AMD PowerPlay is the brand name for a set of technologies for the reduction of the energy consumption implemented in several ofAMD'sgraphics processing units andAPUs supported by theirproprietarygraphics device driver "Catalyst". AMD PowerPlay is also implemented intoATI/AMD chipsets which integrated graphics and into AMD'sImageon handheld chipset, that was sold toQualcomm 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 byAMD PowerTune.^[1]

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 includedynamic clock adjustments when the notebook is not plugged into a power socket and allowing different backlight brightness levels of the notebookLCD monitor. The technology was updated with the release of each generation of mobile GPUs. The latest release is ATI PowerPlay 7.0.^[2]

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

The official ATI support list^[3] 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 supportPCI Express 2.0,DirectX 10.1 and fasterGDDR3 memory.

The entireATI Radeon Xpress line is also supported forsingle board computers which tend to be power sensitive and used in large installations where configuration andboot image control are major concerns.

Support for "PowerPlay" was added to the Linux kernel driver "amdgpu" on November 11, 2015.^[4]

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 300MHz with PowerPlay technology enabled.^[5]

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

Platform			High, standard and low power														Low and ultra-low power
Codename	Server	Basic						Toronto
		Micro																Kyoto
	Desktop	Performance													Raphael	Phoenix
		Mainstream	Llano	Trinity	Richland	Kaveri	Kaveri Refresh (Godavari)	Carrizo	Bristol Ridge	Raven Ridge	Picasso	Renoir	Cezanne
		Entry
		Basic																Kabini				Dalí
	Mobile	Performance										Renoir	Cezanne	Rembrandt	Dragon Range
		Mainstream	Llano	Trinity	Richland	Kaveri		Carrizo	Bristol Ridge	Raven Ridge	Picasso	Renoir Lucienne	Cezanne Barceló			Phoenix
		Entry																				Dalí			Mendocino
		Basic															Desna, Ontario, Zacate	Kabini, Temash	Beema, Mullins	Carrizo-L	Stoney Ridge		Pollock
	Embedded			Trinity		Bald Eagle		Merlin Falcon, Brown Falcon		Great Horned Owl		Grey Hawk					Ontario, Zacate	Kabini	Steppe Eagle,Crowned Eagle, LX-Family		Prairie Falcon	Banded Kestrel		River Hawk
Released			Aug 2011	Oct 2012	Jun 2013	Jan 2014	2015	Jun 2015	Jun 2016	Oct 2017	Jan 2019	Mar 2020	Jan 2021	Jan 2022	Sep 2022	Jan 2023	Jan 2011	May 2013	Apr 2014	May 2015	Feb 2016	Apr 2019	Jul 2020	Jun 2022	Nov 2022
CPUmicroarchitecture			K10	Piledriver		Steamroller		Excavator	"Excavator+"[6]	Zen	Zen+	Zen 2	Zen 3	Zen 3+	Zen 4		Bobcat	Jaguar	Puma	Puma+[7]	"Excavator+"	Zen		Zen+	"Zen 2+"
ISA			x86-64 v1	x86-64 v2				x86-64 v3							x86-64 v4		x86-64 v1	x86-64 v2			x86-64 v3
Socket	Desktop	Performance	—N/a												AM5	—N/a	—N/a
		Mainstream	—N/a					AM4						—N/a		—N/a
		Entry	FM1	FM2		FM2+		FM2+[a],AM4	AM4					—N/a
		Basic	—N/a														—N/a	AM1	—N/a			FP5	—N/a
	Other		FS1	FS1+,FP2		FP3		FP4		FP5		FP6		FP7	FL1	FP7 FP7r2 FP8	FT1	FT3	FT3b		FP4	FP5	FT5	FP5	FT6
PCI Express version			2.0			3.0								4.0	5.0	4.0	2.0				3.0
CXL			—N/a														—N/a
Fab. (nm)			GF32SHP (HKMGSOI)			GF28SHP (HKMG bulk)				GF14LPP (FinFET bulk)	GF12LP (FinFET bulk)	TSMCN7 (FinFET bulk)		TSMCN6 (FinFET bulk)	CCD: TSMCN5 (FinFET bulk) cIOD: TSMCN6 (FinFET bulk)	TSMC4nm (FinFET bulk)	TSMCN40 (bulk)	TSMCN28 (HKMG bulk)	GF 28SHP (HKMG bulk)			GF14LPP (FinFET bulk)		GF12LP (FinFET bulk)	TSMCN6 (FinFET bulk)
Die area (mm2)			228	246		245		245	250	210[8]		156	180	210	CCD: (2x) 70 cIOD: 122	178	75(+ 28FCH)	107		?	125	149			~100
MinTDP (W)			35	17				12				10		15	65	35	4.5	4	3.95	10	6			12	8
Max APUTDP (W)			100			95		65						45	170	54	18	25					6	54	15
Max stock APU base clock (GHz)			3	3.8	4.1	4.1		3.7	3.8	3.6	3.7	3.8	4.0	3.3	4.7	4.3	1.75	2.2	2	2.2	3.2	2.6	1.2	3.35	2.8
Max APUs per node[b]			1														1
Max core dies per CPU			1												2	1	1
Max CCX per core die			1									2	1				1
Max cores per CCX			4										8				2	4			2			4
MaxCPU[c]cores per APU			4									8			16	8	2	4			2			4
Maxthreads per CPU core			1							2							1					2
Integer pipeline structure			3+3	2+2						4+2		4+2+1	1+3+3+1+2				1+1+1+1				2+2	4+2			4+2+1
i386, i486, i586, CMOV, NOPL, i686,PAE,NX bit, CMPXCHG16B,AMD-V,RVI,ABM, and 64-bit LAHF/SAHF
IOMMU[d]			—N/a	v2													v1		v2
BMI1,AES-NI,CLMUL, andF16C																	—N/a
MOVBE			—N/a
AVIC,BMI2,RDRAND, and MWAITX/MONITORX																	—N/a
SME[e],TSME[e],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 percore			1	0.5						1							1				0.5	1
Pipes per FPU			2														2
FPU pipe width			128-bit									256-bit					80-bit	128-bit							256-bit
CPUinstruction setSIMD level			SSE4a[f]	AVX				AVX2							AVX-512		SSSE3	AVX			AVX2
3DNow!			3DNow!+	—N/a													—N/a
PREFETCH/PREFETCHW
GFNI			—N/a														—N/a
AMX			—N/a
FMA4, LWP,TBM, andXOP			—N/a							—N/a							—N/a					—N/a
FMA3
AMD XDNA			—N/a														—N/a
L1 data cache per core (KiB)			64	16				32									32
L1 data cacheassociativity (ways)			2	4				8									8
L1 instruction caches percore			1	0.5						1							1				0.5	1
Max APU total L1 instruction cache (KiB)			256	128		192				256					512	256	64		128		96	128
L1 instruction cacheassociativity (ways)			2			3				4		8					2				3	4			8
L2 caches percore			1	0.5						1							1				0.5	1
Max APU total L2 cache (MiB)			4					2				4			16		1	2			1			2
L2 cacheassociativity (ways)			16							8							16					8
Max on-dieL3 cache per CCX (MiB)			—N/a							4			16		32		—N/a						4
Max 3D V-Cache per CCD (MiB)										—N/a					64	—N/a							—N/a
Max total in-CCDL3 cache per APU (MiB)										4		8	16		64								4
Max. total 3D V-Cache per APU (MiB)										—N/a					64	—N/a							—N/a
Max. boardL3 cache per APU (MiB)										—N/a													—N/a
Max totalL3 cache per APU (MiB)										4		8	16		128								4
APU L3 cacheassociativity (ways)										16													16
L3 cache scheme										Victim													Victim
Max.L4 cache			—N/a														—N/a
Max stockDRAM support			DDR3-1866		DDR3-2133			DDR3-2133,DDR4-2400	DDR4-2400	DDR4-2933		DDR4-3200,LPDDR4-4266		DDR5-4800,LPDDR5-6400	DDR5-5200	DDR5-5600,LPDDR5x-7500	DDR3L-1333	DDR3L-1600	DDR3L-1866		DDR3-1866,DDR4-2400	DDR4-2400	DDR4-1600	DDR4-3200	LPDDR5-5500
MaxDRAM channels per APU			2														1					2	1	2
Max stockDRAMbandwidth (GB/s) per APU			29.866		34.132			38.400		46.932		68.256		102.400	83.200	120.000	10.666	12.800	14.933		19.200	38.400	12.800	51.200	88.000
GPUmicroarchitecture			TeraScale 2 (VLIW5)	TeraScale 3 (VLIW4)		GCN 2nd gen		GCN 3rd gen		GCN 5th gen[9]				RDNA 2		RDNA 3	TeraScale 2 (VLIW5)	GCN 2nd gen			GCN 3rd gen[9]	GCN 5th gen			RDNA 2
GPUinstruction set			TeraScale instruction set			GCN instruction set								RDNA instruction set			TeraScale instruction set	GCN instruction set							RDNA instruction set
Max stock GPU base clock (MHz)			600	800	844	866		1108		1250	1400	2100		2400	400		538	600	?	847	900	1200	600	1300	1900
Max stock GPU baseGFLOPS[g]			480	614.4	648.1	886.7		1134.5		1760	1971.2	2150.4		3686.4	102.4		86	?	?	?	345.6	460.8	230.4	1331.2	486.4
3D engine[h]			Up to 400:20:8	Up to 384:24:6		Up to 512:32:8				Up to 704:44:16[10]		Up to 512:32:8		768:48:8	128:8:4		80:8:4	128:8:4			Up to 192:12:8	Up to 192:12:4	192:12:4	Up to 512:?:?	128:?:?
			IOMMUv1			IOMMUv2											IOMMUv1		?		IOMMUv2
Video decoder			UVD 3.0			UVD 4.2		UVD 6.0		VCN 1.0[11]		VCN 2.1[12]	VCN 2.2[12]	VCN 3.1		?	UVD 3.0	UVD 4.0	UVD 4.2		UVD 6.2	VCN 1.0			VCN 3.1
Video encoder			—N/a	VCE 1.0		VCE 2.0		VCE 3.1									—N/a	VCE 2.0			VCE 3.4
AMD Fluid Motion
GPU power saving			PowerPlay	PowerTune													PowerPlay	PowerTune[13]
TrueAudio			—N/a			[14]							?				—N/a
FreeSync						1 2												1 2
HDCP[i]			?			1.4				2.2				2.3			?	1.4				2.2			2.3
PlayReady[i]			—N/a							3.0 not yet							—N/a					3.0 not yet
Supported displays[j]			2–3	2–4				3		3 (desktop) 4 (mobile, embedded)		4					2				3	4		4
/drm/radeon[k][16][17]									—N/a												—N/a
/drm/amdgpu[k][18]			—N/a			[19]											—N/a	[19]

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

Name ofGPU series	Wonder	Mach	3D Rage	Rage Pro	Rage 128	R100	R200	R300	R400	R500	R600	RV670	R700	Evergreen	Northern Islands		Southern Islands	Sea Islands	Volcanic Islands	Arctic Islands/Polaris	Vega	Navi 1x	Navi 2x	Navi 3x	Navi 4x
Released	1986	1991	Apr 1996	Mar 1997	Aug 1998	Apr 2000	Aug 2001	Sep 2002	May 2004	Oct 2005	May 2007	Nov 2007	Jun 2008	Sep 2009	Oct 2010	Dec 2010	Jan 2012	Sep 2013	Jun 2015	Jun 2016, Apr 2017, Aug 2019	Jun 2017, Feb 2019	Jul 2019	Nov 2020	Dec 2022	Feb 2025
Marketing Name	Wonder	Mach	3D Rage	Rage Pro	Rage 128	Radeon 7000	Radeon 8000	Radeon 9000	Radeon X700/X800	Radeon X1000	Radeon HD 2000	Radeon HD 3000	Radeon HD 4000	Radeon HD 5000	Radeon HD 6000		Radeon HD 7000	Radeon 200	Radeon 300	Radeon 400/500/600	Radeon RX Vega, Radeon VII	Radeon RX 5000	Radeon RX 6000	Radeon RX 7000	Radeon RX 9000
AMD support
Kind	2D		3D
Instruction set architecture	Not publicly known										TeraScale instruction set						GCN instruction set					RDNA instruction set
Microarchitecture	Not publicly known					GFX1		GFX2			TeraScale 1 (VLIW5) (GFX3)			TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) (GFX4)	TeraScale 2 (VLIW5) up to 68xx (GFX4)	TeraScale 3 (VLIW4) in 69xx[20][21] (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)
Type	Fixed pipeline[a]						Programmable pixel & vertex pipelines				Unified shader model
Direct3D	—N/a		5.0	6.0		7.0	8.1	9.0 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/a						1.4	2.0+	2.0b	3.0	4.0	4.1		5.0			5.1	5.1 6.5			6.7				6.8
OpenGL	—N/a			1.1	1.2	1.3		1.5[b][22]			3.3			4.5 (Windows), 4.6 (Linux Mesa 25.2+)[23]			4.6[24][c]
Vulkan	—N/a															1.1[c][d]	1.3[25][e]		1.4[26]
OpenCL	—N/a										Close to Metal		1.1 (not supported byMesa)	1.2+ (onLinux: 1.1+ (no Image support on Clover, with Rusticl) with Mesa, 1.2+ on GCN 1.Gen)				2.0+ (Adrenalin driver onWin 7+) (onLinux 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+))[27][28][29]
HSA /ROCm	—N/a																					?
Video decodingASIC	—N/a										Avivo/UVD	UVD+	UVD 2	UVD 2.2	UVD 3		UVD 4	UVD 4.2	UVD 5.0 or6.0	UVD 6.3	UVD 7[30][f]	VCN 2.0[30][f]	VCN 3.0[31]	VCN 4.0	VCN 5.0
Video encodingASIC	—N/a																VCE 1.0	VCE 2.0	VCE 3.0 or 3.1	VCE 3.4	VCE 4.0[30][f]
Fluid Motion[g]																								?
Power saving	?										PowerPlay				PowerTune		PowerTune &ZeroCore Power					?
TrueAudio	—N/a																	Via dedicatedDSP		Via shaders
FreeSync	—N/a																	1 2
HDCP[h]	—N/a										?							1.4		2.2		2.3[32]
PlayReady[h]	—N/a																			3.0		3.0
Supported displays[i]						1–2	2							2–6								?			4
Max.resolution	?													2–6 × 2560×1600			2–6 × 4096×2160 @ 30 Hz			2–6 × 5120×2880 @ 60 Hz	3 × 7680×4320 @ 60 Hz[33]	7680×4320 @ 60 HzPowerColor		7680x4320 @165 Hz	7680x4320
/drm/radeon[j]																			—N/a
/drm/amdgpu[j]	—N/a																	Optional[34]

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

• Official website

• AMD products
• AMD technologies
• AMD software
• Graphics processing units

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