AMD PowerTune
Design firmAdvanced Micro Devices
IntroducedDecember 2011
TypeDynamic frequency scaling

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).

[ VisualEditor ]
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 Yes Yes
IOMMU[d] — v2 v1 v2
BMI1, AES-NI, CLMUL, and F16C Yes — Yes
MOVBE — Yes
AVIC, BMI2, RDRAND, and MWAITX/MONITORX — Yes
SME[e], TSME[e], ADX, SHA, RDSEED, SMAP, SMEP, XSAVEC, XSAVES, XRSTORS, CLFLUSHOPT, CLZERO, and PTE Coalescing — Yes — Yes
GMET, WBNOINVD, CLWB, QOS, PQE-BW, RDPID, RDPRU, and MCOMMIT — Yes — Yes
MPK, VAES — Yes —
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 Yes Yes
GFNI — Yes —
AMX —
FMA4, LWP, TBM, and XOP — Yes — — Yes —
FMA3 Yes Yes
AMD XDNA — Yes —
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 No Yes No No Yes No
GPU power saving PowerPlay PowerTune PowerPlay PowerTune[19]
TrueAudio — Yes[20] ? — Yes
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] Yes — Yes —
/drm/amdgpu[k][23] — Yes[24] — Yes[24]
  1. ^ For FM2+ Excavator models: A8-7680, A6-7480 & Athlon X4 845.
  2. ^ A PC would be one node.
  3. ^ An APU combines a CPU and a GPU. Both have cores.
  4. ^ Requires firmware support.
  5. ^ a b 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. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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).

[ VisualEditor ]
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 Ended Current
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)
TeraScale 2
(VLIW5)
up to 68xx		 TeraScale 3
(VLIW4)
in 69xx [25][26]
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 (GCN 4 and above (with Adrenalin 22.1.2, Mesa 22.0)) 		1.3
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 — Yes ?
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] No Yes No ?
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 No 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] Yes —
/drm/amdgpu[h] — Experimental [38] Optional [39] Yes
  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. ^ 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.
  3. ^ OpenGL 4+ compliance requires supporting FP64 shaders and these are emulated on some TeraScale chips using 32-bit hardware.
  4. ^ a b c The UVD and VCE were replaced by the Video Core Next (VCN) ASIC in the Raven Ridge APU implementation of Vega.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ More displays may be supported with native DisplayPort connections, or splitting the maximum resolution between multiple monitors with active converters.
  8. ^ 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

  1. ^ "AMD PowerTune Technology" (PDF). AMD. 23 March 2012.
  2. ^ "AMD PowerTune vs PowerPlay" (PDF). AMD. 1 December 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  3. ^ "Add amdgpu powerplay support". 11 November 2015.
  4. ^ "AMD x86 SMU firmware analysis". 27 December 2014.
  5. ^ "Reverse engineering power management on Nvidia GPUs" (PDF).
  6. ^ "Redefining TDP With PowerTune". AnandTech. 15 December 2010.
  7. ^ "Introducing PowerTune Technology With Boost". AnandTech. 22 June 2012.
  8. ^ "The New PowerTune: Adding Further States". AnandTech. 22 March 2013.
  9. ^ "PowerTune: Improved Flexibility & Fan Speed Throttling". AnandTech. 23 October 2014.
  10. ^ "What is AMD's PowerTune 2.0 and what does it do?". SemiAccurate. 16 December 2013.
  11. ^ a b "Radeon feature matrix". freedesktop.org. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  12. ^ "AMD Announces the 7th Generation APU: Excavator mk2 in Bristol Ridge and Stoney Ridge for Notebooks". 31 May 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  13. ^ "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.
  14. ^ "The Mobile CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 13.0 Page 5 : AMD Mobile CPU Full List". TechARP.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  15. ^ a b "AMD VEGA10 and VEGA11 GPUs spotted in OpenCL driver". VideoCardz.com. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Larabel, Michael (17 November 2017). "Radeon VCN Encode Support Lands in Mesa 17.4 Git". Phoronix. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ Tony Chen; Jason Greaves, "AMD's Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture" (PDF), AMD, retrieved 13 August 2016
  20. ^ "A technical look at AMD's Kaveri architecture". Semi Accurate. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  21. ^ "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.
  22. ^ Airlie, David (26 November 2009). "DisplayPort supported by KMS driver mainlined into Linux kernel 2.6.33". Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  23. ^ Deucher, Alexander (16 September 2015). "XDC2015: AMDGPU" (PDF). Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  24. ^ a b Michel Dänzer (17 November 2016). "[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-amdgpu 1.2.0". lists.x.org.
  25. ^ "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
  26. ^ "GPU Specs Database". TechPowerUp. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  27. ^ "NPOT Texture (OpenGL Wiki)". Khronos Group. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  28. ^ "AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta". AMD. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  29. ^ "Mesamatrix". mesamatrix.net. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  30. ^ "RadeonFeature". X.Org Foundation. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  31. ^ "AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Specs". TechPowerUp. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  32. ^ "AMD Launches The Radeon PRO W7500/W7600 RDNA3 GPUs". Phoronix. 3 August 2023. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  33. ^ "AMD Radeon Pro 5600M Grafikkarte". TopCPU.net (in German). Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  34. ^ a b c Killian, Zak (22 March 2017). "AMD publishes patches for Vega support on Linux". Tech Report. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  35. ^ Larabel, Michael (15 September 2020). "AMD Radeon Navi 2 / VCN 3.0 Supports AV1 Video Decoding". Phoronix. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  36. ^ Edmonds, Rich (4 February 2022). "ASUS Dual RX 6600 GPU review: Rock-solid 1080p gaming with impressive thermals". Windows Central. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  37. ^ "Radeon's next-generation Vega architecture" (PDF). Radeon Technologies Group (AMD). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 September 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  38. ^ Larabel, Michael (7 December 2016). "The Best Features of the Linux 4.9 Kernel". Phoronix. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  39. ^ "AMDGPU". Retrieved 29 December 2023.

External links

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