CPU Raven Ridge Speculation

JosephEK

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Mar 6, 2017
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I've heard rumors about AMD's upcoming APUs scheduled to come out late this year, stuff like that they will have dedicated VRAM so they're not crippled by the system RAM and reaching RX 460 levels of graphical performance. I've also heard that they may use Vega or Polaris graphics architectures.

Can anybody confirm these claims?

If I recall AMD's Kaveri APUs like the A10 7850K still outperform Intel's Kaby Lake's HD 630 iGPU, but I don't know if it beats Iris Pro graphics on stuff like the i7 5775C.

This means this next generation AMD iGPU could leave Intel in the dust and I'm a bit excited to see what happens because this can have an impact on some of the smallest form factors we can create for PCs. I can picture it now being able to create my own sort of barebone system with a 65-95W TDP APU on a mITX board with an M.2 drive and one of those low-profile Noctua coolers with the fan underneath the heatsink blowing hot air up and away from the system.

What I would want such a system for the same reasons I would want something like a NUC, but to be able to do light gaming such as Rocket League and Minecraft at 1080p which is something current iGPU I don't feel are quite well suited for.
 

LocoMoto

DEVOURER OF BAKED POTATOES
Jul 19, 2015
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The Iris Pro Graphics are some of the best integrated out there at the moment for standard consumer chips.
Doubt anyone can actually confirm much about the next gen APUs though as AMD themselves haven't released much specs about it

But I've heard the Raven27 can hurl a 4k screen.. with just the igpu. XD Couldn't resist that meme XD
 

alexep7

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Jan 30, 2017
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I'm pretty sure the A10 7850K currently also beats Iris Pro graphics, at least the ones on the i7-5775C. I was just looking that up the other day.

Raven Ridge for desktops (socketed, that is) won't come out until 2018, unfortunately. Meanwhile you have to contend with Bristol Ridge, which should be officially released in H2 2017 (I wish I knew what's taking so long). Bristol Ridge's A12-9800's graphics are very impressive though, if Raven Ridge improves on that they will be great for those of us who don't need 60fps but like to play smoothly at 1080p.


There's also a rumour that has been going around for a while now that Intel and AMD have agreed to use Radeon IGP technology in Intel CPUs. I doubt it's true simply because I can't see what AMD would have to gain by doing this, but anything's possible, I guess
 

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King of Cable Management
Sep 26, 2015
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Yep, Intel will be using Radeon GPUs on package in entry- to mid-level Kaby Lake processors soon. It is only on-package and not on-die, so AMD will have Global Foundries fab the chips and then Intel will integrate them along side their CPUs on the package, so no critical IP exchanges hands.
 
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JosephEK

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Yep, Intel will be using Radeon GPUs on package in entry- to mid-level Kaby Lake processors soon. It is only on-package and not on-die, so AMD will have Global Foundries fab the chips and then Intel will integrate them along side their CPUs on the package, so no critical IP exchanges hands.
Oh that's cool, I remember a few months ago there was some spat between Intel and nVIDIA after Intel said their Phi was better than some nVIDIA thing and I'd love to imagine this is Intel's way of giving nVIDIA the middle finger. Probably not, but I can dream LOL.
 

EdZ

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May 11, 2015
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Yep, Intel will be using Radeon GPUs on package in entry- to mid-level Kaby Lake processors soon. It is only on-package and not on-die, so AMD will have Global Foundries fab the chips and then Intel will integrate them along side their CPUs on the package, so no critical IP exchanges hands.
I'm still not yet sold on the idea that switching of licensing from Nvidia to AMD is anything more than a cost-cutting measure for Intel. They never incorporated any Nvidia designed GPU blocks into their CPUs throughout the history of the licensing deal, and I can't see any reason for that changing. Intel fab all their own chips on their own processes, so AMD would need to redesign the low-level structure of their GPUs for Intel to be able to fab them (Intel 14nm is pretty different from GloFo/Samsung 14LPP), or force Intel to switch back to a more expensive - and lower performance due to an off-silicon bus - multi-die-package assembly process (something they dropped as soon as they could, with the exception of Crystalwell which commands a large premium) AND split their CPU lines into two branches: one that incorporates the IGP, and another that incorporates an internal bus to connect to a GPU package.
 

JosephEK

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I guess that's off topic though. I'm willing to wait for Raven Ridge, but if it turns out to be unimpressive I'll likely just stay in the mindset of low-profile discrete GPU for a minimum requirement for my build plan.
 

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Sep 26, 2015
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Guru3D

Guru3D said:
Now, there are rumors about an unannounced product from Intel: a Kaby Lake-G series which would mark Intel’s re-entry in multi chip module in a single package.

Guru3D said:
For now, rumors suggest that these Kaby Lake-G would be exclusive to the notebook market. It is likely to have a discrete GPU embedded into the die.
 
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JosephEK

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Not raven ridge, but great news nonetheless. I wonder when it will be out though. What would such a thing perform like? A new generation of Iris Pro? Why wouldn't they class it as "C" like the i7 5775C in that case?

It would be cool because Intel has the mini STX platform, but I have a hard believing time AMD would give Intel it's best stuff when the APU is AMD's strongest card.
 
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King of Cable Management
Sep 26, 2015
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It goes along with the discussion we had above, as this will most likely be a competitor to Raven Ridge. Not sure how the memory will be architected here. The additional packages on-die for Iris Pro processors were the Crystal Well memory ICs. In Kaby Lake G, the additional packages are the Radeon GPUs.
 

JosephEK

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It goes along with the discussion we had above, as this will most likely be a competitor to Raven Ridge. Not sure how the memory will be architected here. The additional packages on-die for Iris Pro processors were the Crystal Well memory ICs. In Kaby Lake G, the additional packages are the Radeon GPUs.
So AMD would sell Intel a part they need to compete with AMD? I'm still confused why AMD would give up a part of the market where there's little competition...
 

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Sep 26, 2015
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Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) is completely separate from their processor group. It's just like Samsung selling displays to Apple, even though Samsung also makes a phone that is a competitor to the iPhone...Samsung's display group is completely separate.
 

JosephEK

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Radeon Technologies Group (RTG) is completely separate from their processor group. It's just like Samsung selling displays to Apple, even though Samsung also makes a phone that is a competitor to the iPhone...Samsung's display group is completely separate.
I guess they are, but I would've thought there would be some kind of coordination between the two. I mean they clearly must work together to make an APU right?

On the other hand maybe AMD will still make a profit from selling their stuff to us indirectly through Intel on top of whatever their own APUs bring in. Might also give Radeon graphics more widespread acceptance and optimization from developers which would aid in their battle against team green.