (or an nvidia equivalent with DLSS) on the Quest 3 and other portable VR headsets...

 

[watzupken]

Don't think you can base prospective performance on a windows/x86 system compared to an ARM/android system.... Sort of like how consoles fare better with less powerful hardware due to not having to run the windows resource hog and having a more streamlined ecosystem.

On another note, this could be a huge income source for AMD since this will be their first major venture into the world of mobile/Android devices.

Yeah, but consoles are specialized for games, rest of the features are icing on the cake. I feel the current Android ecosystem is not that different from Windows in that its very fragmented. While AMD will have the first mover advantage by introducing RT to the mobile SOCs, there are still others like Qualcomm and ARM's graphic solution that have yet to embrace RT on mobile. So I am not expecting developers to spend time optimizing for RT.

Actually, Qualcomm's Adreno was a Radeon mobile GPU until they sold off this part of the business to Qualcomm. So this is probably a return of AMD to the mobile space. There is certainly money to make in the mobile space for sure.

 

[tehehe]

Yeah, but consoles are specialized for games, rest of the features are icing on the cake. I feel the current Android ecosystem is not that different from Windows in that its very fragmented. While AMD will have the first mover advantage by introducing RT to the mobile SOCs, there are still others like Qualcomm and ARM's graphic solution that have yet to embrace RT on mobile. So I am not expecting developers to spend time optimizing for RT.

Actually, Qualcomm's Adreno was a Radeon mobile GPU until they sold off this part of the business to Qualcomm. So this is probably a return of AMD to the mobile space. There is certainly money to make in the mobile space for sure.

Adreno is anagram of radeon.