Alleged characteristics of future graphics cards Radeon RX 7000

Although AMD announced new graphics architecture RDNA 3 back in June, the manufacturer has not shared any details about the next generation graphics cards, which will be produced on it.
Portal Angstronomics, which in the past distinguished by the accuracy of \"predictions\", shared information about the graphics processor series Navi 3x.
According to him, the final chip specifications were adopted back in 2020 and have not changed since then.Image source: AMDAccording to the source, the Navi 3x series will use Navi 31, Navi 32 and Navi 33 processors.
The first will be used as part of the flagship gas pedals and will be the first GPU to use a chiplet design.
It is noted that this processor, labeled GFX1100 (codename: Plum Bonito), consists of one Graphics Chiplet Die (GCD) and six auxiliary Memory Chiplet Dies (MCD) crystals.
The GCD chip will be manufactured using TSMC's 5nm process technology, while the subsidiary chips use a 6nm manufacturing process.The Navi 31 processor GCD chip has an area of about 308mm2 and contains 48 WGP (Workgroup Processors) blocks.
Each WGP has two Compute Units (CUs).
Thus, the total number of CUs in the chip is 96.
And the total number of arithmetic logic units (ALUs) as part of the 96 CUs will be 12,288.
The area of one MCD chip is about 37.5 mm2.
Each MCD contains 16 Mbytes of AMD Infinity Cache memory.
Thus, the Navi 31 processor will get 96 Mbytes of Infinity Cache, which is less than the same Navi 21 (128 Mbytes) used at the heart of the Radeon RX 6900 XT/6950 XT.
Additionally, it is noted that the Navi 31 supports a 384-bit memory bus.
According to Angstronomics, AMD is also considering a modification of the MCD chip with a three-dimensional layout (1-hi), which would double the amount of cache memory.
Moreover, if we believe the source, AMD was also thinking about the possibility to release Navi 31 GPU with 288 Mbytes of Infinity Cache (2-hi).
However, the company eventually abandoned this idea for financial reasons.According to Angstronomics, AMD may also release a \"trimmed\" version of the Navi 31.
In this case, the processor will get 42 WGP units (84 CU or 10,752 ALU).
This GPU will also be deprived of one MCD chip, have only 80 Mbytes of Infinity Cache and will support 320-bit memory bus.
The flagship gas pedal based on the Navi 31 reference design will be a slightly modified version of the current one.
Videocard this design will receive a three-fan cooling system, the height is slightly higher than that of the Radeon RX 6900 XT.
As for the power supply, according to Angstronomics, the card can get only two 8-pin PCIe connectors.
In other words, the conditional series of graphics cards Radeon RX 7000 not expected to use the new 12+4-pin PCIe 5.0 power connector, which will be used in the same GeForce RTX 4000 from NVIDIA.Image source: Tom's HardwareThe Navi 32 graphics processor labeled GFX1101 (code name: Wheat Nas) is a more compact version of Navi 31.
The chip will be used in both desktop and mobile segments of AMD graphics.
Its GCD chip will only get 30 WGP blocks with 60 CU blocks (7680 ALU).
The Navi 32 processor has only four auxiliary MCD crystals, which limits the Infinity Cache to 64 Mbytes.
Again, this is less than the same Navi 22 (Radeon RX 6700 XT), which got 96 Mbytes of Infinity Cache.
According to Angstronomics, AMD considered releasing the Navi 32 with 128 Mbytes of Infinity Cache (version 1-hi), but found it unprofitable.The youngest GPU in the Navi 3x series, the Navi 33 labeled GFX1102 (codename: Hotpink Bonefish) is the only one of the three using a traditional solid crystal design whose area is about 203 mm2.
According to Angstronomics, AMD at one time wanted to release the Navi 33 with a chiplet design that would get 18 WGP blocks and two MCD crystals.
Again, however, it didn't deem this cost-effective.The Navi 33 GPU, like the Navi 32, will be used as part of desktop and mobile video cards.
However, the priority for the chip will be a mobile direction.
The structure of Navi 33 will contain 16 WGP blocks.
In this way it will have 32 processing units (CU) with 4096 ALUs.
The feature of Navi 33 is its compatibility with printed circuit boards which were developed for Navi 23 (Radeon RX 6600 XT) processor.
The chip will get 32 MB of Infinity Cache and support 128-bit memory interface.
According to Angstronomics, the Navi 33 outperforms Intel's most advanced discrete graphics solutions (we're probably talking about the as yet unreleased Arc A770).
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AMD Radeon RX 6300M mobile graphics made a mark in Geekbench 5 - about on par with the GeForce MX450

AMD announced the budget Radeon RX 6300M mobile graphics card in January, but computers with it were not yet on the market.
It looks like that is about to change.
This gas pedal marked in the Geekbench 5 test, where it showed relatively weak performance, performing almost on par with the GeForce MX450 - the entry-level graphics card of the last generation from NVIDIA.Image source: AMDAMD Radeon RX 6300M - entry-level graphics card on the RDNA 2 architecture.
It offers 12 processing units and 768 stream processors on a Navi 24 chip.
The GDDR6 video memory is only 2 GB and Infinity Cache capacity is 8 MB.
On top of that, AMD has significantly lowered GPU clock speed to 1512 MHz, but all these measures helped to achieve the power consumption of only 25W or even lower.
The same number of cores are present in the integrated Radeon 680M in Ryzen 6000 processors, though, with a clock speed of 2.4 GHz - the only advantage of the discrete adapter turns out to be faster GDDR6.Image source: geekbench.comIn the Geekbench 5 database the video card Radeon RX 6300M appeared in the HP Zhan 99 Pro G9 monoblock with a desktop Intel Core i7-12700 chip (Alder Lake) and 16 GB of RAM.
Not the most standard combination of desktop processor and mobile graphics.
In the OpenCL test, the graphics card scored 30,044 points, and another 24,371 points in Vulkan.
For today's graphics this is quite a modest result, because approximately the same figures in the NVIDIA MX450 previous generation: exactly 29,000 for OpenCL and even superior young competitor 24,688 points for Vulkan.Image source: geekbench.comWell, it is too early to draw conclusions, because the results in Geekbench 5 does not always reflect the performance of graphics cards in games - perhaps in gaming tests disposition will change.

New AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT fights in gaming tests with NVIDIA RTX 3060

The famous Youtube channel Hardware Unboxed continues to delight its subscribers with timely and relevant reviews of computer components.
Radeon RX 6650 XT video card is the latest product from AMD.
We decided to compare RX 6650 XT gaming performance with its predecessor RX 6600 XT and its competitor from \"green\" companies NVIDIA RTX 3060.
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT has recommended price of $399 USD which is $20 higher than RX 6600 XT.
GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card was once priced at $330.
For Russian retailers specified manufacturer prices for a long time have no practical application, but with their help determined by the so-called utility index, that is, the ratio of performance to price.Testing was carried out in ten popular games, resolutions 1080p and 1440p, for gaming in which designed these graphics gas pedals.
The system was based on a fresh Ryzen 5800X3D processor with 32 GB of \"RAM\" running at 3200 MHz with CL14 timings.According to the comparison results, in 1080p resolution new Radeon RX 6650 XT has surpassed its predecessor RX 6600 XT by 6%, which is comparable to the increase t ` price by 5%, but the \"green\" competitor RTX 3060 she managed to beat by an impressive 15%.
Nevertheless, the authors note that the list of 10 games is limited, and when comparing adapters in a larger number of projects Radeon RX 6650 XT win may not look so convincing, especially if you consider the titles with ray tracing support and greater optimization for graphics cards NVIDIA.
Despite this, in terms of utility index the novelty is ahead of both accentuated rivals.In 1440p resolution the picture looks similar, with a slight decrease in superiority over RTX 3060 to 12%.At that in terms of price per frame Radeon RX 6650 XT is still the most attractive purchase compared to NVIDIA product.For post rewardedThis material is written by site visitor and it is rewarded.

AMD unveiled Radeon RX 6400 graphics card, which you can't buy at retail

AMD unveiled a number of new products today at CES 2022. In addition to the affordable Radeon RX 6500 XT gaming graphics card, which has a recommended price of only $199, the «red» released an even more affordable and lower performance graphics gas pedal called Radeon RX 6400, which will not be available from retailers.

Radeon RX 6400 graphics card will be supplied only to OEM-computer manufacturers, that is, you can buy it only as part of a complete system. In contrast to the Radeon RX 6500 XT, which has 16 calculation blocks with RDNA 2 architecture, the Radeon RX 6400 will be only 12 such blocks. Note that the same number of RDNA 2 graphics cores has built-in graphics older mobile Ryzen 6000 processors. It turns out that the Radeon RX 6400 offers 768 stream processors, and the maximum reference GPU frequency is 2039 MHz. A useful feature for many new items is that it requires only 53 watts of power. The Radeon RX 6400 is equipped with 4 GB of memory with a bandwidth of 16 Gbps. As mentioned above, the graphics card can not be purchased at retail, at least officially they will not be sold that way. However, this may be for the best, because graphics gas pedals are now sold at a price many times higher than the recommended. And here is a computer with Radeon RX 6400 for a relatively low price may well be a way out for an unpretentious gamer in the current difficult times.

AMD plans to squeeze competitors in the graphics card market in the coming quarters

A recent Jon Peddie Research study showed that in the discrete graphics segment AMD was able to consistently increase its market share from 20 to 21 % by the end of the third quarter, although it lost the same percentage point to NVIDIA in the year-to-date comparison. AMD management is confident that in the graphics market, the company will be able to increase its share over the next few quarters.

Such remarks were made at the Barclays technology conference by AMD Senior Vice President Ruth Cotter, who is responsible not only for global marketing at the company, but also for human resources policy and investor relations. Ms. Cotter is encouraged by the success of AMD graphics solutions with RDNA 2 architecture. According to her, over the last year and a half the graphics cards have been in high demand, and this indicates a high interest to them from gamers. Summer has seen the appearance of more affordable representatives of RDNA 2 generation, namely the mass price segment forms the mainstream of sales, so AMD expects to maintain the trend of increasing market share in the discrete graphics segment over the next few quarters. The appearance on the market representatives of the RDNA 3 architecture will only enhance this effect, although during the event Barclays representative AMD and did not specify when it will happen. Judging by the early comments of the company's management and the materials of the official presentation for AMD investors, the debut of RDNA 3 graphics architecture is scheduled for 2022. Demand for graphics will remain strong next year, and AMD should move to regain lost ground in the market, according to Ruth Cotter. In the PC segment as a whole, AMD has also steadily increased its market share over the past twelve months, but predominantly in monetary terms. Positive momentum was also seen in units, but it was held back by component shortages, and was most pronounced in the notebook market. Next year, according to AMD forecasts, about 350 million personal computers will be sold in the world. The company is set to strengthen its position in the upper price segments, offer new platforms and expand its presence in the corporate sector. There are all the conditions for AMD's market share growth in the PC segment to continue next year, as summarized by the company's senior vice president.

AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics card will be released by mid-October - it will offer 8 GB of memory and 1792 stream processors

Rumors that AMD is preparing Radeon RX 6600 & ; mid-range graphics card designed for comfortable gameplay in Full HD resolution have been circulating for a long time. It became known that the new product will be launched in mid-October.

VideoCardz resource has received information about the timing of the novelty reviews. According to this data, on October 13, the first product reviews should appear on the web. Usually, the launch follows the release of reviews, but there is no information about when AMD intends to start selling new items. The presentation of graphics cards will take place before the reviews will be published, in other words, in the coming weeks.

In addition to information about the launch of the product, the network leaked key specifications of the Radeon RX 6600. According to the published VideoCardz specifications table, RX 6600 should get 28 processing units (1792 stream processors), that is, some of the available graphics processor Navi 23 blocks will be disabled. More importantly, Radeon RX 6600 graphics cards will be equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory.

It is also reported that the release of reference AMD Radeon RX 6600 should not be expected. As in case of Radeon RX 6600 XT, this launch will rely solely on AMD partners' developments.

MSI introduced its own versions of AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT gas pedals

MSI announced AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT based custom graphics cards. Four models debuted: MSI AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming X 8G, MSI AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Gaming 8G, MSI AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Mech 2X 8G OC and MSI AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Mech 2X 8G.

The graphics gas pedals are made on the Navi 23 chip in a 32 compute block configuration. There are 2,048 stream processors and 32 ray tracing processing units involved.

MSI Gaming Series is equipped with highly efficient Twin Frozr 8 cooling system with dual Torx Fan 4.0 fans. A reinforced metal plate in the rear is also provided. In addition, it is said to have a multicolor Mystic Light RGB backlight. Mech family gas pedals have a cooler with a pair of Torx Fan 3.0 fans. Thanks to the Zero Frozr feature, they stop completely at low load, so that the noise level drops to zero.

GPU frequency is not specified, but it is known that some versions have factory overclocking. The volume of GDDR6 memory with a 128-bit bus is 8 GB. There are three DisplayPort 1.4 connectors and an HDMI port;

The market is flooded with next-generation NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards, but you should not buy them

Former cryptomainers from China began to throw on the market wholesale shipments of next-generation graphics cards. Nevertheless it is hardly worth buying «new» GPUs on the secondary market, at least & ; you should not hurry.

According to Hong Kong sources, the local «bulletin board» PTT has seen all sorts of options & ; from NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT to NVIDIA GTX 1066 and AMD Radeon RX 478 (aka NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 and AMD Radeon RX 470 respectively) in large numbers. «Repression against cryptominers in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and Sichuan, as well as other provinces of China and more aggressive policy of the PRC authorities on the cryptocurrency market in general has already led to a drop in cryptocurrency prices around the world. China accounts for 65% of the global hash rate of cryptomainers mining currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

techradar.com.

Now, unwanted used cards are being sold at manufacturer-recommended prices & ; in some cases, even cheaper than what the cryptomainers themselves paid for them. Moreover, this is the worst time to buy video cards on eBay and similar marketplaces. With the fall in cryptocurrency prices, the market runs the risk of a wave of used GPUs. It is hardly worth buying under any circumstances hardware that has been exploited for months in 24/7 mode, worked in many cases in conditions with elevated temperatures and without good cooling. In addition, many of these cards will be sold on the trading floors as new & ; trust such ads is not yet worth it, even in the presence of boxes and documents for the purchase. But most importantly, the flow of video cards from Chinese farms will force homegrown speculators, who have purchased really new copies in large quantities, to reduce prices, and this will undermine their business, which often involves unscrupulous representatives of trading networks. Therefore, it is possible that soon modern GPUs will be available at reasonable prices in stores.

AMD seems to be working on RDNA cards for cryptocurrencies too

The first signs that AMD might be building a specialized gas pedal for cryptocurrency mining appeared back in October 2020. A Linux kernel update added a new Navi 10-based gas pedal with ID 731E. This card, as clearly spelled out in the description, will not support DCN (Display Core Next) and VCN (Video Core Next), which means that it is a graphics processor without image output capability.

This graphics card can be used either to accelerate computing in clusters or for cryptocurrency mining. According to a new patch on March 3, AMD has created the Navi 12 GPU, which also lacks VCN, that is the ability to output an image. The latest GPU comes just after NVIDIA made an announcement about its mining solutions, which are expected to launch later this month. Interestingly, Navi 12 is not available in any free-market Radeon graphics card. It was designed specifically for the Apple Mac as the Radeon Pro 5600M. It is the only Navi 1X GPU with HBM2 memory. There are no mining tests available for it, so it's hard to predict how well it will perform in cryptocurrency mining.

In terms of specifications, both Navi 10 and Navi 12 offer 2,560 stream processors (40 processing units). Navi 10 is available with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, while Navi 12 has 2 HBM2 memory stacks of 4 GB. The GDDR6 memory has a bandwidth of 448 Gbps, while the Navi based on HBM2 can offer 394 Gbps. If we believe the words of a rather reputable informant Komachi, AMD started preparing variants of the RX 5700 XTB, RX 5700 B and RX 5500 XTB specifically for cryptocurrency, no later than last November. These could be working names for the new cards, but it's unclear if AMD would want to use the Radeon brand for such gas pedals.

AMD has introduced the Radeon RX 6700 XT, a graphics card for 1440p gaming. On sale March 18 for $479

As promised, AMD today unveiled the mid-range Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card, which is focused on 1440p gaming. Sales of the new product will start on March 18.

Like other graphics cards of Radeon RX 6000 series, new Radeon RX 6700 XT is based on 7-nm RDNA 2 architecture, equipped with high-speed Infinity Cache of 96 MB and 12 GB of GDDR6 video memory. The Navi 22 GPU used in Radeon RX 6700 XT features 40 processing units (2560 stream processors) running at 2424 MHz (Game Clock) with an overclock speed of up to 2581 MHz (Boost Clock). The video memory has an effective frequency of 16 GHz and 192-bit bus. The estimated heat dissipation of the graphics card is 230W.

According to AMD, Radeon RX 6700 XT in 1440p resolution is able to offer twice the gaming performance compared to graphics cards of the previous generation such as GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, as well as frame rate over 165 FPS in cybersports disciplines. In addition, AMD promises a performance advantage over both the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3070. «Today's games are demanding more computing power than ever to provide gamers with an immersive experience, & ;said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager of the graphics division at AMD. & ; AMD's Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card & ; is the best solution for 1440p gaming. For the majority of gamers who are still gaming on three to four year old graphics cards, it's & ; the perfect upgrade to deliver incredible image quality and uncompromised gaming performance at maximum 1440p» settings.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT will go on sale in two weeks & ;March 18. In addition to the reference variant will be available & ;  AMD partners ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, SAPPHIRE and XFX. The recommended price of the novelty (in the reference version) is set at $479. As we were confirmed by the local AMD representative office, sales of Radeon RX 6700 XT in Russian market will start simultaneously with the rest of the world.

"The debugger prepares his hammer: ATI marketer Darren McPhee returns from Intel to AMD

At the end of 2018, Intel's discrete graphics division was joined by another professional from the former ATI/AMD ranks, Darren McPhee, who most recently held the position of discrete graphics card marketer. But after 2.5 years, this veteran returned to his native company and took the post of Director of Marketing of gaming products.

This is eloquently evidenced by his LinkedIn profile. And Sasa Marinkovic, AMD's director of worldwide game marketing, expressed his joy on the same social network: «Welcome back to AMD family, Darren McPhee! We're looking forward to our future endeavors together! #better still to come». Mr. Darren worked at «red team» a total of 12 years: first at ATI from 2003 to 2007, then & ; already at AMD & ; until 2015. After that he quit and worked for three years at DM17 Marketing Solutions and BlueCat until he moved to Intel. At the end of his AMD career, he made his mark with an ad campaign starring the character «Tweaker» (The Fixer). This guy appeared out of nowhere and helped gamers by destroying «green» video cards, as well as by promoting Radeon gas pedals complete with game download coupons. By the way, AMD's slogan Never Settle («never stop») came from that very era, because it was impossible to stop a superhero in destroying green cards:

All in all, he certainly had a creative approach to marketing. Let's see if he can now help AMD's gaming graphics cards expand their presence in a market where NVIDIA's position is arguably stronger than ever before. Perhaps it's time for the Leatherjacket Troublemaker to return?

AMD released Radeon driver 21.2.2 with several fixes

Yesterday, Futuremark introduced the 3DMark Mesh Shaders test to evaluate the geometry processing benefits of DirectX 12 Ultimate mesh shaders. It was mentioned in the release notes that the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.2.2 driver is recommended for AMD cards, and it's now available on AMD's website.

In addition to 3DMark Mesh Shaders support, problems were also fixed:

objects were not displaying correctly when using EEVEE rendering in Blender on Radeon RX 400 and Radeon RX 500 gas pedals; artifacts in Quake III Arena during loading or game play; Wolfenstein: Youngblood performance below normal when AMD Smart Access is activated.

AMD engineers are working to fix known flaws:

Radeon Software updates may cause the system to freeze or crash when an Oculus VR headset is connected on Radeon GCN gas pedals; Some resolutions may not be available in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive settings menu when using a 4:3 aspect ratio; Radeon FreeSync may not be enabled in Forza Horizon 4;

AMD is investigating user complaints that Radeon Software may load the CPU harder than usual in idle mode; brightness flicker in some games when Radeon FreeSync runs in windowed mode without margins; Extended sync sometimes causes a black screen.

The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.2.2 driver can be downloaded in Windows 7 (64 bit) or Windows 10 (64 bit) versions either from AMD's official website or from the Radeon settings menu. The new version is dated February 11 and is designed for video cards and integrated graphics of the Radeon HD 7000 family and above.

AMD will introduce Radeon Boost+ and its answer to DLSS in the spring driver update Adrenaline

We've already drawn readers' attention to the fact that AMD never released the traditional major update to its graphics drivers last year, so all the builds released this year still belong to the Adrenalin 2020 Edition series. There seems to be a good reason for that.

AMD has been working on the software side of its ecosystem since the release of its RDNA family of graphics cards, with the Radeon Software Adrenaline 2020 Edition being one of the biggest updates in recent years. The company introduced 20 redesigned or new features including Radeon Boost, Radeon Chill, Enhanced Sync, Anti-Lag and Integer Scaling.

AMD is apparently working on the next major update to Radeon Software and is reportedly set to launch in the spring. One of the major innovations will be an alternative to DLSS known as FidelityFX Super Resolution. The technology will be open source and will rely on the DirectML API to scale the image with minimal loss of quality. Unlike NVIDIA's implementation, it is a software method that only requires compatibility with Microsoft DirectML.

While FidelityFX Super Resolution should work on any accelerator, including NVIDIA RTX graphics cards, maximum performance will be seen on the Radeon RX 6000 series due to the 128MB high-speed L3 Infinity Cache buffer. Machine learning based algorithms typically require high bandwidth, and that is what this cache is designed for. The current implementation of Radeon Boost to improve performance essentially relies on reducing game resolution in heavy scenes. When it comes to active motion and most details are blurry anyway, this works; but in static or slow-moving scenes, the drop in resolution is clearly visible.

An enhanced version of Radeon Boost+ will improve image quality in static scenes by using a new mechanism that engages Variable Rate Shading technology at the driver level for parts of the frame that are stationary and don't need to be recomputed. To recap, VRS technology, which was presented at GDC 2019 and became a part of DirectX 12 API, is similar to NVIDIA Adaptive Shading and is designed to reduce the load when rendering peripheral objects and zones (for example, homogeneous sea or fog) by reducing the accuracy of the calculations. Based on the slide above, it appears that Radeon Boost+ will require support for gaming. Whether FidelityFX Super Resolution will be able to work with any games is not specified, but based on NVIDIA's DLSS experience, this question can be tentatively answered in the negative.

AMD released Radeon driver 21.2.1 with support for The Medium

AMD has unveiled the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.2.1 graphics driver. Its main feature is optimisation for the new horror movie The Medium. According to the company, in 4K at high settings the Radeon RX 6800 XT demonstrates a gain of up to 9%.

In addition, as usual, AMD has fixed a number of issues:

flickering or artefacts when two displays are connected to the Radeon RX Vega graphics, at least one of which is running at high refresh rates; Screen flicker when using MSI Afterburner; Radeon recording and streaming failed to work on AMD Radeon HD 7800; Some models did not display or did not display correctly when using SketchUp on Radeon RDNA accelerators; Samsung CRG9 series displays displayed a black screen when waking from sleep mode; crashing in Metro Exodus when ray tracing is enabled; problems with video playback on secondary displays while playing Doom Eternal on the main screen.

AMD engineers are working on fixing known flaws:

Hitman 3 crashing in the Apex Predator mission on Radeon RX 6000 accelerators; Radeon FreeSync may not be enabled in Forza Horizon 4; AMD investigates user complaints that Radeon Software may be loading the CPU harder than usual in idle mode; Brightness flicker in some games when running Radeon FreeSync in windowed mode without margins; Extended sync sometimes results in a black screen.

The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.2.1 driver can be downloaded in Windows 7 (64 bit) or Windows 10 (64 bit) versions either from the AMD official website or from the Radeon settings menu. The new version is dated February 1 and is intended for video cards and integrated graphics of the Radeon HD 7000 family and above.

AMD released Radeon driver 21.1.1 with support for Hitman 3 and Quake II RTX

AMD never released a traditional major update to its drivers last year, so now the company has unveiled the first January Radeon Software 21.1.1 driver, which still belongs to the Adrenalin 2020 Edition range. Perhaps we'll get the 2021 series when AMD overcomes the deficit with the Radeon RX 6000 series accelerators.

Anyway, Radeon Software 21.1.1 brings support for Quake II RTX & ; a free-to-play version of the classic shooter with the addition of path tracing effects. The game uses state-of-the-art graphics card hardware to calculate lighting, shadows and reflections & ; thanks to Vulkan technology made available on Radeon cards. Also in the latest Hitman 3 action game the driver boosted performance up to 10 % at maximum settings in 4K resolution on 16GB Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card.

Finally, AMD has fixed a number of issues:

The recording and streaming indicator was reset to default; After switching tasks, performance indicator overlays were occasionally reset or did not match the values set in Radeon Software; Radeon Software was displaying the wrong release date for the driver version being installed; Overlapping performance metrics flickered during HDR video playback on displays; reflection was not displayed in Grand Theft Auto V when Reflection MSAA was enabled in the settings; PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds session timer kept running in Radeon Software even after exiting the game; DOOM Eternal crashed while playing and with Steam overlay enabled; Radeon Software recorded content appeared cropped or recorded at an incorrect resolution on Radeon RX Vega graphics cards; Samsung Odyssey G9 C49G95T had issues with displaying or displaying artifacts at 5120 × 1440 at 240Hz; Anisotropic filtering in the Radeon Software graphics settings did not work with DirectX 9 applications on RDNA accelerators some displays (e.g. Scepter C series or Samsung Odyssey G9) on Radeon RX 6000 video cards sometimes displayed a black screen; Oculus Link users experienced intermittent crashes on Polaris and Vega accelerators.

AMD engineers are working on fixing known flaws:

Brightness flicker in some games when running Radeon FreeSync in windowed mode without margins; flicker or artifacts when two displays are connected to the Radeon RX Vega graphics, at least one of which operates at a high refresh rate; crashes in Metro Exodus when ray tracing is enabled; Radeon recording and streaming features fail on AMD Radeon HD 7800; flicker when using MSI Afterburner; Extended sync will occasionally cause a black screen.

The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.1.1 driver can be downloaded in Windows 7 (64 bit) or Windows 10 (64 bit) versions either from the AMD official website or from the Radeon settings menu. The new version is dated 21 January and is designed for video cards and integrated graphics of the Radeon HD 7000 family and above.

Patent suggests AMD is going to apply chipsets to graphics cards, despite difficulties

A new application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on the last day of last year describes AMD's approach to a potential chiplet-based graphics accelerator design. The manufacturer pointed out the problems in such a design and explained how they could be avoided in the future.

According to AMD, graphics processors are still monolithic chips for a reason: there are plenty of problems with the interaction of multiple chips. The current graphics pipeline is not particularly efficient for multiple GPUs (the same goes for configurations like Crossfire or SLI), as it is sometimes difficult to distribute tasks between multiple active chips in a system. AMD also describes synchronisation of memory content between multiple GPU chips as being complex and costly from a design perspective.

AMD believes that such problems could be avoided by introducing «high bandwidth passive crosslinks». According to AMD, the first GPU chipset should be directly connected to the CPU, while each of the graphics chipsets in the array & ; are connected to the first GPU via passive crosslinks. Such links must be placed in a silicon interposer layer, which is an intermediate wafer with conductors in one or more layers. A group of interconnected chips would work, essentially, like a system on a chip.

Conventional GPUs have a common last-level cache (LLC), but to avoid timing issues AMD believes that each of the chipsets should get their own LLC, with all of them being unified and consistent across all chipsets.

AMD has not publicly confirmed that it is working on a chiplet-based graphics accelerator design. However, there have been rumours that the RDNA 3+ design could be chiplet-based. AMD has a lot of experience with multi-chip designs, especially in its Ryzen processors and various APUs, including gaming consoles.

It is expected that both competitors, NVIDIA and Intel, could also go down this path, allowing them to produce accelerators with higher performance. Intel has already confirmed that it is working on Xe-HP graphics cards with a multi-chip design & ; they are expected to debut this year. NVIDIA is rumoured to unveil its first such accelerator along with the Hopper architecture. Back in 2019, NVIDIA's chief science advisor Bill Dally  said that the company has developed technology to build a graphics accelerator with a multi-chip layout.

Tests have confirmed that AMD Smart Access Memory technology has worked on the Intel platform

Resizable BAR (Base Address Registers) technology is part of the PCI Express interface specifications since version 2.0 & ; it is the basis of AMD Smart Access Memory (SAM), but is no longer exclusive to owners of new Ryzen chips. Recently ASUS released firmware for motherboards with Intel Z490 chipset, which adds Resizable BAR support.

When this functionality is enabled in the BIOS of Intel Z490-based motherboards, ASUS AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards should automatically take advantage of this technology. AMD never said that SAM would be exclusive to Radeon RX 6000 and Ryzen 5000 processors. Only these products are listed as supported by AMD because AMD has conducted tests with them and is confident that they will work. Another reason is obviously marketing and a desire to increase sales of their own devices.

Japanese site ASCII decided to test the SAM in practice in the Intel platform. The site staff used a Core i9-10900K processor and a reference Radeon RX 6800 XT with and without active Resizable BAR function. As we already know, activation of SAM does not always give a noticeable performance gain even on a bunch of Ryzen 5000 and Radeon 6000 & ; everything depends on the specific game. That's why only those projects that have already proven SAM gains were included in the test: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Forza Horizon 4, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Rainbow Six Siege.

Official data on performance gain from SAM on AMD Ryzen 5000 and Radeon 6000 platforms.

So, on the Intel Z490 platform in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla at 1920 × 1080 and the highest quality, the activation of Resizable BAR gives both minimum and average frame rates increase: In Forza Horizon 4, at 2560 × 1440 and maximum quality settings, you'll feel the same gain (note that the graphics incorrectly specify resolution; 1920 × 1080): In Red Dead Redemption 2 at 1920 × 1080, the Resizable BAR increases the minimum frame rate multiple times to provide a smoother gaming experience: Finally, in Rainbow Six Siege at 1920 × 1080 at high quality settings and 100 %-scale rendering, the game shows an improvement in minimum frame rate and minimal increase in average performance: Recall: AMD introduced SAM technology during the announcement of Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards. While conventional Windows-based PCs can only access a portion of the graphics memory (VRAM) at the same time, this technology allows the processor to extend the data channel, allowing the entire video memory array to be used at once and eliminate potential bottlenecks, achieving improved performance in some games.

Maximum frequency of AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU will reach 3 GHz

The flagship Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card will have the highest GPU clock speed of any Big Navi (RDNA 2) gas pedal. At least, according to the data from the informant Patrick Schur, published on Twitter.

According to the screen shots taken in the MorePowerTool utility, the future flagship Big Navi & ; Radeon RX 6900 XT & ; will be able to reach a higher clock frequency limit than graphics cards RX 6800 XT and RX 6800, & ; 3 GHz. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, offering 72 Navi 21 processing units (CU), has a maximum GPU frequency tolerance of 2.8 GHz. This limit seems to be tightly set by AMD itself, and is enforced regardless of the modification of the graphics card by all partners; browsers and extreme overclockers have so far failed to overcome this limit. The restriction may be caused by the desire of AMD to prevent the cheaper model from competing with the much more expensive Radeon RX 6900 XT. If both gas pedals had the same frequency limit, there is a good chance that after overclocking the shortened version could easily approach the RX 6900XT in terms of performance. After all, both models have the same bass frequencies and a TBP (Total Board Power) limit of 300W. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, which will offer 80 processing units, with an increased maximum clock speed limit of 3 GHz can be an excellent choice for overclockers, especially if the AMD will allow partners to produce unattended gas pedals. Overclocker Roman Hartung, known as der8auer, recently published a video in which he tried to overcome the 2.8 GHz limit on PowerColor's RX 6800 XT Red Devil. Unfortunately, despite many attempts, it is impossible to do it without special tools:

The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT with 5120 streaming processors will compete with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card worth $1499. Both cards will surely set new world records for overclocking. Unfortunately, graphics gas pedal manufacturers will not be able to meet the huge demand for high-performance graphics cards, so at the recommended price of $999 will be able to buy 6900XT this year only a few select ones. AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT will officially enter the market on December 8.

AMD expects Radeon RX 6800 to drop to the recommended price in 1-2 months.

The problem with NVIDIA Ampere and AMD RDNA 2 graphics cards is that it is almost impossible to buy them at the declared prices. Interesting information was shared by Hardware Unboxed channel during the November QA session. It seems that even in the U.S. it will be possible to buy Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards from AMD partners at recommended retail prices not earlier than a few weeks.

HWBOT

Steve and Tim from the Hardware Unboxed YouTube channel finally sat in front of the camera together after a long social distance to discuss the Radeon RX 6800 family and many other topics. The video concerns the lack of stock of the Radeon RX 6800 and overpriced non-standard models. The reference cards were immediately sold out at recommended retail prices. Many retailers did not even sell these cards through the Network, as their availability was minimal. Unfortunately, this situation did not change with the launch of non-standard models in a week. Stores, as a rule, did not accept pre-orders for these decisions, and the prices were simply terrifying and excessively higher than AMD's stated prices.

HWBOT

It turned out that AMD has recognized the problem of inflated prices, and the manufacturer is already working to help partners achieve the recommended retail price within two months. AMD's short and unofficial statement in a retelling of HarwdareUnboxed, however, does not explain why there is a shortage of AMD graphics cards and why prices for non-standard options are much higher even when compared to NVIDIA Ampere cards at the time of launch. «We had a personal conversation with AMD. They assured us that in 4–8 weeks, the cards from the partners will be available for purchase at recommended prices. They said they will help partners achieve the $649 recommended retail price for the Radeon RX 6800 XT and expect it to be $649 within the next 8 weeks;& ; said Steve Walton of Hardware Unboxed.

Recall: in Russian retail, the situation with the new AMD gas pedals is even worse. Large stores (in particular, DNS) are not waiting for normalization of supplies until the second quarter of next year. In the U.S., the recommended prices were only fair for the first reference models, which puts observers in a difficult situation: it is impossible to compare the price of new cards with competing NVIDIA products, because in retail they cost much more. AMD has had this problem with launches for years, but the manufacturer still can't solve the problem. As you can see from the table above compiled by VideoCardz resource, non-standard Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards are sold at Newegg for $81–251 above the recommended retail price (and it's still not easy to buy them):

AMD once again promised an open alternative to DLSS that will run on Intel and NVIDIA PCs, consoles, GPUs

AMD has already talked about working on an open cross-platform alternative to NVIDIA's DLSS intelligent scaling technology, which will work on PCs and consoles. AMD corporate vice president Scott Herkelman noted that the company is working on this issue in partnership with Intel and NVIDIA: the new technology will work on PCs and consoles, as opposed to closed DLSS.

He also said that the performance of the ray tracing technology of current Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards will improve over time. And AMD's leading gaming architect, Frank Azor, added that the company will consider enabling intelligent memory access for non-Series 500-series chipset as well. AMD's new Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT proved to be quite competitive with their NVIDIA counterparts in most games using traditional screening techniques. And while Navi 21 ray tracing is also good for the first time, AMD has nothing yet to answer to NVIDIA DLSS, which is very useful for ultra heavy modes, especially when using ray tracing actively. DLSS allows the graphics card to visualize the picture at a relatively low resolution, and then « restore » it uses machine learning algorithms.

Features DirectX 12 Ultimate and AMD FidelityFX

Speaking to Dave Altavilla and Marco Chiappetta of HotHardware, Frank Azor said that RDNA 2 is primarily focused on games. For non-game workloads, AMD has a separate CDNA architecture used in gas pedals like Instinct MI100. According to Azor, although RDNA2 cards are sometimes good at general-purpose computing, their priority is precisely gaming.

With regard to intelligent zoom (around 30:01 in the video), Scott Herkelman said AMD's goal is the opposite of NVIDIA's when it comes to implementation. Without going into particular detail, he only said that AMD's PC and console game development partners are begging the company not to create an API for any particular platform, manufacturer or game in order to minimize the complexity of cross-platform project development. AMD is committed to working with Intel and NVIDIA to create an open, intelligent scaling method that works in both PC and console games without additional effort. However, it will take time to develop it, so AMD does not go into detail at this time, noting only that it invests a lot of resources in it, and that in the near future the technology will definitely appear on the latest Radeon cards and possibly even other platforms. In the meantime, NVIDIA is still ahead of in this regard; for example, Cyberpunk 2077 will not initially have « rays» AMD cards; perhaps due to the lack of the notorious alternative to DLSS. Herckelmann also believes that the ray tracing performance of RX 6000 laquo cards; is quite good» and while the vast majority of games currently available still do not use this feature, he has confirmed that the performance of ray tracing will improve over time; as more new generation cross-platform games are released. By the way, AMD introduced Smart Access Memory (SAM) technology during the announcement of Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards. If usually PC processors can only access part of the graphics memory (VRAM) at the same time, then with this technology it is possible to expand the data channel, which will allow the processor to use the entire video memory array at once and eliminate potential bottlenecks. This will lead to increased performance. For now the technology works only on RDNA 2 graphics cards in conjunction with Ryzen 5000 processors and X570 chipsets. NVIDIA has promised to implement an analog that runs on Ampere graphics cards with AMD and Intel processors, even when using PCIe 3.0 bus. AMD then confirmed that the technology is open, and support is only temporarily limited to the flagship platforms. Frank Azor in a conversation with HotHardware confirmed that so far the technology is certified to work only with motherboards based on 500-series chipsets and Ryzen 5000 processors. In the future, SAM can work with other chipsets.