GPU Wiki Architecture
GCN 5.1
GCN 5.1 covers the 7nm refinement of the Vega architecture, represented primarily by the Radeon VII (Vega 20), launched in early 2019. Built on TSMC's 7nm process with 16 GB of HBM2 and 1 TB/s of memory bandwidth, the Radeon VII was AMD's first 7nm consumer GPU and the first consumer card with 16 GB of HBM2.
- Launch era
- 2019
- Process nodes
- 7nm (TSMC N7)
- Predecessor
- GCN 5.0 (Vega 14nm)
- Successor
- RDNA 1.0
- Source review
- Verified
Related GPUs
| GPU | Architecture | Launch Date | Shader Processors | Memory | Bus Width | TDP/TBP | Segment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radeon VII | GCN 5.1 | 2019-02-07 | 3,840 | 16 GB HBM2 | 4096-bit | 295 W | Gaming |
| Radeon Instinct MI50 | GCN 5.1 | 2018-11-18 | 3,840 | 16 GB HBM2 | 4096-bit | 300 W | Data Center |
| Radeon Pro VII | GCN 5.1 | 2020-05-13 | 3,840 | 16 GB HBM2 | 4096-bit | 250 W | Workstation |
| Radeon Pro Vega II | GCN 5.1 | 2019-06-03 | 4,096 | 32 GB HBM2 | 4096-bit | 475 W | Workstation |
| Radeon Instinct MI60 | GCN 5.1 | 2018-11-18 | 4,096 | 32 GB HBM2 | 4096-bit | 300 W | Data Center |
| Radeon Pro Vega II Duo | GCN 5.1 | 2019-06-03 | 4,096 | 32 GB HBM2 | 4096-bit | 475 W | Workstation |
Architecture History
It served as a bridge between the GCN era and the then-upcoming RDNA architecture.
More architecture facts
- Architecture name
- GCN 5.1 (Vega 7nm)
- Important chips
- Vega 20 (Radeon VII)
- Memory technologies
- HBM2 (16 GB at 1 TB/s)
- Architecture feature generation
- GCN 5.1 Stream Processors (3840); DirectX 12 (FL 12_0); OpenCL 2.0; Vulkan 1.1; Rapid Packed Math
- Consumer series
- Radeon VII
- Workstation / professional series
- Radeon Pro VII (workstation variant with ECC support)
- Data center series
- Radeon Instinct MI50 / MI60 (Vega 20 compute variants)
What this architecture changed
First AMD 7nm consumer GPU: 7nm process enables higher density and lower power than 14nm Vega 10.
16 GB HBM2 at 1 TB/s: the largest memory buffer and highest bandwidth of any consumer GPU at its launch.
Same GCN 5.0 compute unit design as Vega 10, now on a 7nm node with higher clock headroom.
ECC memory support on professional (Radeon Pro VII) variant.
Why it mattered
The Radeon VII demonstrated the density improvements 7nm brought to the Vega compute design and served as a proof of concept for AMD's 7nm GPU manufacturing ahead of the RDNA architecture launch later in 2019. Its 16 GB HBM2 configuration made it particularly attractive for machine learning and creative workloads where VRAM capacity is a bottleneck. The Radeon VII is relatively rare in the secondary market and is collected as AMD's last GCN-family consumer discrete GPU.