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AMD announced its first RDNA 2 (Radeon RX 6000 series) gaming GPUs during a live stream (24m42s) on October 28.
AMD originally planned for RDNA 2 to have 50% more performance per Watt than GPUs using the RDNA 1 microarchitecture. Now, AMD is claiming 54% more performance per Watt for the RX 6800 XT and RX 6800, and 65% more performance per Watt for the RX 6900 XT. Part of the efficiency gain is due to the use of "Infinity Cache", similar to the L3 cache found in Ryzen CPUs. This allowed AMD to use a 256-bit memory bus with 2.17x the effective memory bandwidth of a 384-bit bus, while using slightly less power.
The RX 6900 XT ($1000) has performance comparable to Nvidia's RTX 3090, with a total board power (TBP) of 300 Watts. The RX 6800 XT ($650) is comparable to Nvidia's RTX 3080, also with a 300 Watt TBP. The RX 6800 ($580) is around 18% faster than Nvidia's RTX 2080 Ti, with a 250 Watt TBP. All three of the GPUs have 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM and 128 MB of "Infinity Cache".
The 6800 XT and 6800 will be available starting on November 18, while the 6900 XT will be available on December 8.
Also at Tom's Hardware, Phoronix, Ars Technica, and Guru3D.
Previously: Nvidia Announces RTX 30-Series "Ampere" GPUs
AMD Announces Zen 3 CPUs
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday October 29 2020, @08:24PM (9 children)
The 3090 card is crazy for a gamer unless you also do a lot of video rendering (and do it for money). 3080 and 3070 are more aimed at gamers. 3070 is actually a decent card when you compare it's performance and price to the prior gen 2080ti (which was a massive rip-off for anyone gaming). I'm sure the majority of gamers will end up with the 3060 when it is released (and has enough stock built up people can actually buy it). The #060 nvidia cards are usually the most popular in the Steam surveys.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday October 29 2020, @09:29PM (8 children)
"For instance you need to buy per-user licenses to use them for things like VDI"
I have no idea what you're talking about. I literally sell this, daily. VDI solutions like Citrix need per user licenses - to use citrix, irrelevant of what hardware you're on. You absolutely don't need a per user license, or any license, for the hardware.
But it's cute you say if I never worked with DC GPU farms that I should check it out. I did. Over 10 years ago when I moved from implementation to architecture and started designing and selling the solutions.
Although I admit, maybe if you buy something from nvidia, maybe they do have the weird restrictions for licensing. I mostly sell these inside of Dell servers, so the bom is dell, and it includes no licensing for the GPU, because none is needed.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Friday October 30 2020, @12:31AM (7 children)
As for the datacenter licensing, again, you really need to take a sabbatical and update your industry knowledge: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nvidia-updates-geforce-eula-to-prohibit-data-center-use/ [datacenterdynamics.com]
Oh, and for the record, I also literally sell this stuff daily, and have for over 20 years for multiple Citrix platinum partners. If you sold me a solution for VDI and vGPUs I'd be pissed when the cards won't work because you didn't tell me I needed to buy licenses for them.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Friday October 30 2020, @05:51AM (6 children)
I don't need to read any of that. Here's what I do:
go to https://www.dellemc.com/partner/en-us/auth/sales/solution-configurator.htm [dellemc.com]
log in to my VAR account.
select servers or HCI
launch configurator for the compute model
add nvidia GPUs, pick ram, disk, cpu/etc.
add per-GPU/vGPU licenses, grid if needed. Each license it tied to a GPU. I can select annual or perpetual. Yes, I have the option to select per concurrent user as well. I have not had a single customer ask me to do that. Ever.
then I add prosupport or prosupport plus
click validate, generate bom, apply discounts the customer has
click build quote
I have no idea what that datacenter dynamics site is. Maybe you're talking about buying something from nvidia directly.
Point is, you're saying it's not possible, when I literally just checked, right now, before making this post. What's annoying is your way is absolutely an option. It's also absolutely not the only option, and you're completely full of crap, and condescendingly telling the guy who builds these quotes to "read up." That's just funny. Whoever told you this (and you're clearly a customer, not a vendor), you should find a new VAR. As a customer, you literally have never logged in to build the quote and are here telling people how the quotes work. That's just funny.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Friday October 30 2020, @11:29AM (5 children)
Honestly at this point I have to think you are just a troll or a liar about what you actually do. This has all been known by people who actually work in the industry for years now. And, again, I've been doing this for over 20 years, and never as a customer.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Friday October 30 2020, @12:02PM (4 children)
I get it. You're talking about purchasing it from nvidia. I am not. I am talking about purchasing it from a server vendor. Do you understand that? Do you know what vmw horizon is? Heck, I might even be able to quote out a ucs from cisco w/o per-user, but that's a slow one to try and I'm not going to spend the time.
You're talking about vcomputeserver. you can run some vdi on that too if you want btw.
Now, maybe we have a misunderstanding here too. The per-GPU license package does cut out at 96vPCs or some high number of vApps. There is another in the dropdown that's up to 192, costing about a third more. If I only add 4 GPUs, I get the option for 64 that's cheap.
That does not make it a per-user license. That's the max for the package. Like when you sign up for a comcast account and you get a max of 6 static IPs. That doesn't mean their package is a cost for each IP.
You know how your phone plan is 10gig/month max usage? That doesn't make it a per-byte price plan.
I'm not a troll buddy. I'm the guy competent customers buy things from. Now I'll admit, VDI is not my shtik. I'm mostly storage and compute. But I do build some for vdi every quarter. When you say you've never been a customer and you sell this stuff, then other places you say things only a customer would say:
"If you sold me a solution for VDI and vGPUs I'd be pissed when the cards won't work because you didn't tell me I needed to buy licenses for them."
that makes me think you lied so much you forgot what lies you told. sold you a solution? so you're buying them. strange, now you say you're selling them. why don't you make up your mind about what you do, then get back to us.
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Friday October 30 2020, @12:42PM (3 children)
There is no option to do VDI without a CCU license from NVidia. None. You really need to contact your Dell rep to have them go over this with you. And again, it does not matter where you buy the license from, for example:
https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/hci-solutions/hcvdivds_nvidia_licensing.html [netapp.com]
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/desktop-virtualization-solutions-vmware-horizon-view/whitepaper_c11-739654.pdf [cisco.com]
https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=a00059765enw [hpe.com]
That's apparent
That was a hypothetical. I have never, in my career, been employed by a end-user company. I've been implementing, selling, and architecting Citrix and VMWare VDI solutions since the Winframe days.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Friday October 30 2020, @10:48PM (2 children)
Yes, and the CCU license comes in a base package that sets a max. usually 96 or 192 CCUs. That does not make it a per user license. Just like your 10Gb/month plan does not make it a per-byte plan. What is it you're not getting here?
When you buy a 5-seater car, that is the max you can fit in the car. It's not a car that charges you per seat. I'm really boggled the mind gymnastics you're doing here. Yes, you can buy grid licenses per user. But it is not limited to that - you buy a package with a max CCU included. That is not a per-user license. A per user license is about $350, per user. That is not the only option, nor a common option.
Seriously, what is it you do not understand here?
(Score: 2) by EvilSS on Saturday October 31 2020, @03:46AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Saturday October 31 2020, @10:47AM
and now you lose. backed into a corner, instead of addressing the actual points, you have nothing.
btw, I don't believe you for a second from the way you talk that you build or sell anything. you're a customer, and someone from a VAR showed you a configurator once, then you read some pdfs. you say you quote out UCS. that's a great test, since google won't give you the answer. to build a UCS config and quote it out, what is the url of the cisco site?
nice try, linux admin at midsize commercial account.