- Jul 23, 2015
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I call dibs nvidia will unveil its own Async Compute implementation called AsyncWorks with Volta and buried AMD/RTG with the new and improved GameFinallyWorks program. /s
Joking aside, how are your thought on nvidia's upcoming Volta Architecture? It will have a substantial performance boost compared to Pascal but that's all Nvidia wrote in its roadmap (Heck, Pascal stole all of Volta features in recent roadmap). So what do you think nvidia change in Volta.
I'll start with mine
When DX11 came, nvidia designed Fermi for it. Fermi brings a lot to the table (in a hot and noisy way). Tessellation and DirectCompute (compute shaders) were the norm feature. Fermi was nvidia's first wooden screw step designing a DX11 capable GPU. Fermi bring GPC into the mix, kicking out the TPC from GT200
as the biggest execution block on the GPU. Fermi was a beast.
Then came Kepler. Kepler was another beast. It put a SM into another SM creating a SMX. It tried and succeeded fixing Fermi hot and noisy introduction. It also thrown out Fermi's HW scheduler which make it not dynamic at scheduling for a while (a tradeoff for energy efficiency). It literally looks like a refined Fermi since not alot has change but rather fixed and enlarged. It also still target DX11.
Maxwell was a fundamental shift from nvidia previous design. It was nvidia's first architecture using their new “mobile first” design strategy and with it brings a whole bunch of energy efficiency enhancement. Kepler SMX were partitioned into 4 smaller SM creating the SMM. The PolyMorph engine gets an update with geometry/rasterization specific function like raster order views and conservative raster. And it was nvidia's first GPU to partially support DX12 since it was not finalized yet. It was an efficient beast furthering nvidia's DX11 performance. But fall short on async compute because it was too efficient to begin with. It was also not intelligent enough for it too.
Pascal seems like a stopgap for Volta and a testbed for 16nmFF. It got all of Volta planned features plus another update for the PolyMorph engine. It also implement some function to elevate the async compute deficit by being more intelligent in scheduling and switching workloads. And with 16nmFF it was supercharge with a very high frequency. It's a beast. But more of a HPC beast. A GCN CU look-a-like SM exist on GP100. But that's about it. A lot of it benefit HPC more than gaming. And it also introduced back TPC from GT200.
So what about Volta?
I think Volta will be multi engine, having a unit akin to GCN ACE functionality (my head pops up mini GigaThread engine per GPC). Volta will have a new and pure DX12 focused design. And I think it will reintroduce back HW scheduling to better accommodate async compute execution. The DX11 execution model (Fermi, Kepler, Maxwell, Pascal) are over. Time for a new concurrent model.
It's time for a new Fermi moment
Joking aside, how are your thought on nvidia's upcoming Volta Architecture? It will have a substantial performance boost compared to Pascal but that's all Nvidia wrote in its roadmap (Heck, Pascal stole all of Volta features in recent roadmap). So what do you think nvidia change in Volta.
I'll start with mine
When DX11 came, nvidia designed Fermi for it. Fermi brings a lot to the table (in a hot and noisy way). Tessellation and DirectCompute (compute shaders) were the norm feature. Fermi was nvidia's first wooden screw step designing a DX11 capable GPU. Fermi bring GPC into the mix, kicking out the TPC from GT200
as the biggest execution block on the GPU. Fermi was a beast.
Then came Kepler. Kepler was another beast. It put a SM into another SM creating a SMX. It tried and succeeded fixing Fermi hot and noisy introduction. It also thrown out Fermi's HW scheduler which make it not dynamic at scheduling for a while (a tradeoff for energy efficiency). It literally looks like a refined Fermi since not alot has change but rather fixed and enlarged. It also still target DX11.
Maxwell was a fundamental shift from nvidia previous design. It was nvidia's first architecture using their new “mobile first” design strategy and with it brings a whole bunch of energy efficiency enhancement. Kepler SMX were partitioned into 4 smaller SM creating the SMM. The PolyMorph engine gets an update with geometry/rasterization specific function like raster order views and conservative raster. And it was nvidia's first GPU to partially support DX12 since it was not finalized yet. It was an efficient beast furthering nvidia's DX11 performance. But fall short on async compute because it was too efficient to begin with. It was also not intelligent enough for it too.
Pascal seems like a stopgap for Volta and a testbed for 16nmFF. It got all of Volta planned features plus another update for the PolyMorph engine. It also implement some function to elevate the async compute deficit by being more intelligent in scheduling and switching workloads. And with 16nmFF it was supercharge with a very high frequency. It's a beast. But more of a HPC beast. A GCN CU look-a-like SM exist on GP100. But that's about it. A lot of it benefit HPC more than gaming. And it also introduced back TPC from GT200.
So what about Volta?
I think Volta will be multi engine, having a unit akin to GCN ACE functionality (my head pops up mini GigaThread engine per GPC). Volta will have a new and pure DX12 focused design. And I think it will reintroduce back HW scheduling to better accommodate async compute execution. The DX11 execution model (Fermi, Kepler, Maxwell, Pascal) are over. Time for a new concurrent model.
It's time for a new Fermi moment