Video Core Next

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Video Core Next is AMD's brand for its dedicated video encoding and decoding hardware core. It is a family of hardware accelerator designs for encoding and decoding video, and is built into AMD's GPUs and APUs since AMD Raven Ridge, released January 2018.

Background[edit]

Video Core Next is AMD's successor to both the Unified Video Decoder and Video Coding Engine designs,[1] which are hardware accelerators for video decoding and encoding, respectively. It can be used to decode, encode and transcode ("sync") video streams, for example, a DVD or Blu-ray Disc to a format appropriate to, for example, a smartphone. Unlike video encoding on a CPU or a general-purpose GPU, Video Core Next is a dedicated hardware core on the processor die. This application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) allows for more power-efficient video processing.[2][3]

Feature set[edit]

All versions of VCN support: MPEG-2 Decode, MPEG-4 Decode, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Encode/Decode, HEVC (H.265) Encode/Decode, and VP9 Decode. 10-bit color in the P010 format is supported. VCN 1.0 supports up to 4K resolution. VCN 2.0 and beyond supports up to 8K.[4] Support for H.264 and H.265 Encode methods differ among generations (see below). VC-1 Decode is supported until VCN 3.0.33.[4]

VCN 2.0 is implemented with Navi products and the Renoir APU. The feature set remains the same as VCN 1.0.[4]

VCN 3.0 is implemented with Navi 2 products.[5] VCN 3.0 implements H.264 B-frames, which was present in Video Coding Engine 2.0 but taken out with VCE 3.0.[6]

VCN 4.0 adds AV1 encode.[7] H.264 quality is higher with VCN 4.0 (as part of RDNA 3) compared to previous generations, but still lags behind Intel and Nvidia hardware codecs.[8]

There is no support for encoding or decoding in YUV422 and YUV444 in H.264 and H.265.

Video Core Next Video decoding/encoding support[4]
VCN
Generation 		GPU code name JPEG H.262
(MPEG-2) 		VC-1/WMV 9 H.264
(MPEG-4 AVC) 		H.265
(HEVC) 		VP9 AV1
Decode Decode Decode Decode Encode Decode Encode Decode Decode Encode
B-frame[a] Pre-analysis[b] Resolution， color depth Chroma Resolution,

color depth

VCN 1.0 Raven, Picasso Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? 4K @ 10b Yes 4K @ 10b Yes No No
VCN 2.0 Navi 1x Yes[11] 8K @ 10b 8K @ 10b
VCN 2.2 Renoir, Lucienne, Cezanne, Barcelo
VCN 2.5 Arcturus
VCN 2.6 Aldebaran[12]
VCN 3.0[13] Navi 21, Navi 22, Navi 23 Yes Yes
VCN 3.0.33 Navi 24 No No No No No No No No No
VCN 3.1.0 Van Gogh[14] Yes Yes Yes Yes 8K @ 10b 8K @ 10b Yes
VCN 3.1.1 Rembrandt,[15] Mendocino No
VCN 3.1.2[16] Raphael, Dragon Range
VCN 4.0[17][18] Navi 3x, Phoenix Yes

Quality[edit]

AMD VCN has lower overall quality (VMAF) compared to offerings from Intel and Nvidia. B-frame narrows the gap, but does not eliminate it.[8] With pre-analysis enabled too, the gap is almost closed.[9]

Despite a lack of B-frame support, H.265 provides better quality (VMAF) and near-identical speed for the same bitrate compared to H.264 on VCN 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0.[19]

See also[edit]

Video hardware technologies[edit]

Nvidia[edit]

AMD[edit]

Intel[edit]

Qualcomm

References[edit]

  1. ^ B-frames allow for higher-quality I and P frame to be used, improving the overall video quality in high-motion sections. There is no B-frame support for H.265 at any version.[6]
  2. ^ Pre-analysis improves quality in high motion scenes at the cost of latency.[9][10] This pass works in both H.264 and H.265.
  1. ^ Larabel, Michael (17 November 2017). "Radeon VCN Encode Support Lands In Mesa 17.4 Git". Phoronix. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  2. ^ "Intel's Second-Gen Core CPUs: The Sandy Bridge Review - Sandy Bridge's Secret Weapon: Quick Sync". Tom's Hardware. 3 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-30.
  3. ^ "The Sandy Bridge Review: Intel Core i7-2600K, i5-2500K and Core i3-2100 Tested". AnandTech. Retrieved 2014-04-05.
  4. ^ a b c d "RadeonFeature". www.x.org.
  5. ^ "AMD Lands VCN 3.0 Video Encode Support For Navi 2 / Sienna Cichlid - Phoronix". Phoronix. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Griffith, Chris (5 July 2022). "AMD Re-introduces the B-frame!". Code Calamity.
  7. ^ Shilov, Anton (4 May 2022). "First Details About AMD's Next Generation Video Engine Revealed". Tom's Hardware.
  8. ^ a b "Tested: With RDNA 3, AMD Radeon is finally useful for content creators". PCWorld.
  9. ^ a b Griffith, Chris (2022-08-11). "AMD improves video encoding yet again! This time with Pre-Analysis". Code Calamity. Retrieved 2024-01-11.
  10. ^ "[Request]: · Issue #318 · GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs/AMF". GitHub. – See explanation by rhutsAMD.
  11. ^ "AMF/amf/doc/AMF_Video_PreAnalysis_API.md at 2ca261f7f08ed762f115db5af8e5d288a9b2eaff · GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs/AMF". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-01-11. The AMF PA feature is supported by Radeon RX 5000 Series or newer GPUs as well as Ryzen 2000 U/H series or newer APUs.
  12. ^ Larabel, Michael (February 24, 2021). "AMD Radeon "Aldebaran" GPU Support Published For Next-Gen CDNA". Phoronix. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  13. ^ Larabel, Michael (September 15, 2020). "AMD Radeon Navi 2 / VCN 3.0 Supports AV1 Video Decoding - Phoronix". Phoronix. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  14. ^ Alcorn, Paul (September 26, 2020). "AMD's Van Gogh Chips to Have DDR5, Navi 2 Graphics". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved August 15, 2021.
  15. ^ Tyson, Mark (September 28, 2020). "AMD Radeon RX 6000 GPU specs spotted in MacOS beta code". HEXUS. Retrieved July 3, 2021.
  16. ^ Larabel, Michael (February 26, 2022). "More AMD Radeon Driver Improvements Lined Up For Linux 5.18". Phoronix. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  17. ^ Larabel, Michael (May 2, 2022). "AMD Posts Linux Driver Patches For New "VCN 4.0" IP Block". Phoronix. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  18. ^ Shilov, Anton (May 4, 2022). "First Details About AMD's Next Generation Video Engine Revealed". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
  19. ^ Walton, Jarred (10 March 2023). "Video Encoding Tested: AMD GPUs Still Lag Behind Nvidia, Intel (Updated)". Tom's Hardware.

External links[edit]

  • AMF, AMD's software API for VCN and earlier media functions. Release notes indicates feature additions without mentioning hardware versions.
  • VCEEnc, a command-line program exposing most configurable options from AMF. Allows HDR10+ with VCN H.265.
  • FastFlix, a graphical frontend for VCEEnc and other encoders.
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