ATI PowerPlay
Encyclopedia
ATI PowerPlay is a collective name for a set of technologies implemented in a series of graphics adapters manufactured by ATI
, including the Mobility Radeon, the Imageon
handheld chipset, and the Radeon
family of desktop GPU
s. These technologies aim at reducing the power consumption of GPUs.
when the notebook is not plugged into a power socket and allowing different backlight brightness levels of the notebook LCD
monitor. The technology was updated with the release of each generation of mobile GPUs. The latest release is ATI PowerPlay 7.0.
Since the release of Radeon HD 3000 series
, PowerPlay was implemented to further reduce the power consumption of desktop GPUs.
, DirectX 10.1
and faster GDDR3
memory - though it also works with DDR2.
The entire ATI Radeon Xpress
line is also supported for single board computers which tend to be power sensitive and used in large installations where configuration and boot image control
are major concerns.
with PowerPlay technology enabled.
ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. was a semiconductor technology corporation based in Markham, Ontario, Canada, that specialized in the development of graphics processing units and chipsets. Founded in 1985 as Array Technologies Inc., the company was listed publicly in 1993 and was acquired by Advanced Micro...
, including the Mobility Radeon, the Imageon
Imageon
The Imageon is a line of media processors developed by ATI providing graphics acceleration and other multimedia features for handheld devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants ....
handheld chipset, and the Radeon
Radeon
Radeon is a brand of graphics processing units and random access memory produced by Advanced Micro Devices , first launched in 2000 by ATI Technologies, which was acquired by AMD in 2006. Radeon is the successor to the Rage line. There are four different groups, which can be differentiated by...
family of desktop GPU
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
s. These technologies aim at reducing the power consumption of GPUs.
History
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 include dynamic clock adjustmentsDynamic frequency scaling
Dynamic frequency scaling is a technique in computer architecture whereby the frequency of a microprocessor can be automatically adjusted "on the fly," either to conserve power or to reduce the amount of heat generated by the chip...
when the notebook is not plugged into a power socket and allowing different backlight brightness levels of the notebook LCD
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
monitor. The technology was updated with the release of each generation of mobile GPUs. The latest release is ATI PowerPlay 7.0.
Since the release of Radeon HD 3000 series
Radeon R600
The graphics processing unit codenamed the Radeon R600 is the foundation of the Radeon HD 2000/3000 series and the FireGL 2007 series video cards developed by ATI Technologies...
, PowerPlay was implemented to further reduce the power consumption of desktop GPUs.
Currently supported products
The official ATI support list 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 - is now generally being phased out in favour of the 3000s at the same price points that also support PCI Express 2.0PCI Express
PCI Express , officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards...
, DirectX 10.1
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
and faster GDDR3
GDDR3
Graphics Double Data Rate 3 is a graphics card-specific memory technology, designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC.It has much the same technological base as DDR2, but the power and heat dispersal requirements have been reduced somewhat, allowing for higher performance memory...
memory - though it also works with DDR2.
The entire ATI Radeon Xpress
Xpress 3200
The Xpress 3200 is a new revision of the Xpress 200 computer chipset released by ATI. The chipset supports AMD64 processors of the Socket 939 and also of the Socket AM2.-History of the Xpress 3200 chipset:...
line is also supported for single board computers which tend to be power sensitive and used in large installations where configuration and boot image control
Boot image control
A boot image control strategy is a common way to reduce total cost of ownership in organizations with large numbers of similar computers being used by users with common needs, e.g. a large corporation or government agency...
are major concerns.
Desktop versus laptop
The main differences between the desktop version and the laptop version is that the desktop version cut the feature which were aimed at notebook usages, including variable LCD backlight brightness, leaving dynamic clock adjustments. The PowerPlay technology for Radeon desktop graphics also used three usage scenarios, accordingly the normal mode (2D mode), light gaming mode and intensive gaming mode (3D mode), replacing usage scenarios in notebook (being plugged or unplugged from AC source). Tests indicated that the lowest core clock frequency of an RV670 GPU core can reach as low as 300 MHzHertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
with PowerPlay technology enabled.
See also
- NVIDIA PowerMizer, similar functionality provided in mobile GeForce products