Video Core Next

AMD hardware video codec, built into AMD GPUs and APUs

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 depth 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  |  |  |  |  |  | ?  | 4K @ 10b  |  |  | 4K @ 10b  |  |  |
VCN 2.0  | Navi 1x  | [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  |  |  |
VCN 3.0.33  | Navi 24  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
VCN 3.1.0  | Van Gogh[14] |  |  |  |  | 8K @ 10b  |  | 8K @ 10b  |
VCN 3.1.1  | Rembrandt,[15] Mendocino  |  |
VCN 3.1.2[16] | Raphael, Dragon Range  |
VCN 4.0[17][18] | Navi 3x, Phoenix  |  |
VCN 5.0  | Navi 4x

## Quality

[edit]

AMD VCN has same overall quality (VMAF) compared to offerings from Intel and Nvidia. B-frame narrows the gap and with pre-analysis enabled too, the gap is closed.[19]

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.

## See also

[edit]

### Video hardware technologies

[edit]

#### Nvidia

[edit]

* PureVideo \- Nvidia
* GeForce 256's Motion Compensation
* High-Definition Video Processor
* Video Processing Engine
* Nvidia NVENC
* Nvidia NVDEC

#### AMD

[edit]

* Video Core Next - AMD
* Video Coding Engine \- AMD
* Unified Video Decoder \- AMD
* Video Shader \- ATI

#### Intel

[edit]

* Quick Sync Video \- Intel
* Clear Video \- Intel

Qualcomm

* Qualcomm Hexagon

## 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. ^ "Tested: With RDNA 3, AMD Radeon is finally useful for content creators". PCWorld.
9. ^ 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. ^ https://www.techspot.com/news/96945-amd-radeon-rx-7900-av1-encoder-almost-par.html

## 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.

* v
* t
* e

AMD graphics

Radeon-brand
List of GPUs (GPU features template) and List of APUs (APU features template)

| Fixed pipeline|

* Wonder
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|

Vertex and fragment shaders|

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Unified shaders|

| TeraScale|

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|

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|

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* RX 5000
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Current technologies and software

| Audio/Video acceleration|

* Unified Video Decoder (UVD)
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* Video Core Next (VCN)
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|

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Obsolete|

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Other brands and products

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& supercomputers|

| Current|

* Radeon Pro
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