AMD Radeon Pro V340 - First Dual Vega GPU

[S w a t s o n]

Link to product pages:

https://pro.radeon.com/en/pure-datacenter-graphics/

https://www.amd.com/en/graphics/v340-built-for-builders

 

Quote

The V340 is a beast.  Its a dual-GPU solution based on the advanced AMD “Vega” architecture¹, optimized to deliver extreme performance and high user density for virtualized environments. It is the first VDI hardware solution equipped with 32GB of ultra-fast, second-generation high-bandwidth memory, providing massive amounts of memory and bandwidth for today’s most complex design and media workloads.

 

 

At VMworld 2018 in Las Vegas we unleashed the beast and gave attendees a demonstration of the industry’s only hardware-based GPU virtualization solution enabled by SR-IOV (Single root – IO Virtualization).  We even paired the V340 with a 32 core AMD Epyc CPU for the first time, giving the world a glimpse of what can be build with massive amounts of CPU cores and GPU compute units.

 

 

The V340 hardware combined with our software stack comprises AMD’s MxGPU technology. MxGPU stands for multi-user GPU and it does just that.  It lets multiple users share a high performance GPU giving them highly secure, deterministic workstation-class performance, delivered from the cloud.  With 2 GPUs pounding on 32 GB of HBM2 framebuffer, it supports up to 32 users per card, enabling density and scalability that is second to none².

 

Super, super excited to see this. This should be vega 7nm although we have no confirmation from the marketing materials. (Edit: Russian Article says it's Vega10 in 56 compute unit config so it could be "old" vega)

 

The rumors all pointed to a radeon pro datacenter class card but who knows, maybe AMD will just slap a fat ass price tag on it and sell it to consumers. Probably would not carry more than 8gb of HBM per GPU though, so 16GB total but we all know that generally crossfire/sli mirrors frame buffer so still 8GB total, unless in a DX12 workload.

 

The big deal to me is the SR-IOV support. This effectively allows to passthrough GPUs to VM's in manner more useful than the current methods, like the ones Linus has used with unraid. As shown in the videos you could pass 1 card (2 GPUs) through to 32 users, with each user having a 1GB frame buffer that is kept secure from the other 31 users using the MxGPU technology.

 

Trying not to sound like a complete AMD shill but hey, pair a bunch of these with some dual socket EPYC servers and you can just thin client everything!

 

Edit: There's also this russian site with some additional graphics and performance comparisons. https://overclockers.ru/hardnews/show/93166/amd-radeon-pro-v340-videokarta-dlya-data-centrov-na-dvuh-vega-10

 

 

I translated a paragraph from above russian site, confirming these are Vega 56, makes sense since Vega 64 doesn't really scale well and just sucks back the power.

Quote

To be more precise, here we use two Vega XT graphics processors, which have only 56 Compute Units active. Exactly the same GPUs are used in Radeon RX Vega 56 video cards. Each of the two GPUs of the Radeon Pro V340 includes 3584 stream processors, 256 texture and 64 raster blocks. Unfortunately, the clock speed of GPUs is not specified, but most likely they will be slightly lower than the Radeon RX Vega 56.

 

[yian88]

Wait is this dual PCB/ dual die or is MCM design like infinity fabric, thats what i want to know.

[S w a t s o n]

Just now, yian88 said:

Wait is this dual PCB/ dual die or is MCM design like infinity fabric, thats what i want to know.

I haven't managed to find a pcb shot but I am going to assume a typical dual gpu card, 2 dies with built in crossfire on one PCB. Definitely wont be dual PCB imo. Could be MCM but I dont think that will be ready until Navi

[Zagna]

Neat.

[S w a t s o n]

2 minutes ago, Zagna said:

Neat.

Nice find, I still can't find one lmao. Where'd you dig up that one

[Zagna]

1 minute ago, S w a t s o n said:

Nice find, I still can't find one lmao. Where'd you dig up that one

r/AMD and V340. Built for Builders.

[GoldenLag]

18 minutes ago, S w a t s o n said:

I haven't managed to find a pcb shot but I am going to assume a typical dual gpu card, 2 dies with built in crossfire on one PCB. Definitely wont be dual PCB imo. Could be MCM but I dont think that will be ready until Navi

MCM isnt coming for Navi. At least not consumer as an implementation is very difficult. 

 

Might be an interconnect for enterprise or usual crpssfire. 

[S w a t s o n]

Just now, GoldenLag said:

MCM isnt coming for Navi. At least not consumer as an implementation is very difficult. 

 

Might be an interconnect for enterprise or usual crpssfire. 

MCM is definitely coming for Navi in this type of card. If you look at the die shot we can see it's definitely just crossfire or crossfire on steroids.

 

The problem with MCM is it's basically crossfire at the die level. Not a problem for these workloads but a problem for gaming for sure

[S w a t s o n]

Added a translations, confirming these are vega 56 dies, also the title of the russian article indicates these are Vega 10, which is just normal Vega56. Vega 7nm is supposed to bring Vega 20

[Stefan Payne]

6 minutes ago, S w a t s o n said:

MCM is definitely coming for Navi in this type of card.

I believe it when I see it.

 

Its something AMD Did say a while ago but I think we misunderstood and they meant "make chips like Lego", basically what they are doing right now with Ryzen and Infinite Fabric. That will get more and more important in the Future, with that I would agree that they could make a "big die" wich is basically two chips connected via IF internally but still a single die.

 

Added a translations, confirming these are vega 56 dies, also the title of the russian article indicates these are Vega 10, which is just normal Vega56. Vega 7nm is supposed to bring Vega 20

Vega 10 can be 64 as well

Do we know how many shaders they will have? The Whole 4k??

[Jurrunio]

two slot thick heatsink? That's daring for a pair of Vega GPUs.

[GoldenLag]

4 minutes ago, S w a t s o n said:

MCM is definitely coming for Navi in this type of card. If you look at the die shot we can see it's definitely just crossfire or crossfire on steroids.

 

The problem with MCM is it's basically crossfire at the die level. Not a problem for these workloads but a problem for gaming for sure

Indeed. Its very difficult to make the pc see 2 dies as one (neccesary for gaming, but not for enterprise and compute). Its a reason why they are splitting their GPU development.

 

We arent getting dual GPU consumer cards at least. And Navi is supposed to be a monolithic die. 

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, Stefan Payne said:

I believe it when I see it.

 

Its something AMD Did say a while ago but I think we misunderstood and they meant "make chips like Lego", basically what they are doing right now with Ryzen and Infinite Fabric. That will get more and more important in the Future, with that I would agree that they could make a "big die" wich is basically two chips connected via IF internally but still a single die.

More likely is an active substrate at a very matured node. It is possible they will do this to improve performance on GPUs but it is more or less confirmed coming to Zen sometime in the future. 

 

Its not a Big die. Its more like 2 smaller dies on a small node stacked on top of a huge die working as the substrate at a cheap and matured node

[Stefan Payne]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

two slot thick heatsink? That's daring for a pair of Vega GPUs.

No, why?
Just reduce clockrate and voltage and you're good to go.

 

The sad thing is that VEGA is a pretty darn efficient chip - at Hawaii - Polaris clockrate.

[GoldenLag]

3 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

two slot thick heatsink? That's daring for a pair of Vega GPUs.

Not if put into the optimal energy efficiency range and in a blowymatron case (which is what servers do)

[S w a t s o n]

3 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

Indeed. Its very difficult to make the pc see 2 dies as one (neccesary for gaming, but not for enterprise and compute). Its a reason why they are splitting their GPU development.

 

We arent getting dual GPU consumer cards at least. And Navi is supposed to be a monolithic die. 

Navi has been rumored to be both MCM and Monolithic, could be both if RTG is crazy enough to try it.

4 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

two slot thick heatsink? That's daring for a pair of Vega GPUs.

As you can see they have no fan either. These are meant to be used in temp controlled datacenters/server rooms. Additionally, i dont believe the expectation would be that they are running at 100% for extended perioids of time as these would be passed through to thin clients. So unless you have enough users using the card at once it wont be hitting 100% usage

[S w a t s o n]

8 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Vega 10 can be 64 as well

Do we know how many shaders they will have? The Whole 4k??

The article outright states it's vega 56 in a paragraph, the article title states vega 10. Important because I'm sure vega 20 could be a 56 or 64 config too

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, S w a t s o n said:

Navi has been rumored to be both MCM and Monolithic, could be both if RTG is crazy enough to try it.

Would be awsome IMO. They could do a consumer dual GPU but market it for content creation and have it pretend to be crossfire if the consumer decides to use it where crossfire is needed (like gaming?)

 

A "why not both" design is probably a good strat for AMD with limited resources

[GoldenLag]

Just now, S w a t s o n said:

The article outright states it's vega 56 in a paragraph, the article title states vega 10. Important because I'm sure vega 20 could be a 56 or 64 config too

They could have possibly chosen this to be a Vega56 to get better efficiency. (Since GCNs bad scaling at high CU count) not to mention 2 dies. Efficiency is very important when the card is going to be idling a lot

[Coaxialgamer]

[PopsicleHustler]

So how do you cool this thing?

[S w a t s o n]

Just now, PopsicleHustler said:

So how do you cool this thing?

You put it into a high end server chassis in a temperature controlled server room

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, S w a t s o n said:

You put it into a high end server chassis in a temperature controlled server room

*Turbulent server chassie with consant airflow in some cases. A lot of the time they dont dump the heat into the room. Instead they have dedicated pipelines to remove air to use as heating or simply dump outside

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

20 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

two slot thick heatsink? That's daring for a pair of Vega GPU

Vega isn't actually that hot it's just that the ref coolers suck balls

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Vega isn't actually that hot it's just that the ref coolers suck balls

And that AMD had to run the card out of its effiency range to remain competetive against the 1070 and 1080.