"GCN" renamed to "GFX"?

[pq1930562]

agd5f MrCooper bridgman Michael

When looking at https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/#index6h2 it seems like "GCN" is now called "GFX"? "GCN 1.2" is "GFX8" now for example? Is that correct?

[agd5f]

GFX is the name of the graphics/compute block on the hardware. GCN (Graphics Core Next) is what GFX6 was called because we made major changes to the ISA and other aspects of the engine at that time.

[pq1930562]

Thanks for the swift reply agd5f . But https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/#index6h2 previously said "GCN 1.0/1.1/1.2" where it now says "GFX6/7/8". So is the terminology GCN (Graphics Core Next) deprecated now and it will now be called GFX instead? Someone must have updated https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/#index6h2 recently, because previously it said "GCN", not "GFX", hence why I'm asking if "GFX" is the new terminology now going forward.

[marek]

GCN is the chip. GFX is the subset of GCN that handles graphics and compute. GFX doesn't do video decoding, it doesn't do display stuff, it doesn't contain a memory controller. E.g. Tonga is a GCN Generation 3 chip with: DCE 10.0, GFX 8.0, UVD 5.0, VCE 3.0, and many other blocks within the chip.

[agd5f]

GFX is just the name of the hw block version. GCN is a name for the new ISA that was introduced in GFX6. The table is comparing the different versions of the GFX block and which chips have which versions. They are not really the same thing so it's not a replacement. GCN is still a valid name for the new ISA.

[pq1930562]

Thanks marek agd5f . Maybe it would be better to use "GCN 1st Gen / GCN 2nd Gen / GCN 3rd Gen" and so on then? At least that would match up with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Core_Next .

By the way, the tables on https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/ do not have Arctic Islands yet. And in one table Polaris is listed under Volcanic Islands.

[agd5f]

Thanks marek agd5f . Maybe it would be better to use "GCN 1st Gen / GCN 2nd Gen / GCN 3rd Gen" and so on then? At least that would match up with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Core_Next .

By the way, the tables on https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/ do not have Arctic Islands yet. And in one table Polaris is listed under Volcanic Islands.

GCN versions do not map 1:1 to GFX hw blocks. E.g., R3xx. r4xx, r5xx are all GFX 2.x based chips. The overall engine block design was the same across those chips, there were some differences between them. Tonga and Polaris are both GFX8 based, but there are some differences between them.

[bridgman]

Thanks marek agd5f . Maybe it would be better to use "GCN 1st Gen / GCN 2nd Gen / GCN 3rd Gen" and so on then? At least that would match up with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Core_Next .

Generally when Wikipedia is out of sync with reality we prefer to fix Wikipedia

I believe the "GCN 3rd Gen" came from the ISA guide documents that were published. As agd5f and others have said, the GCN x terminology really only applies cleanly to the instruction set used for shader & compute programs.

[dungeon]

That is better then saying GFXIP 7 or Graphic IP 7.1 major/minor I think clinfo out of flgrx couple years ago throwing that.

More info more properness but also raise more confusion, so what is better no one knows Neither pciids check for revision id to give user proper human-friendly names... world is not perfect