AMD PowerPlay

AMD PowerPlay is the brand name for a set of technologies for the reduction of the energy consumption implemented in several of AMD's graphics processing units and APUs supported by their proprietary graphics device driver "Catalyst". AMD PowerPlay is also implemented into ATI/AMD chipsets which integrated graphics and into AMD's Imageon handheld chipset, that was sold to Qualcomm in 2008.

AMD PowerPlay
Design firmAdvanced Micro Devices
TypeDynamic frequency scaling

Besides the desirable goal to reduce energy consumption, AMD PowerPlay helps to lower the noise levels created by the cooling in desktop computers and extend battery life in mobile devices. AMD PowerPlay has been succeeded by AMD PowerTune.[1]

History

The technology was first implemented in Mobility Radeon products for notebooks, to provide a set of features to lower the power consumption of the laptop computer. The technology consists of several technologies; examples include dynamic clock adjustments when the notebook is not plugged into a power socket and allowing different backlight brightness levels of the notebook LCD monitor. The technology was updated with the release of each generation of mobile GPUs. The latest release is ATI PowerPlay 7.0.[2]

Since the release of Radeon HD 3000 Series, PowerPlay was implemented to further reduce the power consumption of desktop GPUs.

Currently supported products

The official ATI support list[3] lists only the ATI Radeon 3800 series desktop cards, but PowerPlay is also a listed feature of all Radeon HD 3000/4000/5000 series products. Independent reviews indicated that the latter was already lower power compared to other 3D cards, so the addition of PowerPlay to that line was clearly intended to address an increasingly power, heat and noise conscious market. The ATI Radeon HD 2600 line – which does not support PowerPlay – was being phased out in favour of the 3000 series at the same price points that also support PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1 and faster GDDR3 memory.

The entire ATI Radeon Xpress line is also supported for single board computers which tend to be power sensitive and used in large installations where configuration and boot image control are major concerns.

Support for "PowerPlay" was added to the Linux kernel driver "amdgpu" on November 11, 2015.[4]

Desktop versus laptop

The main difference between the desktop and laptop versions is that the desktop version cuts the features which are aimed at notebook usage, including variable LCD backlight brightness. The PowerPlay technology for Radeon desktop graphics features three usage scenarios: normal mode (2D mode), light gaming mode and intensive gaming mode (3D mode), replacing notebook scenarios (running on AC power or battery power). Tests indicated that the lowest core clock frequency of an RV670 GPU core can reach as low as 300 MHz with PowerPlay technology enabled.[5]

Feature overview for AMD APUs

The following table shows features of AMD's APUs (see also: List of AMD accelerated processing units).

CodenameServer Basic Toronto
Micro Kyoto
Desktop Performance Renoir
Mainstream Llano Trinity Richland Kaveri Kaveri Refresh (Godavari) Carrizo Bristol Ridge Raven Ridge Picasso
Entry
Basic Kabini
MobilePerformance Renoir Cezanne
Mainstream Llano Trinity Richland Kaveri Carrizo Bristol Ridge Raven Ridge Picasso
Entry Dalí
Basic Desna, Ontario, Zacate Kabini, Temash Beema, Mullins Carrizo-L Stoney Ridge
Embedded Trinity Bald Eagle Merlin Falcon,
Brown Falcon		 Great Horned Owl Grey Hawk Ontario, Zacate Kabini Steppe Eagle, Crowned Eagle,
LX-Family		 Prairie Falcon Banded Kestrel
Platform High, standard and low power Low and ultra-low power
ReleasedAug 2011Oct 2012Jun 2013Jan 2014 2015Jun 2015Jun 2016Oct 2017Jan 2019Mar 2020 Jan 2021Jan 2011May 2013Apr 2014May 2015Feb 2016Apr 2019
CPU microarchitecture K10 Piledriver Steamroller Excavator "Excavator+"[6] Zen Zen+ Zen 2 Zen 3 Bobcat Jaguar Puma Puma+[7] "Excavator+" Zen
ISAx86-64x86-64
Socket Desktop High-end N/A
Mainstream N/A FM2+[lower-alpha 1] AM4
Entry FM1 FM2 FM2+[lower-alpha 2] AM1
Basic N/A N/A
Other FS1 FS1+, FP2 FP3 FP4 FP5 FP6 FT1 FT3 FT3b FP4 FP5
PCI Express version 2.0 3.0 4.0 2.0 3.0
Fab. (nm) GF 32SHP
(HKMG SOI)		 GF 28SHP
(HKMG bulk)		 GF 14LPP
(FinFET bulk)		 GF 12LP
(FinFET bulk)		 TSMC N7
(FinFET bulk)		 TSMC N40
(bulk)		 TSMC N28
(HKMG bulk)		 GF 28SHP
(HKMG bulk)		 GF 14LPP
(FinFET bulk)
Die area (mm2)228246245245250210[8]156 ?75 (+ 28 FCH)107?125149
Min TDP (W)351712104.543.95106
Max APU TDP (W)10095651825
Max stock APU base clock (GHz)33.84.14.13.73.83.63.73.8 ?1.752.222.23.23.3
Max APUs per node[lower-alpha 3]11
Max CPU[lower-alpha 4] cores per APU48242
Max threads per CPU core1212
Integer structure3+32+24+24+2+1 ?1+1+1+12+24+2
i386, i486, i586, CMOV, NOPL, i686, PAE, NX bit, CMPXCHG16B, AMD-V, RVI, ABM, and 64-bit LAHF/SAHF
IOMMU[lower-alpha 5]N/A
BMI1, AES-NI, CLMUL, and F16C N/A
MOVBEN/A
AVIC, BMI2 and RDRAND N/A
ADX, SHA, RDSEED, SMAP, SMEP, XSAVEC, XSAVES, XRSTORS, CLFLUSHOPT, and CLZERON/A N/A
WBNOINVD, CLWB, RDPID, RDPRU, and MCOMMITN/A N/A
FPUs per core10.5110.51
Pipes per FPU22
FPU pipe width128-bit256-bit80-bit128-bit
CPU instruction set SIMD levelSSE4a[lower-alpha 6]AVX AVX2SSSE3AVXAVX2
3DNow!3DNow!+N/A N/A
PREFETCH/PREFETCHW
FMA4, LWP, TBM, and XOPN/AN/A N/AN/A
FMA3
L1 data cache per core (KiB)64163232
L1 data cache associativity (ways)2488
L1 instruction caches per core10.51 10.51
Max APU total L1 instruction cache (KiB)256128192256512 6412896128
L1 instruction cache associativity (ways)2348 234
L2 caches per core10.5110.51
Max APU total L2 cache (MiB)424121
L2 cache associativity (ways)168168
APU total L3 cache (MiB)N/A48 N/A4
APU L3 cache associativity (ways)1616
L3 cache schemeVictimN/AVictimVictim
Max stock DRAM supportDDR3-1866DDR3-2133DDR3-2133, DDR4-2400DDR4-2400DDR4-2933DDR4-3200, LPDDR4-4266 LPDDR4-4266DDR3L-1333DDR3L-1600DDR3L-1866DDR3-1866, DDR4-2400DDR4-2400
Max DRAM channels per APU2 12
Max stock DRAM bandwidth (GB/s) per APU29.86634.13238.40046.93268.256 ?10.66612.80014.93319.20038.400
GPU microarchitectureTeraScale 2 (VLIW5)TeraScale 3 (VLIW4)GCN 2nd genGCN 3rd genGCN 5th gen[9]TeraScale 2 (VLIW5)GCN 2nd genGCN 3rd gen[9]GCN 5th gen
GPU instruction setTeraScale instruction setGCN instruction setTeraScale instruction setGCN instruction set
Max stock GPU base clock (MHz)6008008448661108125014002100 ?538600?8479001200
Max stock GPU base GFLOPS[lower-alpha 7]480614.4648.1886.71134.517601971.22150.4 ?86???345.6460.8
3D engine[lower-alpha 8]Up to 400:20:8Up to 384:24:6Up to 512:32:8Up to 704:44:16[10]Up to 512:32:8 ?80:8:4128:8:4Up to 192:?:?Up to 192:?:?
IOMMUv1IOMMUv2 IOMMUv1?IOMMUv2
Video decoderUVD 3.0UVD 4.2UVD 6.0VCN 1.0[11]VCN 2.0[12]UVD 3.0UVD 4.0UVD 4.2UVD 6.0UVD 6.3VCN 1.0
Video encoderN/AVCE 1.0VCE 2.0VCE 3.1N/AVCE 2.0VCE 3.1
AMD Fluid Motion
GPU power savingPowerPlayPowerTunePowerPlayPowerTune[13]
TrueAudioN/A[14] N/A
FreeSync1
2		 1
2
HDCP[lower-alpha 9]?1.41.4
2.2		?1.41.4
2.2
PlayReady[lower-alpha 9]N/A3.0 not yetN/A3.0 not yet
Supported displays[lower-alpha 10]2–32–433 (desktop)
4 (mobile, embedded)		4234
/drm/radeon[lower-alpha 11][16][17]N/A N/A
/drm/amdgpu[lower-alpha 11][18]N/A[19] N/A[19]
  1. For FM2+ Excavator models: A8-7680, A6-7480 & Athlon X4 845.
  2. For FM2+ Excavator models: A8-7680, A6-7480 & Athlon X4 845.
  3. A PC would be one node.
  4. An APU combines a CPU and a GPU. Both have cores.
  5. Requires firmware support.
  6. No SSE4. No SSSE3.
  7. Single-precision performance is calculated from the base (or boost) core clock speed based on a FMA operation.
  8. Unified shaders : texture mapping units : render output units
  9. To play protected video content, it also requires card, operating system, driver, and application support. A compatible HDCP display is also needed for this. HDCP is mandatory for the output of certain audio formats, placing additional constraints on the multimedia setup.
  10. To feed more than two displays, the additional panels must have native DisplayPort support.[15] Alternatively active DisplayPort-to-DVI/HDMI/VGA adapters can be employed.
  11. DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) is a component of the Linux kernel. Support in this table refers to the most current version.

Feature overview for AMD graphics cards

The following table shows features of AMD's GPUs (see also: List of AMD graphics processing units).

Name of GPU series Wonder Mach 3D Rage Rage Pro Rage R100 R200 R300 R400 R500 R600 RV670 R700 Evergreen Northern
Islands		 Southern
Islands		 Sea
Islands		 Volcanic
Islands		 Arctic
Islands/Polaris		 Vega Navi Big Navi
Released 1986 1991 1996 1997 1998 Apr 2000 Aug 2001 Sep 2002 May 2004 Oct 2005 May 2007 Nov 2007 Jun 2008 Sep 2009 Oct 2010 Jan 2012 Sep 2013 Jun 2015 Jun 2016 Jun 2017 Jul 2019 Nov 2020
Marketing Name Wonder Mach 3D Rage Rage Pro Rage Radeon 7000 Radeon 8000 Radeon 9000 Radeon X700/X800 Radeon X1000 Radeon HD 2000 Radeon HD 3000 Radeon HD 4000 Radeon HD 5000 Radeon HD 6000 Radeon HD 7000 Radeon Rx 200 Radeon Rx 300 Radeon RX 400/500 Radeon RX Vega/Radeon VII(7nm) Radeon RX 5000 Radeon RX 6000
AMD support
Kind 2D 3D
Instruction set Not publicly known TeraScale instruction set GCN instruction set RDNA instruction set
Microarchitecture TeraScale 1 TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) GCN 1st gen GCN 2nd gen GCN 3rd gen GCN 4th gen GCN 5th gen RDNA RDNA 2
Type Fixed pipeline[lower-alpha 1] Programmable pixel & vertex pipelines Unified shader model
Direct3D N/A 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.1 9.0
11 (9_2)		 9.0b
11 (9_2)		 9.0c
11 (9_3)		 10.0
11 (10_0)		 10.1
11 (10_1)		 11 (11_0) 11 (11_1)
12 (11_1)		 11 (12_0)
12 (12_0)		 11 (12_1)
12 (12_1)		 11 (12_2)
12 (12_2)
Shader model N/A 1.4 2.0+ 2.0b 3.0 4.0 4.1 5.0 5.1 5.1
6.3		 6.4 6.5
OpenGL N/A 1.1 1.2 1.3 2.0[lower-alpha 2] 3.3 4.5 (on Linux + Mesa 3D: 4.5 with FP64 HW support, 4.3 without)[20][21][22][lower-alpha 3] 4.6 (on Linux: 4.6 (Mesa 20.0))
Vulkan N/A 1.0
(Win 7+ or Mesa 17+)		 1.2 (Adrenalin 20.1, Linux Mesa 20.0)
OpenCL N/A Close to Metal 1.1 1.2 2.0 (Adrenalin driver on Win7+)
(on Linux: 1.2 with Mesa 3D, 2.1 with AMD drivers or AMD ROCm)		 ? 2.1 [23]
HSA N/A ?
Video decoding ASIC N/A Avivo/UVD UVD+ UVD 2 UVD 2.2 UVD 3 UVD 4 UVD 4.2 UVD 5.0 or 6.0 UVD 6.3 UVD 7[24][lower-alpha 4] VCN 2.0[24][lower-alpha 4] VCN 3.0[25]
Video encoding ASIC N/A VCE 1.0 VCE 2.0 VCE 3.0 or 3.1 VCE 3.4 VCE 4.0[24][lower-alpha 4]
Fluid Motion
Power saving ? PowerPlay PowerTune PowerTune & ZeroCore Power ?
TrueAudio N/A Via dedicated DSP Via shaders ?
FreeSync N/A 1
2
HDCP[lower-alpha 5] ? 1.4 1.4
2.2		 1.4
2.2
2.3		 ?
PlayReady[lower-alpha 5] N/A 3.0 3.0 ?
Supported displays[lower-alpha 6] 1–2 2 2–6 ?
Max. resolution ? 2–6 ×
2560×1600		 2–6 ×
4096×2160 @ 60 Hz		 2–6 ×
5120×2880 @ 60 Hz		 3 ×
7680×4320 @ 60 Hz[26]		 ?
/drm/radeon[lower-alpha 7] N/A
/drm/amdgpu[lower-alpha 7] N/A Experimental[27]
  1. The Radeon 100 Series has programmable pixel shaders, but do not fully comply with DirectX 8 or Pixel Shader 1.0. See article on R100's pixel shaders.
  2. These series do not fully comply with OpenGL 2+ as the hardware does not support all types of non-power of two (NPOT) textures.
  3. OpenGL 4+ compliance requires supporting FP64 shaders and these are emulated on some TeraScale chips using 32-bit hardware.
  4. The UVD and VCE were replaced by the Video Core Next (VCN) ASIC in the Raven Ridge APU implementation of Vega.
  5. To play protected video content, it also requires card, operating system, driver, and application support. A compatible HDCP display is also needed for this. HDCP is mandatory for the output of certain audio formats, placing additional constraints on the multimedia setup.
  6. More displays may be supported with native DisplayPort connections, or splitting the maximum resolution between multiple monitors with active converters.
  7. DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) is a component of the Linux kernel. Support in this table refers to the most current version.

See also

References
  1. "AMD PowerTune vs PowerPlay" (pdf). AMD. December 1, 2010.
  2. Marco Chiappetta (September 10, 2009). "ATI Radeon HD 4670, Redefining The Mainstream". Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Retrieved August 23, 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Add amdgpu powerplay support". November 11, 2015.
  5. PC Watch image. Retrieved December 3, 2007. Notice the core speed in current clock settings section in gray.
  6. "AMD Announces the 7th Generation APU: Excavator mk2 in Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge for Notebooks". May 31, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  7. "AMD Mobile "Carrizo" Family of APUs Designed to Deliver Significant Leap in Performance, Energy Efficiency in 2015" (Press release). November 20, 2014. Retrieved February 16, 2015.
  8. "The Mobile CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 13.0 Page 5 : AMD Mobile CPU Full List". TechARP.com. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  9. "AMD VEGA10 and VEGA11 GPUs spotted in OpenCL driver". VideoCardz.com. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  10. Cutress, Ian (February 1, 2018). "Zen Cores and Vega: Ryzen APUs for AM4 – AMD Tech Day at CES: 2018 Roadmap Revealed, with Ryzen APUs, Zen+ on 12nm, Vega on 7nm". Anandtech. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
  11. Larabel, Michael (November 17, 2017). "Radeon VCN Encode Support Lands in Mesa 17.4 Git". Phoronix. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  12. Liu, Leo (September 4, 2020). "Add Renoir VCN decode support". Retrieved September 11, 2020. It has same VCN2.x block as Navi1x
  13. Tony Chen; Jason Greaves, "AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture" (PDF), AMD, retrieved August 13, 2016
  14. "A technical look at AMD's Kaveri architecture". Semi Accurate. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
  15. "How do I connect three or More Monitors to an AMD Radeon™ HD 5000, HD 6000, and HD 7000 Series Graphics Card?". AMD. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  16. Airlie, David (November 26, 2009). "DisplayPort supported by KMS driver mainlined into Linux kernel 2.6.33". Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  17. "Radeon feature matrix". freedesktop.org. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  18. Deucher, Alexander (September 16, 2015). "XDC2015: AMDGPU" (PDF). Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  19. Michel Dänzer (November 17, 2016). "[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-amdgpu 1.2.0". lists.x.org.
  20. "AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta". AMD. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  21. "Mesamatrix". mesamatrix.net. Retrieved April 22, 2018.
  22. "RadeonFeature". X.Org Foundation. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  23. "AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Specs". TechPowerUp. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  24. Killian, Zak (March 22, 2017). "AMD publishes patches for Vega support on Linux". Tech Report. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  25. Larabel, Michael (September 15, 2020). "AMD Radeon Navi 2 / VCN 3.0 Supports AV1 Video Decoding". Phoronix. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  26. "Radeon's next-generation Vega architecture" (PDF). Radeon Technologies Group (AMD). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 6, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  27. Larabel, Michael (December 7, 2016). "The Best Features of the Linux 4.9 Kernel". Phoronix. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
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