AMD Radeon GPUs tapped for Google Stadia gamestreaming platform
Today AMD announced that its cloud-optimized Radeon datacenter GPUs will power Google’s Stadia game streaming platform, which Google unveiled today at the Game Developers Conference.
Streaming today’s most demanding titles from the cloud requires massive processing capabilities and advanced technologies to tackle unique datacenter challenges from security to scalability. That’s why Google has chosen AMD’s optimized datacenter GPUs – featuring fast, efficient HBM2 memory and critical datacenter features – for the platform. AMD is also supporting Google with its software development tools, including AMD Radeon GPU Profiler (RGP), and its Linux-based, open-source Vulkan driver to help game developers optimize future titles to run on the new GPU-powered platform.
RGP lets developers visualize how their application utilizes the GPU and track each rendered frame in real-time, allowing for easy and efficient debugging and optimization through the interoperable RenderDoc debug software.
AMD Radeon™ GPUs and Developer Tools Tapped for
New Generation Gaming Platform, Google Stadia
— Cloud-optimized AMD datacenter GPUs and robust software tools enable developers to create exceptional, scalable, high-performance game streaming experiences —
San Francisco, Calif. — Mar. 19, 2019 — Building on a close, long-term collaboration between the two companies, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced that Google selected high-performance, custom AMD Radeon datacenter GPUs for its Vulkan® and Linux®-based Google Stadia. Google announced the platform today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, Calif. AMD also is supporting Google with its software development tools and Linux-based, open-source Vulkan driver to help game developers optimize future titles to run on the new GPU-powered platform.
“By combining our gaming DNA and datacenter technology leadership with a long-standing commitment to open platforms, AMD provides unique technologies and expertise to enable world-class cloud gaming experiences,” said Ogi Brkic, corporate vice president and general manager of the Datacenter GPU Business Unit at AMD. “AMD is delighted to work with Google in its effort to bring amazing gaming experiences to legions of gamers around the world with the reliability and no-compromises performance they expect.”
“We’ve worked closely with AMD for years on this project, leading to the development of a custom GPU with leading-edge features and performance for Google Stadia,” said Dov Zimring, Google Stadia developer platform product lead. “Google and AMD share a commitment to open-source with expertise in Vulkan, open-source Vulkan GPU drivers, and open-source graphics optimization tools. We’re humbled by the spirit of innovation and collaboration that exists throughout the gaming industry and look forward to pioneering the future of graphics technology with game developers, in open-source.”
High-performance AMD Datacenter GPUs
Streaming graphics-rich games to millions of users on demand and from the cloud requires ultra high-performance processing capabilities to minimize latency and maximize game performance. It also requires advanced technologies to tackle unique datacenter challenges, including security, manageability, and scalability.
Custom AMD high-performance Radeon datacenter GPUs for Google Stadia include:
- Second-generation High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM2) to provide power savings
in a compact footprint; - Critical datacenter features such as Error Correcting Code (ECC)1 protection to
help ensure data integrity; - Fast, predictable performance with security features for cloud-based gaming, via the industry’s first hardware-based GPU virtualization solution built on industry standard SR-IOV (Single-Root I/O Virtualization) technology.
The AMD graphics architecture supports a wide range of today’s gaming platforms – from PCs to major game consoles – enabling developers to optimize their games for a single GPU architecture and extend these benefits across multiple platforms which now include large-scale cloud gaming platforms.
Robust Developer Tools
Powerful AMD software tools enable developers to optimize their games and other applications for AMD Radeon GPUs. AMD empowers developers with a range of options and broad flexibility to optimize the performance of GPU-based applications based on a long-standing commitment to open-source platforms, including Linux-based drivers and support for the low-level Vulkan API that provide broad control over the performance, efficiency and capabilities of AMD Radeon GPUs.
The open-source AMD Linux drivers allow Google and its development partners to inspect the code and understand exactly how the driver works, enabling them to better optimize their applications to interface with AMD Radeon GPUs. The driver also contains an application tracing component that, together with the AMD Radeon GPU Profiler (RGP), provides access to detailed, low-level information about how workloads run on AMD Radeon GPUs. Identifying timing issues that might suggest potential optimizations, this capability dramatically improves developers’ ability to create applications that deliver the best possible performance on AMD Radeon GPUs.
The AMD Radeon GPU Profiler allows game developers to visualize exactly how their application is utilizing the GPU, including how graphics and compute thread groups occupy the GPU. Developers are then able to track event timing and optimize their games for Google Stadia. RGP also interoperates with the popular open-source RenderDoc graphics debugging tool to give developers deeper real-time insights into the rendering of each frame, reducing the time required to debug and profile frames during the development process.
RGP operates the same way in a virtualized environment as it does when running on a dedicated PC client, making it easy for developers to optimize their applications for virtualized GPUs in large scale environments as they would for any other gaming platform.
Update: AMD Radeon VII review - 02/28/2019 07:41 PM
As promised, with the latest compatible build of AfterBurner, we have now been able to successfully tweak the Radeon VII. We updated the overclocking page on the Radeon VII review with Time Spy and f...
Download: AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.2.2 driver - 02/14/2019 12:56 AM
You can download AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 19.2.2 driver. This release supports AMD Radeon VII and the upcoming launches for Far Cry New Dawn, Metro Exodus, Sid Meier’s Civiliza...
AMD Radeon VII: world’s first 7nm gaming GPU now available - 02/08/2019 09:33 AM
AMD announced availability of the world’s first 7nm gaming graphics card, the Radeon VII, bringing exceptional performance and amazing experiences for the latest AAA, eSports and VR titles, ...
MSI Announces AMD Radeon VII Graphics Card - 02/08/2019 09:30 AM
MSI is proud to officially announce AMD Radeon VII, the world's first 7nm gaming graphics card. The all-new Radeon VII is designed to provide exceptional performance and amazing experiences for the l...
Review: AMD Radeon VII (16GB) - 02/07/2019 04:00 PM
Today is the day we may present you the benchmark review of the all new Radeon VII. VII as in fabricated on that 7nm node. The Radeon VII is a product that has been talked about for quite a while. W...
Senior Member
Posts: 441
Joined: 2005-04-04
Today I see that it's not an APU, but the interesting part is the CPU- Is it AMD made or maybe it can be Xeon if Intel will agree to Google's terms on Pricing? Or maybe AMD sold the the design like they did with China with Hygon?
Edit: just saw this GPU mentioned in LTT forums:
https://www.amd.com/en/products/professional-graphics/radeon-pro-v340
Can this be the current GPU used in Stadia? it looks smart move regarding maximum density+ it has Two Virtualized Encode Engines to compress independent video streams in H.264 or H.265 formats

Senior Member
Posts: 8052
Joined: 2014-09-27
This will not walk unless the are coordinated with ISPs/router makers to implement proper QoS.
Senior Member
Posts: 1858
Joined: 2012-04-30
yeah, cause google doesnt have anything to do with internet traffic.
if someone like sony (or others)
that are way smaller when it comes to isp use etc, i doubt a major player like google will have problems.
qos is already implemented for almost all games produced (again by smaller companies than google) so why would this be any different?
e. g. i don't know any other company that is able to lay their own transatlantic (data) cable, outside telekom/phone companies..
Senior Member
Posts: 13635
Joined: 2018-03-21
how long till they find out the deals a dud? pay less for the hardware, more on power bills.
Senior Member
Posts: 3432
Joined: 2007-05-31
Does it look like custom monster APU with Radeon VII 56CU for better yields/price with Zen2 CPU + 16GB HBM2?
Google not giving info on the CPU but list only AMD as a partner- so maybe because it's unannounced zen 2?
You don't need APU or CPU for that exercice... Only GPU.