Radeon

Radeon is a brand of gamer-orientated GPU and graphics cards produces and develops by ATI (Later AMD).

Summary

The Radeon GPU families were the successor to ATI's earlier Rage series GPUs. Its rival being the Nvidia's GeForce GPU family.

Since Radeon R400 GPU family, ATI introduced CrossFire multi-GPU solution in response to Nvidia's SLI.

Since the acquisition of the ATI by AMD, the graphics core of ATI products can be found in later AMD CPUs and APUs. Later AMD retiring the ATI brand in favor of the AMD name in 2010.

R100 to R500 series were based on the fixed pipelines architecture, while later GPU families were based on unified shader architectures; HD2000 to HD6000 series were based on the Terascale architecture, while HD7000 and later GPU families were based on the newer Graphics Core Next architecture.

GPU families based on the Graphics Core Next architecture support AMD's Mantle.

Generations

Fixed Pipeline based

R100 series (7xxx)

The very first Radeon GPU family which is based on the Charisma Engine architecture. They were made in 180 nm process (except RV200, which is made in the smaller 150 nm.)

All GPU in this family supports DirectX 7.0 and OpenGL 1.3 (T&L only).

R200 series (8xxx/9xxx)

The second generation Radeon GPU family which is based on the Charisma Engine II architecture.

All model supports DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL 1.3. All models were made in 150 nm process.

R300 series (9xxx/X3xx/X5xx/X6xx/X10xx)

Also made in 150 nm process (with RV350 and RV360 made in 130 nm and RV370 made in 110 nm), this GPU family supports DirectX 9.0, Shader Model 2.0 and OpenGL 2.0.

The high-end cards has wider 256-bit of memory bus width. Some cards in the GPU family also supports PCI-Express interface.

R400 series (X7xx/X8xx)

Made in both 110 nm and 130 nm process, this GPU family supports DirectX 9.0b, OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 2.0b.

R500 series (X1xxx)

Made in the smaller 90 nm and 80 nm process, this GPU family supports DirecX 9.0C, OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0.

TeraScale based

HD 2000 and HD 3000 series (R600)

Made in the smaller 65 nm process (with some made in 80 nm process), it is the first Radeon GPU family to be based on the TeraScale architecture. It has the 5-way VLIW designs.

The GPU family supports DirectX 10.0, OpenGL 3.3 and Shader Model 4.0.

HD 4000 series (R700)

Made in 55 nm and 40 nm process, it is the die-shrunken TeraScale-based GPU family. Those supports DirectX 10.1, OpenGL 3.3, OpenCL 1.0 and Shader Model 4.1.

HD 5000 series (Evergreen)

Made in the 40 nm process, it is the GPU family based on the 2nd-generation of TeraScale architecture.

Most of the GPUs in this GPU family supports DirectX 11.0, OpenGL 4.3 (4.4 with later driver support), OpenCL 1.1 and Shader Model 5.0.

HD 6000 series (Northern Islands)

Still made in 40 nm process, it is the GPU family which introduces GPUs based on the 3rd-generation TeraScale architecture. The improved architecture replaces the 5-way VLIW designs with the 4-way VLIW designs.

As with HD 5000 series, it supports DirectX 11.0, OpenGL 4.3 (4.4 with later driver support), OpenCL 1.2 and Shader Model 5.0.

Graphics Core Next based

HD 7000 series (Southern Islands)

Made in the smaller 28 nm and 40 nm, it served as the introduction of the Graphics Core Next architecture. HD 7700 to HD 7900 graphic cards (and mobile counterparts) are GCN-based while others (including integrated graphics for AMD APUs) were TeraScale-based.

Only the GCN-based GPUs supports Direct3D 11.1 (11.2 with later driver support), Shader Model 5.0, OpenCL 1.2 and OpenGL 4.3 (4.4 with later driver support). This GPU family still not support Mantle unlike the later Rx 200 series.

HD 8000 series

The Radeon HD 8000 series is a OEM-only GPU family, consists of previous GPU family based on either GCN or TeraScale.

Rx 200 series (Volcanic Islands)

The Rx 200 series serves as the introduction of the GCN 1.1-based GPUs (R7 260, R9 290, R9 290X and R9 295X2). All other GPUs are mostly GCN 1.0 based.

In addition, the Radeon R9 295X2, the dual-GPU graphics cards, is the first graphics card to utilizes liquid cooling design in its reference design. (This is due to being a single Hawaii GPU is already running hot)

All model supports Direct3D 11.2, Shader Model 5.0, OpenCL 1.2 and OpenGL 4.4. This GPU family also support Mantle.

Others

Fliper (seen on Nintendo GameCube)

Fliper is a customized GPU made for Nintendo's GameCube video game console. It contains 4 pixel pipelines and 1 texture unit and has 3 MB of video memory on chip.

Xenos (seen on Microsoft Xbox 360)

Xenos is the customized GPU made for Microsoft's Xbox 360. It is based on the R520 core. It has 10 MB of eDRAM framebuffer.

Hollywood (seen on Nintendo Wii)

Hollywood is the customized GPU made for Nintendo's Wii. The GPU is actually a multi-chip module package, consists of two dies with one for graphics processing and one for audio processing.

Latte (seen on Nintendo Wii U)

Latte is a customized GPU made for Nintendo's Wii U. This GPU is based on the TeraScale architecture. Like Hollywood, it is a multi-chip module.

Liverpool (seen on Sony PlayStation 4)

Liverpool is a customized GPU core seen in the custom APU of Sony's PlayStation 4. It is based on the GCN architecture. It contains 18 Compute units with total of 1,152 cores (64 cores per CU). It has an additional dedicated 20 GB/s bus that bypasses L1 and L2 GPU cache for direct system memory access.

Durango (seen on Microsoft Xbox One)

Durango is a customized GPU core seen in the custom APU of Microsoft's Xbox One. Like Liverpool, it is based on the GCN architecture, with 12 compute units (total of 768 cores).

Article in Other Languages

Radeon (Japanese)

Version history of Radeon