Into the .DLL - A Rage3D Interview with Andrew Dodd (Discussion Thread)

[Lupine]

The last time we chatted about all things ATI we wanted to look Under the IHS and, when it comes to the intricacies of Radeon silicon, there's no better person to ask than Eric Demers. Of course, hardware without good software is more or less useless, so it's time to peek into the .DLL with Andrew Dodd.

Into the .DLL Interview: CLICK HERE!

[Skynet]

Really great read! Some very good questions, although the answers can be frustrating due to limitations on what detail Eric is allowed to go into.

I found this especially interesting

AMD of course has entire teams of developers working on both OpenCL and DirectX 11 support.

[vertual]

Andrew: We believe that our Crossfire solution (which uses AFR) delivers a great user experience, and that the micro stuttering issue isn’t really an issue at all for end users – In fact I can honestly say that it can’t be seen at all.

I wonder how much heat that answer is going to generate....

Thanks for the interview! Good read

[sireric]

Originally Posted by Skynet

Really great read! Some very good questions, although the answers can be frustrating due to limitations on what detail Eric is allowed to go into.

I found this especially interesting

The interview was with Andrew. Good questions!

[AlexV]

Originally Posted by sireric

The interview was with Andrew. Good questions!

Andrew, just like you before him, proved to be an excellent interviewee, which helps with the questioning and makes the interviewer's job extremely easy. On a sidenote, please tell Terry to pimp R3D on Twitter, he does a fine job pimping all other sites that have even the slightest thing to do with ATI

[sireric]

Originally Posted by AlexV

Andrew, just like you before him, proved to be an excellent interviewee, which helps with the questioning and makes the interviewer's job extremely easy. On a sidenote, please tell Terry to pimp R3D on Twitter, he does a fine job pimping all other sites that have even the slightest thing to do with ATI

Still a good job! Already asked Terry ;-)

[narciso]

It's a shame You and Andrew can't give the answers we like to now, and avoid the subjects, because of corporate secrecy.

[sireric]

Originally Posted by narciso

It's a shame You and Andrew can't give the answers we like to now, and avoid the subjects, because of corporate secrecy.

I don't know if its corporate secrecy as much as common sense. Why don't we just tell everyone our SW plans for the next year?

1) Expectations -- We would be setting ourselves and our users for disappointment. If we said "we are doing XYZ", and then because schedule was under estimated or other higher priority issues came up, we don't deliver -- everyone gets annoyed and angry, etc... This happens so much, it's actually very typical.

2) Competitive edge -- Clearly, if we plan something for a new product or an inflection point of some sort, putting down our cards would give our competitors quite some time to plan and generate their own counters. If you hadn't noticed, the GPU field is one of the most competitive semiconductor fields out there.

3) Partner confidentiality -- Even if we ignored our own, our partners really don't like us talking about their plans, for various reasons. It's surprising how much of that occurs.

I'm sure there are many other factors, but clearly just the above three prevent us from being able to answer all questions to the fullest of our abilities. Having said that, we try to go as far as possible, and certainly Andrew did a good job there, to let you know what's coming...

[Gothic3]

Originally Posted by sireric

I don't know if its corporate secrecy as much as common sense. Why don't we just tell everyone our SW plans for the next year?

1) Expectations -- We would be setting ourselves and our users for disappointment. If we said "we are doing XYZ", and then because schedule was under estimated or other higher priority issues came up, we don't deliver -- everyone gets annoyed and angry, etc... This happens so much, it's actually very typical.

2) Competitive edge -- Clearly, if we plan something for a new product or an inflection point of some sort, putting down our cards would give our competitors quite some time to plan and generate their own counters. If you hadn't noticed, the GPU field is one of the most competitive semiconductor fields out there.

3) Partner confidentiality -- Even if we ignored our own, our partners really don't like us talking about their plans, for various reasons. It's surprising how much of that occurs.

I'm sure there are many other factors, but clearly just the above three prevent us from being able to answer all questions to the fullest of our abilities. Having said that, we try to go as far as possible, and certainly Andrew did a good job there, to let you know what's coming...

we end users didn't get RV770 Ruby demo, didn't get sideport of R700, didn't get Havok Physx vpu acceleration, didn't get customerized crossfire profile, didn't get force SSAO option in CCC, all these were the corporate secrecy.

[badsykes]

The answers kinda sucked..It was kinda boring.He repeated some answers a couple of times or some sort of derivates of them..No offence to the guys that interview or Andrew but imo was kinda waste of time.Maybe social interviews were better..

[jam2k]

Great questions, not so good answers.

Rage3D: Support for end-user created/controlled Crossfire profiles: Terry was talking about this years ago, before the Vista launch. Time has passed, you've implemented the “Sweet Spot” strategy, and still end-users have to wait for driver updates and/or rename exes if their favorite game lacks a CF profile. Why this long delay? Why were you opposed to exposing such capability, given the fact that your competitor has offered it for a very long time?

Andrew: Yet another reason why monthly ATI Catalyst releases are a great thing – we can provide new ATI CrossFireX profiles on a monthly basis to support the latest titles. We’re also looking into different mechanisms to get profiles even more quickly to end users, but I can’t really say much more than that right now.

Although the answer kinda sucks (Waiting for driver update to get Crossfire support is unacceptable), maybe this is a hint of custom profiles finally coming this year ?

[Sound_Card]

From Andrew Dodd...

There are always more features I’d like to add to CCC (and of course I can’t talk about upcoming features), and it’s something that’s going to continue evolving – there will never be a time when CCC is complete, we’ll always continue to add new features and make UI changes/tweaks.

This is funny considering they have been on a roll removing features for the past year. Features such as temperal AA, and the ability to select between MSAA and SSAA adaptive modes. Even though EATM was never in CCC (could only be exposed via tray tools), they actually went through the effort of removing it entirely from the driver! These feauters actaully were quite beloved and frankly very useful when the oppertunity allowed. My honest opinion is that they think their users are too stupid to reach a level beyond simply selecting AA on/off, AF on/off...hence features like CAT A.I. If you want to call it a feature that is. What is the point in selecting between basic and advance CCC after a driver install if advance is just as basic and bare? At least as far as the 3d tab goes, but it practically insults me. I'm glad overdrive got a revamp with the ability of fan control though.

[Sound_Card]

Also forgot to metion a good read from AlexV as always.

[SIrPauly]

Originally Posted by jam2k

Great questions, not so good answers.



Although the answer kinda sucks (Waiting for driver update to get Crossfire support is unacceptable), maybe this is a hint of custom profiles finally coming this year ?

They were great questions to me as well!

[SIrPauly]

Originally Posted by Sound_Card

From Andrew Dodd...



This is funny considering they have been on a roll removing features for the past year. Features such as temperal AA, and the ability to select between MSAA and SSAA adaptive modes. Even though EATM was never in CCC (could only be exposed via tray tools), they actually went through the effort of removing it entirely from the driver! These feauters actaully were quite beloved and frankly very useful when the oppertunity allowed. My honest opinion is that they think their users are too stupid to reach a level beyond simply selecting AA on/off, AF on/off...hence features like CAT A.I. If you want to call it a feature that is. What is the point in selecting between basic and advance CCC after a driver install if advance is just as basic and bare? At least as far as the 3d tab goes, but it practically insults me. I'm glad overdrive got a revamp with the ability of fan control though.

The way I gauged their strategy is they're trying to make it easier for them and easier for many consumers; to utilize their resources efficiently.

[theshadowcult]

one question i would have liked to have seen is whats ATI/AMD's take on Graphene?