AMD is working on two “Polaris” -based graphics processors

Ahead of CES 2016, there was gossip that AMD’s upcoming graphics architecture would be called Polaris, something that was also officially confirmed during the fair. There was a demonstration of an energy-efficient graphics circuit based on Polaris, where AMD showed that the architecture can perform better than the corresponding graphics card from Nvidia but with lower energy consumption.

Now Raja Koduri, head of the Radeon Technologies Group (RTG), has told a little more about the upcoming graphics architecture in an interview with the technology site Venture Beat. During the conversation, he confirms that AMD has worked on two Polaris-based graphics circuits that are manufactured on a 14-nanometer technology.

In the interview, Koduri refers to the next generation graphics architecture as the fourth generation Graphics Core Next (GCN 4.0) and explains that the two graphics circuits are called “Polaris 10” and “Polaris 11”. These are probably the smaller and larger circuit the editorial staff saw during CES 2016, one of which is primarily intended for laptops and the other performance-oriented desktops.

In addition to improved performance and energy efficiency, Koduri also mentions that the Polaris architecture supports hardware acceleration of next-generation video decoding, known as HEVC or H.265. It will make it possible to decode 4K video in a more energy-efficient way, something that comes into its own in the mobile devices. Just good performance in thin and light laptops is stated as one of the big goals of the Polaris architecture.

The launch of the Polaris architecture with associated graphics chips is planned for mid-2016.