AMD PowerPlay is the brand name for a set of technologies for the reduction of the energy consumption implemented in several of AMD's graphics processing units and APUs supported by their proprietary graphics device driver "Catalyst". AMD PowerPlay is also implemented into ATI/AMD chipsets which integrated graphics and into AMD's Imageon handheld chipset, that was sold to Qualcomm in 2008.

Besides the desirable goal to reduce energy consumption, AMD PowerPlay helps to lower the noise levels created by the cooling in desktop computers and extend battery life in mobile devices. AMD PowerPlay has been succeeded by AMD PowerTune.

History

The technology was first implemented in Mobility Radeon products for notebooks, to provide a set of features to lower the power consumption of the laptop computer. The technology consists of several technologies; examples include dynamic clock adjustments when the notebook is not plugged into a power socket and allowing different backlight brightness levels of the notebook LCD monitor. The technology was updated with the release of each generation of mobile GPUs. The latest release is ATI PowerPlay 7.0.

Since the release of Radeon HD 3000 Series, PowerPlay was implemented to further reduce the power consumption of desktop GPUs.

Supported products

The official ATI support list lists only the ATI Radeon 3800 series desktop cards, but PowerPlay is also a listed feature of all Radeon HD 3000/4000/5000 series products. Independent reviews indicated that the latter was already lower power compared to other 3D cards, so the addition of PowerPlay to that line was clearly intended to address an increasingly power, heat and noise conscious market. The ATI Radeon HD 2600 line – which does not support PowerPlay – was being phased out in favour of the 3000 series at the same price points that also support PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1 and faster GDDR3 memory.

The entire ATI Radeon Xpress line is also supported for single board computers which tend to be power sensitive and used in large installations where configuration and boot image control are major concerns.

Support for "PowerPlay" was added to the Linux kernel driver "amdgpu" on November 11, 2015.

Desktop versus laptop

The main difference between the desktop and laptop versions is that the desktop version cuts the features which are aimed at notebook usage, including variable LCD backlight brightness. The PowerPlay technology for Radeon desktop graphics features three usage scenarios: normal mode (2D mode), light gaming mode and intensive gaming mode (3D mode), replacing notebook scenarios (running on AC power or battery power). Tests indicated that the lowest core clock frequency of an RV670 GPU core can reach as low as 300 MHz with PowerPlay technology enabled.

Feature overview for AMD APUs

The following table shows features of AMD's processors with 3D graphics, including APUs (see also: List of AMD processors with 3D graphics).

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PlatformHigh, standard and low powerLow and ultra-low power
CodenameServerBasicToronto
MicroKyoto
DesktopPerformanceRaphaelPhoenix
MainstreamLlanoTrinityRichlandKaveriKaveri Refresh (Godavari)CarrizoBristol RidgeRaven RidgePicassoRenoirCezanne
Entry
BasicKabiniDalí
MobilePerformanceRenoirCezanneRembrandtDragon Range
MainstreamLlanoTrinityRichlandKaveriCarrizoBristol RidgeRaven RidgePicassoRenoir LucienneCezanne BarcelóPhoenix
EntryDalíMendocino
BasicDesna, Ontario, ZacateKabini, TemashBeema, MullinsCarrizo-LStoney RidgePollock
EmbeddedTrinityBald EagleMerlin Falcon, Brown FalconGreat Horned OwlGrey HawkOntario, ZacateKabiniSteppe Eagle, Crowned Eagle, LX-FamilyPrairie FalconBanded KestrelRiver Hawk
ReleasedAug 2011Oct 2012Jun 2013Jan 20142015Jun 2015Jun 2016Oct 2017Jan 2019Mar 2020Jan 2021Jan 2022Sep 2022Jan 2023Jan 2011May 2013Apr 2014May 2015Feb 2016Apr 2019Jul 2020Jun 2022Nov 2022
CPU microarchitectureK10PiledriverSteamrollerExcavator"Excavator+"ZenZen+Zen 2Zen 3Zen 3+Zen 4BobcatJaguarPumaPuma+"Excavator+"ZenZen+"Zen 2+"
ISAx86-64 v1x86-64 v2x86-64 v3x86-64 v4x86-64 v1x86-64 v2x86-64 v3
SocketDesktopPerformance—N/aAM5—N/a—N/a
Mainstream—N/aAM4—N/a—N/a
EntryFM1FM2FM2+FM2+, AM4AM4—N/a
Basic—N/a—N/aAM1—N/aFP5—N/a
OtherFS1FS1+, FP2FP3FP4FP5FP6FP7FL1FP7 FP7r2 FP8FT1FT3FT3bFP4FP5FT5FP5FT6
PCI Express version2.03.04.05.04.02.03.0
CXL—N/a—N/a
Fab. (nm)GF 32SHP (HKMG SOI)GF 28SHP (HKMG bulk)GF 14LPP (FinFET bulk)GF 12LP (FinFET bulk)TSMC N7 (FinFET bulk)TSMC N6 (FinFET bulk)CCD: TSMC N5 (FinFET bulk) cIOD: TSMC N6 (FinFET bulk)TSMC 4nm (FinFET bulk)TSMC N40 (bulk)TSMC N28 (HKMG bulk)GF 28SHP (HKMG bulk)GF 14LPP (FinFET bulk)GF 12LP (FinFET bulk)TSMC N6 (FinFET bulk)
Die area (mm2)228246245245250210156180210CCD: (2x) 70 cIOD: 12217875 (+ 28 FCH)107?125149~100
Min TDP (W)351712101565354.543.95106128
Max APU TDP (W)10095654517054182565415
Max stock APU base clock (GHz)33.84.14.13.73.83.63.73.84.03.34.74.31.752.222.23.22.61.23.352.8
Max APUs per node11
Max core dies per CPU1211
Max CCX per core die1211
Max cores per CCX482424
Max CPU cores per APU481682424
Max threads per CPU core1212
Integer pipeline structure3+32+24+24+2+11+3+3+1+21+1+1+12+24+24+2+1
i386, i486, i586, CMOV, NOPL, i686, PAE, NX bit, CMPXCHG16B, AMD-V, RVI, ABM, and 64-bit LAHF/SAHF
IOMMU—N/av2v1v2
BMI1, AES-NI, CLMUL, and F16C—N/a
MOVBE—N/a
AVIC, BMI2, RDRAND, and MWAITX/MONITORX—N/a
SME, TSME, ADX, SHA, RDSEED, SMAP, SMEP, XSAVEC, XSAVES, XRSTORS, CLFLUSHOPT, CLZERO, and PTE Coalescing—N/a—N/a
GMET, WBNOINVD, CLWB, QOS, PQE-BW, RDPID, RDPRU, and MCOMMIT—N/a—N/a
MPK, VAES—N/a—N/a
SGX—N/a—N/a
FPUs per core10.5110.51
Pipes per FPU22
FPU pipe width128-bit256-bit80-bit128-bit256-bit
CPU instruction set SIMD levelSSE4aAVXAVX2AVX-512SSSE3AVXAVX2
3DNow!3DNow!+—N/a—N/a
PREFETCH/PREFETCHW
GFNI—N/a—N/a
AMX—N/a
FMA4, LWP, TBM, and XOP—N/a—N/a—N/a—N/a
FMA3
AMD XDNA—N/a—N/a
L1 data cache per core (KiB)64163232
L1 data cache associativity (ways)2488
L1 instruction caches per core10.5110.51
Max APU total L1 instruction cache (KiB)2561281922565122566412896128
L1 instruction cache associativity (ways)23482348
L2 caches per core10.5110.51
Max APU total L2 cache (MiB)424161212
L2 cache associativity (ways)168168
Max on-die L3 cache per CCX (MiB)—N/a41632—N/a4
Max 3D V-Cache per CCD (MiB)—N/a64—N/a—N/a
Max total in-CCD L3 cache per APU (MiB)4816644
Max. total 3D V-Cache per APU (MiB)—N/a64—N/a—N/a
Max. board L3 cache per APU (MiB)—N/a—N/a
Max total L3 cache per APU (MiB)48161284
APU L3 cache associativity (ways)1616
L3 cache schemeVictimVictim
Max. L4 cache—N/a—N/a
Max stock DRAM supportDDR3-1866DDR3-2133DDR3-2133, DDR4-2400DDR4-2400DDR4-2933DDR4-3200, LPDDR4-4266DDR5-4800, LPDDR5-6400DDR5-5200DDR5-5600, LPDDR5x-7500DDR3L-1333DDR3L-1600DDR3L-1866DDR3-1866, DDR4-2400DDR4-2400DDR4-1600DDR4-3200LPDDR5-5500
Max DRAM channels per APU21212
Max stock DRAM bandwidth (GB/s) per APU29.86634.13238.40046.93268.256102.40083.200120.00010.66612.80014.93319.20038.40012.80051.20088.000
GPU microarchitectureTeraScale 2 (VLIW5)TeraScale 3 (VLIW4)GCN 2nd genGCN 3rd genGCN 5th genRDNA 2RDNA 3TeraScale 2 (VLIW5)GCN 2nd genGCN 3rd genGCN 5th genRDNA 2
GPU instruction setTeraScale instruction setGCN instruction setRDNA instruction setTeraScale instruction setGCN instruction setRDNA instruction set
Max stock GPU base clock (MHz)60080084486611081250140021002400400538600?847900120060013001900
Max stock GPU base GFLOPS480614.4648.1886.71134.517601971.22150.43686.4102.486???345.6460.8230.41331.2486.4
3D engineUp to 400:20:8Up to 384:24:6Up to 512:32:8Up to 704:44:16Up to 512:32:8768:48:8128:8:480:8:4128:8:4Up to 192:12:8Up to 192:12:4192:12:4Up to 512:?:?128:?:?
IOMMUv1IOMMUv2IOMMUv1?IOMMUv2
Video decoderUVD 3.0UVD 4.2UVD 6.0VCN 1.0VCN 2.1VCN 2.2VCN 3.1?UVD 3.0UVD 4.0UVD 4.2UVD 6.2VCN 1.0VCN 3.1
Video encoder—N/aVCE 1.0VCE 2.0VCE 3.1—N/aVCE 2.0VCE 3.4
AMD Fluid Motion
GPU power savingPowerPlayPowerTunePowerPlayPowerTune
TrueAudio—N/a?—N/a
FreeSync1 21 2
HDCP?1.42.22.3?1.42.22.3
PlayReady—N/a3.0 not yet—N/a3.0 not yet
Supported displays2–32–433 (desktop) 4 (mobile, embedded)42344
/drm/radeon—N/a—N/a
/drm/amdgpu—N/a—N/a

Feature overview for AMD graphics cards

The following table shows features of AMD/ATI's GPUs (see also: List of AMD graphics processing units).

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Name of GPU seriesWonderMach3D RageRage ProRage 128R100R200R300R400R500R600RV670R700EvergreenNorthern IslandsSouthern IslandsSea IslandsVolcanic IslandsArctic Islands/PolarisVegaNavi 1xNavi 2xNavi 3xNavi 4x
Released19861991Apr 1996Mar 1997Aug 1998Apr 2000Aug 2001Sep 2002May 2004Oct 2005May 2007Nov 2007Jun 2008Sep 2009Oct 2010Dec 2010Jan 2012Sep 2013Jun 2015Jun 2016, Apr 2017, Aug 2019Jun 2017, Feb 2019Jul 2019Nov 2020Dec 2022Feb 2025
Marketing NameWonderMach3D RageRage ProRage 128Radeon 7000Radeon 8000Radeon 9000Radeon X700/X800Radeon X1000Radeon HD 2000Radeon HD 3000Radeon HD 4000Radeon HD 5000Radeon HD 6000Radeon HD 7000Radeon 200Radeon 300Radeon 400/500/600Radeon RX Vega, Radeon VIIRadeon RX 5000Radeon RX 6000Radeon RX 7000Radeon RX 9000
AMD support
Kind2D3D
Instruction set architectureNot publicly knownTeraScale instruction setGCN instruction setRDNA instruction set
MicroarchitectureNot publicly knownGFX1GFX2TeraScale 1 (VLIW5) (GFX3)TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) (GFX4)TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) up to 68xx (GFX4)TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) in 69xx (GFX5)GCN 1st gen (GFX6)GCN 2nd gen (GFX7)GCN 3rd gen (GFX8)GCN 4th gen (GFX8)GCN 5th gen (GFX9)RDNA (GFX10.1)RDNA 2 (GFX10.3)RDNA 3 (GFX11)RDNA 4 (GFX12)
TypeFixed pipelineProgrammable pixel & vertex pipelinesUnified shader model
Direct3D—N/a5.06.07.08.19.0 11 (9_2)9.0b 11 (9_2)9.0c 11 (9_3)10.0 11 (10_0)10.1 11 (10_1)11 (11_0)11 (11_1) 12 (11_1)11 (12_0) 12 (12_0)11 (12_1) 12 (12_1)11 (12_1) 12 (12_2)
Shader model—N/a1.42.0+2.0b3.04.04.15.05.15.1 6.56.76.8
OpenGL—N/a1.11.21.31.53.34.5 (Windows), 4.6 (Linux Mesa 25.2+)4.6
Vulkan—N/a1.11.31.4
OpenCL—N/aClose to Metal1.1 (not supported by Mesa)1.2+ (on Linux: 1.1+ (no Image support on Clover, with Rusticl) with Mesa, 1.2+ on GCN 1.Gen)2.0+ (Adrenalin driver on Win 7+) (on Linux ROCm, Mesa 1.2+ (no support in Clover, only Rusticl, Mesa, 2.0+ and 3.0 with AMD drivers or AMD ROCm), 5th gen: 2.2 win 10+ and Linux RocM 5.0+2.2+ and 3.0 Windows 8.1+ and Linux ROCm 5.0+ (Mesa Rusticl 1.2+ and 3.0 (2.1+ and 2.2+))
HSA / ROCm—N/a?
Video decoding ASIC—N/aAvivo/UVDUVD+UVD 2UVD 2.2UVD 3UVD 4UVD 4.2UVD 5.0 or 6.0UVD 6.3UVD 7VCN 2.0VCN 3.0VCN 4.0VCN 5.0
Video encoding ASIC—N/aVCE 1.0VCE 2.0VCE 3.0 or 3.1VCE 3.4VCE 4.0
Fluid Motion?
Power saving?PowerPlayPowerTunePowerTune & ZeroCore Power?
TrueAudio—N/aVia dedicated DSPVia shaders
FreeSync—N/a1 2
HDCP—N/a?1.42.22.3
PlayReady—N/a3.03.0
Supported displays1–222–6?4
Max. resolution?2–6 × 2560×16002–6 × 4096×2160 @ 30 Hz2–6 × 5120×2880 @ 60 Hz3 × 7680×4320 @ 60 Hz7680×4320 @ 60 Hz7680x4320 @165 Hz7680x4320
/drm/radeon—N/a
/drm/amdgpu—N/aOptional

See also

  • Cool'n'Quiet & PowerNow! – power-saving technologies for CPUs
  • AMD PowerXpress - power-saving technologies for multi-GPUs

External links