AMD PowerTune
Brand name by AMD
AMD PowerTune is a series of dynamic frequency scaling technologies built into some AMD GPUs and APUs that allow the clock speed of the processor to be dynamically changed (to different P-states ) by software. This allows the processor to meet the instantaneous performance needs of the operation being performed, while minimizing power draw, heat generation and noise avoidance. AMD PowerTune aims to solve thermal design power and performance constraints.[1]
Besides the reduced energy consumption, AMD PowerTune helps to lower the noise levels created by the cooling in desktop computers, and extends battery life in mobile devices. AMD PowerTune is the successor to AMD PowerPlay .[2]
Support for "PowerPlay" was added to the Linux kernel driver "amdgpu" on November 11, 2015.[3]
As a lecture from CCC in 2014 shows, AMD's x86-64 SMU firmware is executed on some LatticeMico32 and PowerTune was modeled using Matlab.[4] This is similar to Nvidia's PDAEMON, the RTOS responsible for power on their GPUs.[5]
Overview
Architecture of the PowerTune version, that was introduced with GCN1.1 -chips, such as the Bonaire
AMD PowerTune was introduced in the TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) with Radeon HD 6900 on 15 December 2010 and has been available in different development stages on Radeon - and AMD FirePro -branded products ever since.
Over the years, reviews which document the development of AMD PowerTune have been published by AnandTech .[6] [7] [8] [9]
An additional technology named AMD ZeroCore Power has been available since the Radeon HD 7000 series , implementing the Graphics Core Next microarchitecture.
The pointlessness of a fixed clock frequency was accredited in January 2014 by SemiAccurate .[10]
Operating system support
Support for PowerTune is contained in the Linux kernel device driver amdgpu .
AMD Catalyst is available for Microsoft Windows and Linux and supports AMD PowerTune since version.[which? ]
The free and open-source "Radeon" graphics device driver has some support for AMD PowerTune, see "Enduro".[11]
Feature overview for AMD APUs
The following table shows features of AMD 's processors with 3D graphics, including APUs (see also: List of AMD processors with 3D graphics ).
Platform
High, standard and low power
Low and ultra-low power
Codename
Server
Basic
Toronto
Micro
Kyoto
Desktop
Performance
Raphael
Phoenix
Mainstream
Llano
Trinity
Richland
Kaveri
Kaveri Refresh (Godavari)
Carrizo
Bristol Ridge
Raven Ridge
Picasso
Renoir
Cezanne
Entry
Basic
Kabini
Dalí
Mobile
Performance
Renoir
Cezanne
Rembrandt
Dragon Range
Mainstream
Llano
Trinity
Richland
Kaveri
Carrizo
Bristol Ridge
Raven Ridge
Picasso
Renoir Lucienne
Cezanne Barceló
Phoenix
Entry
Dalí
Mendocino
Basic
Desna, Ontario, Zacate
Kabini, Temash
Beema, Mullins
Carrizo-L
Stoney Ridge
Pollock
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
River Hawk
Released
Aug 2011
Oct 2012
Jun 2013
Jan 2014
2015
Jun 2015
Jun 2016
Oct 2017
Jan 2019
Mar 2020
Jan 2021
Jan 2022
Sep 2022
Jan 2023
Jan 2011
May 2013
Apr 2014
May 2015
Feb 2016
Apr 2019
Jul 2020
Jun 2022
Nov 2022
CPU microarchitecture
K10
Piledriver
Steamroller
Excavator
"Excavator+ "[12]
Zen
Zen+
Zen 2
Zen 3
Zen 3+
Zen 4
Bobcat
Jaguar
Puma
Puma+ [13]
"Excavator+ "
Zen
Zen+
"Zen 2+ "
ISA
x86-64 v1
x86-64 v2
x86-64 v3
x86-64 v4
x86-64 v1
x86-64 v2
x86-64 v3
Socket
Desktop
Performance
—
AM5
—
—
Mainstream
—
AM4
—
—
Entry
FM1
FM2
FM2+
FM2+ [a] , AM4
AM4
—
Basic
—
—
AM1
—
FP5
—
Other
FS1
FS1+ , FP2
FP3
FP4
FP5
FP6
FP7
FL1
FP7 FP7r2 FP8
?
FT1
FT3
FT3b
FP4
FP5
FT5
FP5
FT6
PCI Express version
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
4.0
2.0
3.0
CXL
—
—
Fab. (nm )
GF 32SHP (HKMG SOI )
GF 28SHP (HKMG bulk)
GF 14LPP (FinFET bulk)
GF 12LP (FinFET bulk)
TSMC N7 (FinFET bulk)
TSMC N6 (FinFET bulk)
CCD: TSMC N5 (FinFET bulk) cIOD: TSMC N6 (FinFET bulk)
TSMC 4nm (FinFET bulk)
TSMC N40 (bulk)
TSMC N28 (HKMG bulk)
GF 28SHP (HKMG bulk)
GF 14LPP (FinFET bulk)
GF 12LP (FinFET bulk)
TSMC N6 (FinFET bulk)
Die area (mm2 )
228
246
245
245
250
210[14]
156
180
210
CCD: (2x) 70 cIOD: 122
178
75 (+ 28 FCH )
107
?
125
149
~100
Min TDP (W)
35
17
12
10
15
105
35
4.5
4
3.95
10
6
12
8
Max APU TDP (W)
100
95
65
45
170
54
18
25
6
54
15
Max stock APU base clock (GHz)
3
3.8
4.1
4.1
3.7
3.8
3.6
3.7
3.8
4.0
3.3
4.7
4.3
1.75
2.2
2
2.2
3.2
2.6
1.2
3.35
2.8
Max APUs per node[b]
1
1
Max core dies per CPU
1
2
1
1
Max CCX per core die
1
2
1
1
Max cores per CCX
4
8
2
4
2
4
Max CPU [c] cores per APU
4
8
16
8
2
4
2
4
Max threads per CPU core
1
2
1
2
Integer pipeline structure
3+3
2+2
4+2
4+2+1
1+3+3+1+2
1+1+1+1
2+2
4+2
4+2+1
i386, i486, i586, CMOV, NOPL, i686, PAE , NX bit , CMPXCHG16B, AMD-V , RVI , ABM , and 64-bit LAHF/SAHF
IOMMU [d]
—
v2
v1
v2
BMI1 , AES-NI , CLMUL , and F16C
—
MOVBE
—
AVIC , BMI2 , RDRAND , and MWAITX/MONITORX
—
SME [e] , TSME [e] , ADX , SHA , RDSEED , SMAP , SMEP , XSAVEC, XSAVES, XRSTORS, CLFLUSHOPT, CLZERO, and PTE Coalescing
—
—
GMET , WBNOINVD, CLWB, QOS, PQE-BW, RDPID, RDPRU, and MCOMMIT
—
—
MPK , VAES
—
—
SGX
—
—
FPUs per core
1
0.5
1
1
0.5
1
Pipes per FPU
2
2
FPU pipe width
128-bit
256-bit
80-bit
128-bit
256-bit
CPU instruction set SIMD level
SSE4a [f]
AVX
AVX2
AVX-512
SSSE3
AVX
AVX2
3DNow!
3DNow!+
—
—
PREFETCH/PREFETCHW
GFNI
—
—
AMX
—
FMA4 , LWP, TBM , and XOP
—
—
—
—
FMA3
AMD XDNA
—
—
L1 data cache per core (KiB)
64
16
32
32
L1 data cache associativity (ways)
2
4
8
8
L1 instruction caches per core
1
0.5
1
1
0.5
1
Max APU total L1 instruction cache (KiB)
256
128
192
256
512
256
64
128
96
128
L1 instruction cache associativity (ways)
2
3
4
8
2
3
4
8
L2 caches per core
1
0.5
1
1
0.5
1
Max APU total L2 cache (MiB)
4
2
4
16
1
2
1
2
L2 cache associativity (ways)
16
8
16
8
Max on--die L3 cache per CCX (MiB)
—
4
16
32
—
4
Max 3D V-Cache per CCD (MiB)
—
64
—
—
Max total in-CCD L3 cache per APU (MiB)
4
8
16
64
4
Max. total 3D V-Cache per APU (MiB)
—
64
—
—
Max. board L3 cache per APU (MiB)
—
—
Max total L3 cache per APU (MiB)
4
8
16
128
4
APU L3 cache associativity (ways)
16
16
L3 cache scheme
Victim
Victim
Max. L4 cache
—
—
Max stock DRAM support
DDR3 -1866
DDR3-2133
DDR3-2133, DDR4 -2400
DDR4-2400
DDR4-2933
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4 -4266
DDR5 -4800, LPDDR5 -6400
DDR5 -5200
DDR5 -5600, LPDDR5x -7500
DDR3L -1333
DDR3L-1600
DDR3L-1866
DDR3-1866, DDR4 -2400
DDR4-2400
DDR4-1600
DDR4-3200
LPDDR5-5500
Max DRAM channels per APU
2
1
2
1
2
Max stock DRAM bandwidth (GB/s) per APU
29.866
34.132
38.400
46.932
68.256
102.400
83.200
120.000
10.666
12.800
14.933
19.200
38.400
12.800
51.200
88.000
GPU microarchitecture
TeraScale 2 (VLIW5)
TeraScale 3 (VLIW4)
GCN 2nd gen
GCN 3rd gen
GCN 5th gen [15]
RDNA 2
RDNA 3
TeraScale 2 (VLIW5)
GCN 2nd gen
GCN 3rd gen [15]
GCN 5th gen
RDNA 2
GPU instruction set
TeraScale instruction set
GCN instruction set
RDNA instruction set
TeraScale instruction set
GCN instruction set
RDNA instruction set
Max stock GPU base clock (MHz)
600
800
844
866
1108
1250
1400
2100
2400
400
538
600
?
847
900
1200
600
1300
1900
Max stock GPU base GFLOPS [g]
480
614.4
648.1
886.7
1134.5
1760
1971.2
2150.4
3686.4
102.4
86
?
?
?
345.6
460.8
230.4
1331.2
486.4
3D engine[h]
Up to 400:20:8
Up to 384:24:6
Up to 512:32:8
Up to 704:44:16[16]
Up to 512:32:8
768:48:8
128:8:4
80:8:4
128:8:4
Up to 192:12:8
Up to 192:12:4
192:12:4
Up to 512:?:?
128:?:?
IOMMUv1
IOMMUv2
IOMMUv1
?
IOMMUv2
Video decoder
UVD 3.0
UVD 4.2
UVD 6.0
VCN 1.0[17]
VCN 2.1[18]
VCN 2.2[18]
VCN 3.1
?
UVD 3.0
UVD 4.0
UVD 4.2
UVD 6.0
UVD 6.3
VCN 1.0
VCN 3.1
Video encoder
—
VCE 1.0
VCE 2.0
VCE 3.1
—
VCE 2.0
VCE 3.1
AMD Fluid Motion
GPU power saving
PowerPlay
PowerTune
PowerPlay
PowerTune [19]
TrueAudio
—
[20]
?
—
FreeSync
1 2
1 2
HDCP [i]
?
1.4
2.2
2.3
?
1.4
2.2
2.3
PlayReady [i]
—
3.0 not yet
—
3.0 not yet
Supported displays [j]
2–3
2–4
3
3 (desktop) 4 (mobile, embedded)
4
2
3
4
4
/drm/radeon
[k] [22] [11]
—
—
/drm/amdgpu
[k] [23]
—
[24]
—
[24]
^ For FM2+ Excavator models: A8-7680, A6-7480 & Athlon X4 845.
^ A PC would be one node.
^ An APU combines a CPU and a GPU. Both have cores.
^ Requires firmware support.
^ a b Requires firmware support.
^ No SSE4. No SSSE3.
^ Single-precision performance is calculated from the base (or boost) core clock speed based on a FMA operation.
^ Unified shaders : texture mapping units : render output units
^ a b 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.
^ To feed more than two displays, the additional panels must have native DisplayPort support.[21] Alternatively active DisplayPort-to-DVI/HDMI/VGA adapters can be employed.
^ a b 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 /ATI 's GPUs (see also: List of AMD graphics processing units ).
Name of GPU series
Wonder
Mach
3D Rage
Rage Pro
Rage 128
R100
R200
R300
R400
R500
R600
RV670
R700
Evergreen
Northern Islands
Southern Islands
Sea Islands
Volcanic Islands
Arctic Islands /Polaris
Vega
Navi 1x
Navi 2x
Navi 3x
Released
1986
1991
Apr 1996
Mar 1997
Aug 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, Apr 2017, Aug 2019
Jun 2017, Feb 2019
Jul 2019
Nov 2020
Dec 2022
Marketing Name
Wonder
Mach
3D Rage
Rage Pro
Rage 128
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 200
Radeon 300
Radeon 400/500/600
Radeon RX Vega, Radeon VII
Radeon RX 5000
Radeon RX 6000
Radeon RX 7000
AMD support
Kind
2D
3D
Instruction set architecture
Not publicly known
TeraScale instruction set
GCN instruction set
RDNA instruction set
Microarchitecture
TeraScale 1 (VLIW)
TeraScale 2 (VLIW5)
GCN 1st gen
GCN 2nd gen
GCN 3rd gen
GCN 4th gen
GCN 5th gen
RDNA
RDNA 2
RDNA 3
Type
Fixed pipeline[a]
Programmable pixel & vertex pipelines
Unified shader model
Direct3D
—
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_1 ) 12 (12_2 )
Shader model
—
1.4
2.0+
2.0b
3.0
4.0
4.1
5.0
5.1
5.1 6.5
6.7
OpenGL
—
1.1
1.2
1.3
2.1[b] [27]
3.3
4.5 (on Linux: 4.5 (Mesa 3D 21.0))[28] [29] [30] [c]
4.6 (on Linux: 4.6 (Mesa 3D 20.0))
Vulkan
—
1.0 (Win 7+ or Mesa 17+ )
1.2 (Adrenalin 20.1.2, Linux Mesa 3D 20.0)
1.3 (Adrenalin 22.1.2, Mesa 22.0)
OpenCL
—
Close to Metal
1.1 (no Mesa 3D support)
1.2+ (on Linux : 1.1+ (no Image support on clover, with by rustiCL) with Mesa 3D, 1.2+ on GCN 1.Gen)
2.0+ (Adrenalin driver on Win7+ ) (on Linux ROCM, Linux Mesa 3D 1.2+ (no Image support in clover, but in rustiCL with Mesa 3D, 2.0+ and 3.0 with AMD drivers or AMD ROCm), 5th gen: 2.2 win 10+ and Linux RocM 5.0+
2.2+ and 3.0 windows 8.1+ and Linux ROCM 5.0+ (Mesa 3D rustiCL 1.2+ and 3.0 (2.1+ and 2.2+ wip))[31] [32] [33]
HSA / ROCm
—
?
Video decoding ASIC
—
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 [34] [d]
VCN 2.0 [34] [d]
VCN 3.0 [35]
VCN 4.0
Video encoding ASIC
—
VCE 1.0
VCE 2.0
VCE 3.0 or 3.1
VCE 3.4
VCE 4.0 [34] [d]
Fluid Motion [e]
?
Power saving
?
PowerPlay
PowerTune
PowerTune & ZeroCore Power
?
TrueAudio
—
Via dedicated DSP
Via shaders
FreeSync
—
1 2
HDCP [f]
?
1.4
2.2
2.3 [36]
PlayReady [f]
—
3.0
3.0
Supported displays [g]
1–2
2
2–6
?
Max. resolution
?
2–6 × 2560×1600
2–6 × 4096×2160 @ 30 Hz
2–6 × 5120×2880 @ 60 Hz
3 × 7680×4320 @ 60 Hz [37]
7680×4320 @ 60 Hz PowerColor
7680x4320
@165 HZ
/drm/radeon
[h]
—
/drm/amdgpu
[h]
—
Experimental [38]
Optional [39]
^ 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 .
^ R300, R400 and R500 based cards do not fully comply with OpenGL 2+ as the hardware does not support all types of non-power of two (NPOT) textures.
^ OpenGL 4+ compliance requires supporting FP64 shaders and these are emulated on some TeraScale chips using 32-bit hardware.
^ a b c The UVD and VCE were replaced by the Video Core Next (VCN) ASIC in the Raven Ridge APU implementation of Vega.
^ Video processing for video frame rate interpolation technique. In Windows it works as a DirectShow filter in your player. In Linux, there is no support on the part of drivers and / or community.
^ a b 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.
^ More displays may be supported with native DisplayPort connections, or splitting the maximum resolution between multiple monitors with active converters.
^ a b DRM (Direct Rendering Manager ) is a component of the Linux kernel. AMDgpu is the Linux kernel module. Support in this table refers to the most current version.
See also
References
^ "AMD PowerTune Technology" (PDF) . AMD . 23 March 2012.
^ "AMD PowerTune vs PowerPlay" (PDF) . AMD . 1 December 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014 .
^ "Add amdgpu powerplay support" . 11 November 2015.
^ "AMD x86 SMU firmware analysis" . 27 December 2014.
^ "Reverse engineering power management on Nvidia GPUs" (PDF) .
^ "Redefining TDP With PowerTune" . AnandTech . 15 December 2010.
^ "Introducing PowerTune Technology With Boost" . AnandTech . 22 June 2012.
^ "The New PowerTune: Adding Further States" . AnandTech . 22 March 2013.
^ "PowerTune: Improved Flexibility & Fan Speed Throttling" . AnandTech . 23 October 2014.
^ "What is AMD's PowerTune 2.0 and what does it do?" . SemiAccurate . 16 December 2013.
^ a b "Radeon feature matrix" . freedesktop.org . Retrieved 10 January 2016 .
^ "AMD Announces the 7th Generation APU: Excavator mk2 in Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge for Notebooks" . 31 May 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2020 .
^ "AMD Mobile "Carrizo" Family of APUs Designed to Deliver Significant Leap in Performance, Energy Efficiency in 2015" (Press release). 20 November 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2015 .
^ "The Mobile CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 13.0 Page 5 : AMD Mobile CPU Full List" . TechARP.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017 .
^ a b "AMD VEGA10 and VEGA11 GPUs spotted in OpenCL driver" . VideoCardz.com. Retrieved 6 June 2017 .
^ Cutress, Ian (1 February 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 7 February 2018 .
^ Larabel, Michael (17 November 2017). "Radeon VCN Encode Support Lands in Mesa 17.4 Git" . Phoronix. Retrieved 20 November 2017 .
^ a b "AMD Ryzen 5000G 'Cezanne' APU Gets First High-Res Die Shots, 10.7 Billion Transistors In A 180mm2 Package" . wccftech . 12 August 2021. Retrieved 25 August 2021 .
^ Tony Chen; Jason Greaves, "AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture" (PDF) , AMD , retrieved 13 August 2016
^ "A technical look at AMD's Kaveri architecture" . Semi Accurate. Retrieved 6 July 2014 .
^ "How do I connect three or More Monitors to an AMD Radeon™ HD 5000, HD 6000, and HD 7000 Series Graphics Card?" . AMD. Retrieved 8 December 2014 .
^ Airlie, David (26 November 2009). "DisplayPort supported by KMS driver mainlined into Linux kernel 2.6.33" . Retrieved 16 January 2016 .
^ Deucher, Alexander (16 September 2015). "XDC2015: AMDGPU" (PDF) . Retrieved 16 January 2016 .
^ a b Michel Dänzer (17 November 2016). "[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-amdgpu 1.2.0" . lists.x.org .
^ "AMD Radeon HD 6900 (AMD Cayman) series graphics cards" . HWlab . hw-lab.com. 19 December 2010. Archived from the original on 23 August 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2022 . New VLIW4 architecture of stream processors allowed to save area of each SIMD by 10%, while performing the same compared to previous VLIW5 architecture
^ "GPU Specs Database" . TechPowerUp . Retrieved 23 August 2022 .
^ "NPOT Texture (OpenGL Wiki)" . Khronos Group . Retrieved 10 February 2021 .
^ "AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta" . AMD . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
^ "Mesamatrix" . mesamatrix.net . Retrieved 22 April 2018 .
^ "RadeonFeature" . X.Org Foundation . Retrieved 20 April 2018 .
^ "AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Specs" . TechPowerUp . Retrieved 1 January 2021 .
^ "AMD Launches The Radeon PRO W7500/W7600 RDNA3 GPUs" . Phoronix . 3 August 2023. Retrieved 4 September 2023 .
^ "AMD Radeon Pro 5600M Grafikkarte" . TopCPU.net (in German). Retrieved 4 September 2023 .
^ a b c Killian, Zak (22 March 2017). "AMD publishes patches for Vega support on Linux" . Tech Report. Retrieved 23 March 2017 .
^ Larabel, Michael (15 September 2020). "AMD Radeon Navi 2 / VCN 3.0 Supports AV1 Video Decoding" . Phoronix. Retrieved 1 January 2021 .
^ Edmonds, Rich (4 February 2022). "ASUS Dual RX 6600 GPU review: Rock-solid 1080p gaming with impressive thermals" . Windows Central . Retrieved 1 November 2022 .
^ "Radeon's next-generation Vega architecture" (PDF) . Radeon Technologies Group (AMD). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 September 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2017 .
^ Larabel, Michael (7 December 2016). "The Best Features of the Linux 4.9 Kernel" . Phoronix . Retrieved 7 December 2016 .
^ "AMDGPU" . Retrieved 29 December 2023 .
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