Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
Guru3D Rig of the Month - February 2021
ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 STRIX Gaming OC review
EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Gaming review
MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Gaming X TRIO review
PALIT GeForce RTX 3060 DUAL OC review
ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3060 AMP WHITE review
Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact chassis review
Sabrent Rocket 4 PLUS 2TB NVMe SSD review
MSI Radeon RX 6900 XT GAMING X TRIO review
Guru3D Q1 Winter 20/21 PC Buyer Guide

New Downloads
Guru3D RTSS Rivatuner Statistics Server Download 7.3.0 Final
Media Player Classic - Home Cinema v1.9.10 Download
GeForce 461.72 WHQL driver download
AIDA64 Download Version 6.32.5640 beta
CrystalDiskInfo 8.11.2 Download
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 21.2.3 driver download
GPU-Z Download v2.37.0
Intel HD graphics Driver Download Version: DCH27.20.100.9313
HWiNFO Download v6.43 - 4380 Beta
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 21.2.2 driver download


New Forum Topics
GeForce 461.72 WHQL drivers: download & discussion NVIDIA: Rainbow Six Siege Players Test NVIDIA Reflex and Two new DLSS Titles Intel Core i7-11700K Rocket Lake-S is already selling at German etailer Download: Guru3D RTSS Rivatuner Statistics Server 7.3.0 Final RX Vega Owners Thread, Tests, Mods, BIOS & Tweaks ! (cont.) Should I sell it? Dell releases 23.6-inch curved gaming LCD compatible with 165Hz / 1ms NVIDIA Re-Confirms Resizable BAR Support on RTX 30 Series RTSS 6.7.0 beta 1 Who needs a 3080 if you can get GeForce Now..




Guru3D.com » Review » MSI Radeon R9-280X TwinFrozr Gaming OC review » Page 5

MSI Radeon R9-280X TwinFrozr Gaming OC review - The graphics engine architecture

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 10/18/2013 06:01 PM [ 5] 1 comment(s)

Tweet

 

The graphics engine architecture

So I kept the more complex stuff for last in the technology overview. If this seems a little too techy for you, skip this page please.

I'm keeping the focuss on Tahiti R9 280 for now okay ? The new graphics core architecture is now marketed as GCN, which is short for Graphics Core Next architecture and the architecture building block has changed significantly to remove certain inefficiencies seen in the VLIW architecture. GCN is in its essence the basis of a GPU that performs well at both graphical and computing tasks. For the compute side of things the new GCN Compute unit model has been introduced, it is designed for better utilization, high throughput and multi tasking. E.g. performance, performance, performance.

So your basic new Shader cluster is one called a (GCN) Compute Unit:

  • Non-VLIW Design
  • 16 wide SIMD Units
  • 64 KB registers / SIMD Unit

Now if we take 4 of these SIMD Units, that will form the basis of one Compute Unit (CU). Each SIMD unit is 16 wide, times four per compute unit means that each CU unit has 64 shader processors. The GPU has 32 Compute units meaning 64SIMDs x 32 CUs = 2048 Shader processors (for the R7970).

  • Engine has Dual Geometry engines / Asynchronous Compute engines
  • 8 render backends / 32 color ROPs per clock cycle / 128 Z/Stencil ROPs per clock
  • Engine ties to 768KB R/W L2 cache
  • Tahiti GPU has up-to 32 Compute Units

The Graphics Core Next Compute Unit (CU) has about the same floating point power per clock as the previous one (i.e. Cayman). It also has the same amount of register space (for the vector units). Each CU also has its own registers and local data share.

Again: one compute unit just as a Cayman SIMD is a collection of shader processors, four SIMDs form one compute unit. Cayman's (6900) problem was that it was not so efficient with multiple tasks at once.

Cayman had/has 16 4-wide VLIW processing elements for a total of 16x4=64 operations in parallel, while the new architecture has 4 16-wide vector processors, again for a total of 4x16=64 operations per clock. GCN also has a scalar processor that Cayman does not.

The distinction is in its bare essence that GCN does not need instruction level parallelism, each of the four 16-wide SIMD vector units execute a different wavefront being the whole 64-sized wavefront taking four cycles.

Radeon HD 7970

So the theoretical floating point power stays more or less the same per CU, but GCN will be more efficient since it does not require instruction level parallelism (we assume it costs some more area/transistors as well). The outcome, compiling also becomes much more uncomplicated and that means more efficiency and thus there it is again, better performance. GCN is all about creating a GPU good for both graphics and computing purposes. Oh and all compute units ... combined with the other ASIC components form the GPU. See, easy peasy, right? :)




27 pages « < 4 5 6 7 next »



Related Articles
MSI Radeon RX 6900 XT GAMING X TRIO review
MSI is back with their finest customized offering of AMD's Flagship consumer graphics card, the Radeon RX 6900 XT in the flavor GAMING X TRIO. It's big, fast, and a feast for the eyes. Join us in t...

MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X TRIO Review
MSI submitted their all-new Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card for review, this one is a bit more special though as it has been outfitted in the Gaming X TRIO style. Yes, you'll see proper cooling appli...

MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z review
The new Radeon RX 5600 XT has been announced, in this review, we peek at the MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT Gaming Z . The Radeon RX 5600 XT is basically an RX 5700 however with 6GB of GDDR6, lower clock freq...

MSI Radeon RX 5500 XT Gaming X 8GB review
For our 3rd Radeon RX 5500 XT review we peek at an offering from MSI, this 8GB version is, you guessed it already, the most silent card we have had our hands-on. Not just that's he's quite a looker ...

© 2021