ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT: Calling a Spade a Spade
by Derek Wilson on May 14, 2007 12:04 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The New Video Decode Pipeline: UVD
UPDATE: Since the launch of the HD 2900 XT, we've learned that all HD 2000 series parts except the high end R600 based parts will have UVD. This means that the HD 2900 XT will feature the same video decode acceleration offered on the R5xx hardware. As higher end cards are usually paired with faster CPUs, AMD feels that UVD on R600 is unnecessary.
This comes as a bit of a surprise to us and to certain board partners who's box art claims UVD as a feature of the HD 2900 XT. We do apologize for any confusion we may have caused at launch.
NVIDIA beat AMD to the punch with their full H.264 decode acceleration on G86/G84. Of course, AMD is one upping NVIDIA this time around, as their UVD (Unified Video Decode) architecture is also capable of decoding VLC bitstreams on all three HD media codecs. This means that there are no cases where AMD hardware will not handle 100% of the video decode process (after the CPU has dealt with pulling the encrypted content off the disk and preparing it to send to the GPU that is).
Here's a diagram of the landscape as it stands now. Notice that G80 is not capable of the bitstream decode or the inverse transformation (either iDCT or otherwise), but G84/G86 come very close to matching AMD's capabilities.
At the same time, we should remember that bitstream decode is only really heavy under H.264. Certainly VC-1 and MPEG-2 will see some benefit, but they are already fairly manageable. NVIDIA stated that building the hardware to handle VLC bitstreams wouldn't have a high enough return on investment. AMD, however, indicated that their bitstream processors are at least a little bit adaptable and it wasn't that difficult to include VLC decode.
Either way, the best way to figure out what's going on is to take a look at performance and see if there really is any advantage to R600 over G86. Unfortunately, try as we might, we could not get UVD to work with the current drivers provided by AMD and the PowerDVD release that is supposed to enable the hardware acceleration on HD 2000 series parts. We will have to take a second look at hardware decode when AMD and CyberLink or Intervideo get their software in order.
For now, our information leads us to believe that performance won't be hugely improved over G84/G86 in MPEG-2 and VC-1 CPU offloading. Where we might start to see a difference is in AMD's 65nm HD 2000 and mobility series parts. These have the potential to decrease power consumption by large amounts and provide quiet running systems for HTPCs, or longer battery life for notebooks. We will have to wait to get our hands on the higher volume R6xx based parts though. Also worth nothing is that AMD's high-end hardware does something that NVIDIA's 8800 series cards currently don't, so NVIDIA users that want fast H.264 decoding support are stuck with slower 3D performance.
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mostlyprudent - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
Frankly, neither the NVIDIA nor the AMD part at this price point is all that impressive an upgrade from the prior generations. We keep hearing that we will have to wait for DX10 titles to know the real performance of these cards, but I suspect that by the time DX10 titles are on the shelves we will have at least product line refreshes by both companies. Does anyone else feel like the graphics card industry is jerking our chains?johnsonx - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
It seems pretty obvious that AMD needs a Radeon HD2900Pro to fill in the gap between the 2900XT and 2600XT. Use R600 silicon, give it 256Mb RAM with a 256-bit memory bus. Lower the clocks 15% so that power consumption will be lower, and so that chips that don't bin at full XT speeds can be used. Price at $250-$300. It would own the upper-midrange segment over the 8600GTS, and eat into the 8800GTS 320's lunch as well.GlassHouse69 - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
If I know this, and YOU know this.... wouldnt anandtech? I see money under the table or utter stupidity at work at anand. I mean, I know that the .01+ version does a lot better in benches as well as the higher res with aa/af on sometimes get BETTER framerates than lower res, no aa/af settings. This is a driver thing. If I know this, you know this, anand must. I would rather admit to being corrupt rather than that stupid.GlassHouse69 - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
wrong section. dt is doing that today it seems to a few peoplexfiver - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
Hi, thank you for a really in depth review. While reading other 'earlier' reviews I remember a site using Catalyst 8.38 and reported performance improvements upto 14% from 8.37. Look forward to Anandtech's view on this.xfiver - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
My apologies it was VR zone and 8.36 to 8.37 (not 8.38)GlassHouse69 - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
If I know this, and YOU know this.... wouldnt anandtech? I see money under the table or utter stupidity at work at anand. I mean, I know that the .01+ version does a lot better in benches as well as the higher res with aa/af on sometimes get BETTER framerates than lower res, no aa/af settings. This is a driver thing. If I know this, you know this, anand must. I would rather admit to being corrupt rather than that stupid.Gary Key - Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - link
I have worked extensively with four 8.37 releases and now the 8.38 release for the upcoming P35 release article. The 8.37.4.2 alpha driver had the top performance in SM3.0 heavy apps but was not very stable with numerous games, especially under Vista. The released 8.37.4.3 driver on AMD's website is the most stable driver to date and has decent performance but nothing near the alpha 8.37 or beta 8.38. The 8.38s offer great benchmark performance in the 3DMarks, several games, and a couple of DX10 benchmarks from AMD.
However, the 8.38s more or less broke CrossFire, OpenGL, and video acceleration in Vista depending upon the app and IQ is not always perfect. While there is a great deal of promise in their performance and we see the potential, they are still Beta drivers that have a long ways to go in certain areas before their final release date of 5/23 (internal target).
That said, would you rather see impressive results in 3DMarks or have someone tell you the truth about the development progress or lack of it with the drivers. As much as I would like to see this card's performance improve immediately, it is what it is at this time with the released drivers. AMD/ATI will improve the performance of the card with better drivers but until they are released our only choice is to go with what they sent. We said the same thing about NVIDIA's early driver issues with the G80 so there are not any fanboys or people taking money under the table around here. You can put all the lipstick on a pig you want, but in the end, you still have a pig. ;-)
Anand Lal Shimpi - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
There's nothing sinister going on, ATI gave us 8.37 to test with and told us to use it. We got 8.38 today and are currently testing it for a follow-up.Take care,
Anand
GlassHouse69 - Monday, May 14, 2007 - link
wow dood. you replied!Yes, I have been wondering about the ethics of your group here for about a year now. I felt this sorta slick leaning towards and masking thing goign on. Nice to see there is not.
Thanks for the 1000's of articles and tests!
-Mr. Glass