AMD "Tonga" Silicon Features 2048 Stream Processors

[btarunr]

According to a block diagram of AMD's new 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, it features the same amount of shading power as "Tahiti," if not more. The chip features a total of 2,048 Graphics CoreNext 1.1 stream processors, spread across 32 compute units (CUs). The chip also features 128 TMUs. The block diagram was part of press-material AMD distributed with its recently launched FirePro W7100 professional graphics card, which is based on "Tonga."

The W7100 uses just 28 of the 32 CUs, and hence features 1,792 stream processors. Other features of "Tonga," according to the block diagram, include a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, 32 ROPs, TrueAudio DSP, and a modern XDMA CrossFire interface. The first consumer graphics card based on this chip is the Radeon R9 285. It is expected to feature 1,792 stream processors, and offer performance rivaling the Radeon HD 7950 Boost at lower power draw, and priced to compete with the GeForce GTX 760. That could leave the possibility of a future "R9 285X" with the chip's full complement of stream processors.



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[nunomoreira10]

Depending on the price this could be the next best seller between gamers

 

[the54thvoid]

In a recent thread there was a mystifying attack on Nv for releasing 'fused down' chips to leave the full chip for later profits.
This would be the same, except not with their top tier product. This looks like a full Tonga would threaten 290(x) sales so they need to castrate it.
Is this their answer to Maxwell? Will be interesting to see performance.

 

[Shinshin]

In a recent thread there was a mystifying attack on Nv for releasing 'fused down' chips to leave the full chip for later profits.
This would be the same, except not with their top tier product. This looks like a full Tonga would threaten 290(x) sales so they need to castrate it.
Is this their answer to Maxwell? Will be interesting to see performance.

I didn't see that thread but all companies do that, and not only with their high end parts.
If this is the answer to Maxwell, I'm interested more in power consumption than performance...

 

[the54thvoid]

I didn't see that thread but all companies do that, and not only with their high end parts.
If this is the answer to Maxwell, I'm interested more in power consumption than performance...

The Maxwell 880 news thread last week. Is Tonga the answer to Maxwell? And how much extra performance will the unlocked CU's provide? We need to summon Xzibit to answer my query. Will be good if Tonga is a reasonable match up for Maxwell, may play well for consumers.

 

[HumanSmoke]

The Maxwell 880 news thread last week. Is Tonga the answer to Maxwell? And how much extra performance will the unlocked CU's provide?

Would likely be in line with how most other salvage parts have lined up in the past, 10-15%, but that presupposes near identical clocks- but I'm guessing that the R9 285 will be dialled in to fit within AMD's product stack, while the full die will be clocked for competition with the GTX 870 or 860 which would supply a reason why the full die isn't being released straight away.

 

[alwayssts]

The Maxwell 880 news thread last week. Is Tonga the answer to Maxwell? And how much extra performance will the unlocked CU's provide? We need to summon Xzibit to answer my query. Will be good if Tonga is a reasonable match up for Maxwell, may play well for consumers.

I'll answer that for you: Depends on how you look at, not in gaming, and not a lot (generally), just like Tahiti variants. It will largely depend on how amd plans to separate them through memory speed and vicariously tdp on desktop.

880 would appear (from reasonable deduction) to be close to 290 in compute, 290x in gaming performance.
870 looks to bee a step down. Closer to something like this if ~1111/7000 (or conceivably whatever 285x is stock...say 975/7000...granted amd may clock it higher as most compute won't always be used, say to 1050/7000 ) in compute, 290 in gaming performance.

Who knows where M'04 will fit in workstation, too many unknowns for clockspeed/tdp comparatively to Tonga/Hawaii, but I'll bet it competes with, but relatively/comparably negatively with Tonga. A full '04 may compete with this part just to save face.

In essence, AMD's best hope is to do with workstation what nvidia is doing with K/M '04 in gaming, given all their units can be used for compute (unlike nvidia whom devote some to special fuction), and hence are more of them per similar design. It's essentially role reversal up and down a peg. This may not beat K5200, but come close while not using a gigantic chip (GK110 vs TongaPro is humorous)...k4200/5000 shouldn't even be close (gk104). Otoh, this chip on desktop is going have a really tough time vs even gk104 without a high-enough tdp and memory bandwidth...Maxwell 04 will probably destroy it.

It looks more and more like 285/285x will shoot for very low clockspeeds to stay one notch under nvidia in tdp, as they can't really compete against 770 unless there is something we don't know (or they use 8ghz ram and >225w tdp for 285x).

It's interesting. Sure, things conceivably look bad for amd on desktop (for chip size/performance), but you have to ask yourself the question nvidia did back when they had almost all workstation marketshare; where is all the money at...$500-600 (or this case 200-300) consumer cards or $5000-6000 workstation cards?

 

[Casecutter]

So, no idea on when AMD and the release date? And the big question... are these coming out of GloFo?

I would think AMD would want these to bump right up against the reference 280X, and let the 3Gb 384-bit in AIB's OC customs pricing more often under $300 to move those out before the 285X.

they can't really compete against 770 unless?

Are you saying that as in bandwidth? As a 280X and 770 are fairly well matched trading back forth depending on the titles. You don't believe AMD having the similar ability to get close to 220 Gb/s using 7000Mhz effective, while doing it with a lower TDP than a 770?

 

[HumanSmoke]

You don't believe AMD having the similar ability to get close to 220 Gb/s using 7000Mhz effective, while doing it with a lower TDP than a 770?

Moot point. The 285 is heavily rumoured to use the same 5500-6000MHz (effective) memory clock as the previous Tahiti models, so whether it can or can't match the 770's bandwidth comes down to a case-by-case basis for memory IC integrity and voltage requirement.