Semiconductor world – CPU/GPU Wars

We see that DC CPU story is progressing as was being predicted from 2020.

Update on GPU

AMD is targeting the next behemoth, nvidia since last year. Performance wise, AMD hardware is able to match nvidia hardware as we saw last gen. Looking at the overclocking being done with 6800xt, I think that AMD can beat NVDA Titan cards but they do not want to do that fight… not just yet.

But what happened this gen? You will usually read that nvidia still has top performance cards. But that is coming at a cost.

1. Their GPU takes massive wafer space – 608/628mm^2 for 4090. – The reticle limit is 800mm^2. What this does is that it reduces yields compared to smaller chips.Die Yield Calculator – isine. Note that this include their graphics and IO IP.
2. The larger chip also limits nvidia’s ability to pack more shaders (say compute units). They can pack only so much before they hit the reticle limit. Compared to this, AMD top is at ~300mm^2. They can always double their shader count by making large GCD (graphics complex die). They have chiplets… So they keep IO out of GCD and put it in cheaper older node (6nm for 7xxx series) while GCD is in newer nodes (5nm in 7xxx series). But there is no space left for nvidia except for hoping for node shrink. Next gen is going to be when we clearly see nvidia is facing the death of moore’s law their CEO is talking about. Jensen Huang Q&A: Why Moore’s Law is dead, but the metaverse will still happen | VentureBeat. But AMD is not that affected since they went chiplets.
3. For nvidia, the desperation for mindshare “fastest GPU” is visible with them pushing the power requirements.

AMD refused to chase prices set by nvidia nor performance set by nvidia. They could have easily pushed clock (and hence power) and matched nvidia performance but thye instead chose to cut their own path. They kept the GPU prices at 1000$/900$ (compared to 1600$/1300$ nvidia) and still come close to nvidia raster performance (raytracing is another story). Raster is majority market. That is their claim. We will see when the cards come in December or third party review.

That is the current status in hardware. nvidia pushing power to keep mindshare + amd refusing to play that game as of now. So unless nvidia next gen (Blackwell) is chiplets, nvidia is going to face what happened to intel in hardware. Offcourse, customers prefer nvidia for their sofware platform. Huge advantage there. So the job is cut out for both teams. nvidia needs to figure out how to do chiplets and amd has to figure out how to do great software. From that end, the following info is noteworthy

AMD is using 6000 unique systems configurations for graphics driver testing, 1500 more than NVIDIA

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-has-rebuilt-its-directx11-driver-from-the-ground-up-10-better-performance-on-average

I am already seeing better reviews of AMD drivers. Stability has improved. But… But… the real story is in the datacenter where nvidia is king. CUDA.

As of now, AMD is not targeting the cloud/data center server market at all. They are targeting only supercomputers/hyperscalers. Working with them to improve their software ecosystem (Example: Facebook Parent Meta Launches AI Software Tools to Ease Switching Between Nvidia, AMD Chips | Technology News). This reminds me of the nvidia of 2009-2013 where they worked with many domain experts in industry to develop what is now CUDA.

As of now, it is visible where AMD is at. Where are nvidia chiplets? Yet to be seen.