Line of discrete and integrated graphics processing units
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Sticker/badge featured on AMD APU+GPU compatible computers
AMD Hybrid Graphics technology, is a collective brand from AMD for its Radeon line of discrete and integrated GPU, promoting higher performance and productivity while saving energy consumption in GPUs.
The ATI Hybrid Graphics technology was announced on January 23, 2008, with Radeon HD 2400 series and Radeon HD 3400 series video cards supporting hybrid graphics functionality. Originally, ATI announced this feature would only be supported in Vista, but in August 2008 they included support in their Windows XP drivers as well.[1] The architecture has been patented by ATI.[2]
The previous generation of Hybrid Crossfire paired 890GX or 880G (with Radeon HD4290 and HD 4250 respectively) motherboards from the AMD 800 chipset series with an HD 5450, 5550, 5570 or 5670 Radeon video card from the Radeon HD 5000 series.[3]
Newer information suggests that A6-series and A8-series AMD APUs can be used in Hybrid Crossfire (Subsequently, called "Dual Graphics") with HD 6570 and HD 6670 video cards.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Dual-graphic-capable second-generation Trinity A-series APUs like the A8-5500 and A10-5700, with HD 7500 / 7600 series GPUs, and based on Socket FM2, are expected in June 2012.[11] Later, the branding changed to AMD SmartShift.
The Hybrid CrossFireX is a technology allowing the IGP, or Integrated Graphics Processor, and the discrete GPU, or Graphics Processing Unit, to form a CrossFire setup to enhance the system capability to render 3D scenes, while the Hybrid CrossFire X technology is present on the 790GX and 890G chipsets, with two supplied physical PCI-E x16 slots at x8 bandwidth,[12] can form a Hybrid CrossFire X setup with two video cards and the IGP, enhancing the 3D rendering capabilities.[13]
Initial performance results paired with a Radeon HD 2400 video card leads to a 50% performance increase over standalone Radeon HD 2400 performance,[14] notebook products will also be available. Three operation modes were spotted as follows:[15]
Discrete PCI-E video card(s) (including AXIOM/MXM module(s))
On-board IGP only
On
Off
Discrete mode
Off
On
Hybrid Mode
On
On
Notes:
Hybrid CrossFire X was formerly only available on 790GX, 780G, 760G, 785G, and 880G and 890GX chipsets, but now A6-series and A8-series AMD APUs can be used in "Dual Graphics" configurations with HD 6570 & HD 6670 video cards.[4][5][6]
One notable issue is that when the IGP paired with a DirectX 10.1 video card, the whole hybrid CrossFire setup will support up to DirectX 10.0 only, and the UVD in IGP will be shut down. The new 785G chipset has solved this issue however and supports DirectX 10.1.
As of 2012, it seems that this "Hybrid CrossFireX" is called "Dual Graphics".[5] AMD claims that – for an A8-3850 APU paired with an HD 6670 video card – dual graphics more than doubles performance (the benchmark increased by 123%) compared with the APU alone.[7] But the performance of a standalone HD 6670 video card does not appear to be stated or compared. However, the Japanese computer magazine ASCII has published charts showing worthwhile improvements for the combination of A8-3850 with HD 6450, HD 6570 and HD 6670, as have Tom's Hardware and Hardware Canucks.[8][9][10] Furthermore, on this issue, there are certain APU+GPU combinations that only work in Directx 10 or above with the APU graphics being the default rendering GPU, notably A6/A8-3000 series and HD 6490/7400.
SurroundView
SurroundView is a brand/marketing term for the capability to drive multiple monitors as available in the ATI RS480 chipset. At most four monitors with a discrete graphics card can be connected onto the supported video output ports (one through LVDS, that is either HDMI or DVI-D port and one D-Sub port), in "extended desktop mode" or "clone/mirror/duplicate mode". The integrated graphics processor and the discrete graphics processor work in parallel to drive multiple displays. Therefore, SurroundView is different from Hybrid CrossFireX.
Available on mainstream mobile IGP chipsets (AMD M780G and M690), the PowerXpress technology allows seamless switching from integrated graphics (IGP) to discrete graphics on notebooks when the notebook is connected to the AC power supply for better 3D rendering capabilities, and vice versa when disconnected from the power supply to increase battery life. The process does not require a system reboot as in the past and some current[when?] notebook implementations, and it features a UI within the driver which can profile applications to run on specified GPUs. In addition to that, later GPU models feature an Ultra Low Power Saving (ULPS) state that completely disables the discrete GPU when not in use, thus further saving power. However this feature proved to be buggy when inappropriate drivers are installed.[16]
Current Linux support of this feature may be complete since Catalyst 11.4 (fglrx driver 8.840 or newer) according to a Phoronix article.[17][18] X.org currently does not support seamless graphic cards hot-switching without restarting the X server.[19]
^(in Chinese)HKEPC reportArchived 2007-12-13 at the Wayback Machine: AMD touts Hybrid Crossfire X technology, combining IGP and GPU, available in Q2 2008. Retrieved December 12, 2007
