SteamOS, Cooling, And The Dragonball Z Fusion Dance
Q. Has AMD considered about making Downsampling software for high end cards?
A. We are not considering any such software.
Q. You want to take full advantage of product TDP to maximize performance, and that is accomplished with “a 95C ideal operating temperature for the 290 and 290X." So there is no benefit in performance if the card could run cooler? Wouldn't you be able to get more performance before you hit 95c?
A. A better cooler increases the watts of heat that the product can emit before the 95C equilibrium temperature is reached. In turn, this raises the maximum permissible clockspeed (within the limit of product TDP) the board can sustain. Users with the Accelero coolers are finding they're reaching the clockspeed limit of the product at a lower temperature limit than 95C. So you can see how the experience is very customizable and interesting for enthusiasts.
Q. What are the chances of your marketing department creating a video of Jim Keller and Raja Koduri preforming the Fusion Dance from Dragonball Z in order to promote Kaveri and HSA?
A. Such a dance would take 10 conferences to complete, and may require the use of a Potara Earring.
Q. How much in the way of performance increase are we looking at with Mantle-enabled games?
A. I cannot give you a precise answer now, but the first performance numbers will be revealed during the AMD Developer Conference next week. Keep your eyes open on the 13th.
Q. Are there any graphics improvement options unlocked while using Mantle?
A. This is up to the game developer. Mantle is a complete and high-performance graphics API, therefore the developer can use the performance boosts to increase raw FPS, or they can sustain the same FPS and increase image quality vs. other APIs.
Q. Why is AMD not giving 2 GB DDR5 version for 6670HD and 7750HD?
A. 2GB framebuffer would not be useful on these cards. The architectural implementations on these products target resolutions and image quality settings that don't require 2GB of RAM. That allows the product to hit the specific prices users in this segment expect.
Q. I wanted to ask about plans for SteamOS support. Does that have an impact on your plans for the fglrx driver? And while I'm sure it's a secondary priority, is Mantle going to be supported by fglrx? Or maybe it's too early to know that?
A. I want to have an answer for you, but the Steam Machines are still a very young enterprise. We are working closely with Valve to answer all of these questions, but I will say this: Expect AMD-based Steam Machines in 2014, which means a stable and high-performance driver is required. We've already been making massive contributions to the Linux 3.11 and 3.12 kernels to substantially improve performance and features, so you can see the evidence in our efforts there.
Q. Do you have any ongoing project or collaborations with Software companies such as Adobe or Autodesk, to push up OpenCL adoption?
A. It so happens we do - http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-and-adobe-2013apr5.aspx
