NVIDIA Details Tegra 4 and Tegra 4i Graphics

Subject: Graphics Cards | February 25, 2013 - 08:01 PM | Josh Walrath
Tagged: nvidia, tegra, tegra 4, Tegra 4i, pixel, vertex, PowerVR, mali, adreno, geforce

When Tegra 4 was introduced at CES there was precious little information about the setup of the integrated GPU.  We all knew that it would be a much more powerful GPU, but we were not entirely sure how it was set up.  Now NVIDIA has finally released a slew of whitepapers that deal with not only the GPU portion of Tegra 4, but also some of the low level features of the Cortex A15 processor.  For this little number I am just going over the graphics portion.

This robust looking fellow is the Tegra 4.  Note the four pixel "pipelines" that can output 4 pixels per clock.

The graphics units on the Tegra 4 and Tegra 4i are identical in overall architecture, just that the 4i has fewer units and they are arranged slightly differently.  Tegra 4 is comprised of 72 units, 48 of which are pixel shaders.  These pixel shaders are VLIW based VEC4 units.  The other 24 units are vertex shaders.  The Tegra 4i is comprised of 60 units, 48 of which are pixel shaders and 12 are vertex shaders.  We knew at CES that it was not a unified shader design, but we were still unsure of the overall makeup of the part.  There are some very good reasons why NVIDIA went this route, as we will soon explore.

If NVIDIA were to transition to unified shaders, it would increase the overall complexity and power consumption of the part.  Each shader unit would have to be able to handle both vertex and pixel workloads, which means more transistors are needed to handle it.  Simpler shaders focused on either pixel or vertex operations are more efficient at what they do, both in terms of transistors used and power consumption.  This is the same train of thought when using fixed function units vs. fully programmable.  Yes, the programmability will give more flexibility, but the fixed function unit is again smaller, faster, and more efficient at its workload.

On the other hand here we have the Tegra 4i, which gives up half the pixel pipelines and vertex shaders, but keeps all 48 pixel shaders.

If there was one surprise here, it would be that the part is not completely OpenGL ES 3.0 compliant.  It is lacking in one major function that is required for certification.  This particular part cannot render at FP32 levels.  It has been quite a few years since we have heard of anything not being able to do FP32 in the PC market, but it is quite common to not support it in the power and transistor conscious mobile market.  NVIDIA decided to go with a FP 20 partial precision setup.  They claim that for all intents and purposes, it will not be noticeable to the human eye.  Colors will still be rendered properly and artifacts will be few and far between.  Remember back in the day when NVIDIA supported FP16 and FP32 while they chastised ATI for choosing FP24 with the Radeon 9700 Pro?  Times have changed a bit.  Going with FP20 is again a power and transistor saving decision.  It still supports DX9.3 and OpenGL ES 2.0, but it is not fully OpenGL ES 3.0 compliant.  This is not to say that it does not support any 3.0 features.  It in fact does support quite a bit of the functionality required by 3.0, but it is still not fully compliant.

This will be an interesting decision to watch over the next few years.  The latest Mali 600 series, PowerVR 6 series, and Adreno 300 series solutions all support OpenGL ES 3.0.  Tegra 4 is the odd man out.  While most developers have no plans to go to 3.0 anytime in the near future, it will eventually be implemented in software.  When that point comes, then the Tegra 4 based devices will be left a bit behind.  By then NVIDIA will have a fully compliant solution, but that is little comfort for those buying phones and tablets in the near future that will be saddled with non-compliance once applications hit.

The list of OpenGL ES 3.0 features that are actually present in Tegra 4, but the lack of FP32 relegates it to 2.0 compliant status.

The core speed is increased to 672 MHz, well up from the 520 MHz in Tegra 3 (8 pixel and 4 vertex shaders).  The GPU can output four pixels per clock, double that of Tegra 3.  Once we consider the extra clock speed and pixel pipelines, the Tegra 4 increases pixel fillrate by 2.6x.  Pixel and vertex shading will get a huge boost in performance due to the dramatic increase of units and clockspeed.  Overall this is a very significant improvement over the previous generation of parts.

The Tegra 4 can output to a 4K display natively, and that is not the only new feature for this part.  Here is a quick list:

2x/4x Multisample Antialiasing (MSAA)

24-bit Z (versus 20-bit Z in the Tegra 3 processor) and 8-bit Stencil

4K x 4K texture size incl. Non-Power of Two textures (versus 2K x 2K in the Tegra 3 processor) – for higher quality textures, and easier to port full resolution textures from  console and PC games to Tegra 4 processor.  Good for high resolution displays.

16:1 Depth (Z) Compression and 4:1 Color Compression (versus none in Tegra 3 processor) – this is lossless compression and is useful for reducing bandwidth to/from the frame buffer, and especially effective in antialiasing processing when processing multiple samples per pixel

Depth Textures

Percentage Closer Filtering for Shadow Texture Mapping and Soft Shadows

Texture border color eliminate coarse MIP-level bleeding

sRGB for Texture Filtering, Render Surfaces and MSAA down-filter

1 - CSAA is no longer supported in Tegra 4 processors

This is a big generational jump, and now we only have to see how it performs against the other top end parts from Qualcomm, Samsung, and others utilizing IP from Imagination and ARM.

Remember the OCZ Vertex 4? The 256GB model is less than $1/GB!

Subject: Storage | July 4, 2012 - 03:53 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Vertex 4, vertex, ocz, Indilinx, ssd

It has been a while since Allan first reviewed the Indilinx Everest 2 powered OCZ Vertex 4 so it seems like a good time to refresh your memory.  That is not just because newer firmware is increasing the performance of this drive but also because the 256GB model can be had for under $1/GB!   You can see the performance against over a dozen other SSDs of varying prices at TechSpot, where it might not hold the top spot for overall performance it fares very well when you consider the price to performance ratio.  That is not to say it is the least expensive drive available but it deserves to be in your list when you are considering a new SSD for your system.

"Although SandForce controllers have powered much of OCZ's solid-state lineup, the company is shifting to its own solutions after purchasing Indilinx early last year. The "Octane" flash drives were the first to use the Indilinx Everest controller last holiday season and now that its SF-2281-based drives are over a year old, OCZ has begun phasing Everest into the rest of its offerings, including the Vertex series.

The Vertex 4 series is aimed at performance buffs, with initial Indilinx Everest 2 based models offering capacities of 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB. Performance is the name of the game here and OCZ doesn't disappoint."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

• OCZ Vertex 4 240GB SATA 6Gbit/s SSD Review @ Techgage
• OCZ Vertex 4 128GB Solid State Drive Review @ eTeknix
• OCZ Vertex 4 128GB Solid State Drive @ Pro-Clockers
• Crucial M4 SSD 128GB @ Computing on Demand
• Plextor M3 Pro (256GB) @ AnandTech
• Kingston HyperX 3k 240GB Solid State Drive @ Pro-Clockers
• CZ Vertex 4 256GB Solid State Drive Firmware 1.4.1.5 Testing @ Tweaktown
• LSI SAS 9207-8i PCIe 3.0 HBA Overview - Eight Crucial M4 SSDs Pushed to 4.1GB/s Performance @ SSD Review
• ADATA 500 Series S510 120GB SSD Review @ eTeknix
• 48 SATA 600 SSDs round-up @ Hardware.Info
• Intel 330 Series SSD 120GB Review @ HardwareHeaven
• Crucial Adrenaline Caching SSD Review @ HardwareLOOK
• MyDigitalSSD BulletProof 3 mSATA 256GB @ SSD Review
• SuperSSpeed S301 Hyper SLC 120GB Solid State Drive @ Tweaktown
• MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof 3 256GB mSATA Solid State Drive @ Tweaktown
• Intel 910 800GB and 400GB PCI Express Solid State Drive @ Tweaktown
• Solid State Drive Performance Comparison Guide @ TechARP
• Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB 10K RPM Hard Drive Review @ Techgage
• Better Power Management for your NAS @ Computing on Demand
• Thecus N4800 @ Bjorn3D
• Thecus N4800 4-Bay Battery Backup NAS @ Tweaktown
• QNAP TS-412 review: an affordable NAS @ Hardware.info
• Icy Dock MB559U3S Ultra Slim 3.5in USB 3.0 and eSATA Enclosure Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• QNAP TS-669 Pro @ techPowerUp
• Netgear ReadyNAS Duo V2: Fast and affordable @ Hardware.info
• QNAP vs Thecus @ Computing on Demand
• LaCie 2big Thunderbolt 4TB @ Hardware.info

OCZ returns to Indilinx for the Vertex 4

Subject: Storage | June 21, 2012 - 06:37 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Vertex 4, vertex, ocz, Indilinx

Just in case you didn't believe Al's review of the new OCZ Vertex 4 or because you want to see the difference between the 512GB version he reviewed and the 128GB version that costs a lot less, you can check out what OCIA thinks right here.  AS you would expect, the lower capacity results in lower performance thanks to the reduction in the amount of channels but at a tested 511.51MB on Sandra and an IOPS score of 99514 slow is a relative term.  If you are going to pick up this drive update to the newest firmware, OCIA tested with 1.4.1.3 and saw a big performance difference from the previous firmware version.

“The Everest 2 platform comes as a result of OCZ’s acquisition of Indilinx in early 2011 but it isn’t the first time we have seen the Indilinx brand stamped on a Vertex drive. The company launched the original Vertex SSD as one of the pioneering flash storage solutions for mainstream users with an Indilinx controller under the hood. OCZ jumped on the SandForce bandwagon with the Vertex 2 and Vertex 3 but have come full circle back to an Indilinx solution with the Vertex 4... well, sort of. But we’ll get to that in just a bit.”

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

• OCZ Vertex 4 Solid State Drive @ Benchmark Reviews
• Crucial Adrenaline Cache SSD @ XSReviews
• MyDigitalSSD SMART 256GB mSATA Solid State Drive @ Tweaktown
• Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB Hard Drive Review @ Hardware Canucks
• MemoRight MS-701 240GB mSATA Solid State Drive @ Kitguru
• Corsair Accelerator Series 30GB Cache SSD @ SSD Review
• MyDigitalSSD SMART Series 256GB SSD @ SSD Review
• Western Digital Scorpio 1TB (9.5mm) review @ Hardware.Info
• OCZ improves Vertex 4 with firmware 1.4 @ Hardware.Info
• Adaptec 6805TQ maxCache RAID controller @ TechwareLabs
• Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 @ TechwareLabs
• StarTech.com USB 3.0 to SATA IDE HDD Docking Station @ AnandTech
• Thecus N5550 5-Bay NAS Review @ eTeknix
• NZXT Aperture M Card Reader @ Kitguru
• NAP Updates Firmware to 3.7 | New Features! @ Computing on Demand
• Synology DiskStation DS412+ @ Legion Hardware
• Seagate GoFlex Satellite @ LanOC Reviews

OCZ's brand new Vertex 4 arrives

Subject: Storage | April 4, 2012 - 03:37 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ocz, ssd, sata 6Gbs, Vertex 4, Indilinx, vertex

There are quite a few changes in the 4^th version of OCZ's Vertex SSDs, not only the new Indilinx controller but the positioning of it right in the centre of the PCB.  You will also notice what looks like an mSATA interface, but The Tech Report is sad to say that it is only a connector for OCZ's internal testing machinery and is not a standard connector.  Of course, we may have to see what the modders do with it.  The performance is as good as you would expect in most circumstances though there were some tests the new prefetch mechanism had troubles with.  OCZ claims that the drive was intended to be partitioned and doing so could help the performance.  Also worth applauding is the move to a 5 year warranty, signalling OCZ's increased faith in reliability.

Our own Al Malventano took a look at not only the drive but also the difference between the 1.30 and 1.52 firmware revisions.

"Just a few months after its Indilinx Everest controller debuted in the OCZ Octane, a second-generation Everest chip has taken root in the Vertex 4 SSD. We take a closer look at the latest Vertex to see what's changed and how its performance measures up."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

• OCZ Vertex 4 @ AnandTech
• OCZ Technology Vertex 4 (Indilinx Everest 2) 256GB and 512GB SSD @ Tweaktown
• OCZ Vertex 4 512GB @ Kitguru
• OCZ Vertex 4 Indilinx 256GB & 512GB SSD Reviews @ Legit Reviews
• OCZ Vertex 4 Solid State Drive 512GB/256GB Launch Review @ HardwareHeaven
• OCZ Vertex 4 512GB SSD Review @ Hardware Canucks
• OCZ Vertex 4 SSD 256GB and 512GB @ Guru 3D
• ndilinx Everest 2 SSD Controller Platform Overview @ Tweaktown
• SSDs from Mushkin: Chronos deluxe 240 GB and Chronos 240 GB @ X-bit Labs
• Micron RealSSD P400e 6Gbps 200GB Enterprise SSD @ SSD Review
• OCZ Synapse Cache 64GB Solid State Drive Review @ circuitREMIX
• ADATA XPG SX900 256GB SATA 3 SSD @ SSD Review

PCPer v4.0 Giveaway: Another OCZ Technology Vertex 2 120GB SSD!

Subject: Editorial, General Tech, Storage | April 27, 2011 - 02:48 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: contest, giveaway, ocz, ssd, vertex

As you can no doubt tell, PC Perspective got a HUGE and much needed facelift recently to what we are internally calling "PC Perspective v4.0".  I know there are still some kinks to work out and we are actively addressing any feedback from our readers in this comment thread.  

But we want to celebrate the launch of the new site in style!!  Some of our site sponsors have very generously offered up some prizes for us to give out throughout the coming days...

The seventh (!!) prize is another 120GB OCZ Technology Vertex 2 SSD!!

What do you have to do to win this wonderful piece of hardware?

Couldn't be easier: post a comment in this post thanking OCZ for its sponsorship of PC Perspective and maybe include a thought or two on the new site design (compliments, constructive criticism, hate filled monologues, whatever).  You should probably have a registered account or at least be sure you include your email address in the appropriate field so we can contact you!