Vega-Based Renoir APU Has The Same VCN Video Encode/Decode Block As Navi

[FireBurn]

I think that's pretty much as expected. In the past the APUs always featured the newest display and video blocks (sometimes newer than in any released product) whereas the 3d core related blocks lagged (albeit usually only by minor versions).

Just about to say the same thing - even pre-APU, the integrated graphics on motherboards usually had the latest video decode blocks

[mczak]

I think that's pretty much as expected. In the past the APUs always featured the newest display and video blocks (sometimes newer than in any released product) whereas the 3d core related blocks lagged (albeit usually only by minor versions).

[L_A_G]

I don't think this being something of a hodgepodge between Vega and Navi is all that surprising considering AMD has officially come out that the Navi 10 parts that have come out so far aren't full on RDNA parts and that they're instead going to be introducing the new architecture piecemeal. Before that the APUs used in the XB1X and PS4 Pro were also something of a hodgepodge between Polaris and Vega not to mention the MCM GPU with Intel that also contained some Vega IP blocks related to memory.

As for why they're mixing and matching like this the official reason is to my understanding that they're easing developers into the new architecture. However my personal gut feeling is that it's because all of the new RDNA IP blocks aren't done yet and they don't want to be stuck on the old ones until they're all done.

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Vega-Based Renoir APU Has The Same VCN Video Encode/Decode Block As Navi

The next-generation AMD "Renoir" APU is turning into being an interesting successor over the existing Picasso APUs. While at first it was a letdown finding out that the APU is based on Vega and not their newer Navi architecture, follow-on open-source Linux patches have continued to show that it's more than a facsimile and in some areas like display and multimedia has blocks in common with Navi...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Renoir-VCN2-Same-Navi-Block