Google uses 14nm Vega GPU for game streaming service Stadia

Google uses AMD Vega GPUs made at 14nm in the data centers for its upcoming game streaming service. AMD already makes GPUs at 7nm, but Google does not have that available yet.

That Google uses 14nm GPUs is apparent from documentation that Khronos has put online. That company is the administrator of the Vulkan API that all Stadia games will use. Khronos reports that the Google Games Platform Gen 1 uses AMD GCN 1.5. This therefore concerns GPUs based on version 1.5 of the Graphics Core Next architecture. Video cards such as the Radeon RX Vega 56 and Vega 64 are based on GCN 1.5. The newer Radeon VII with 7nm GPU is part of GCN version 1.5.1.

When Google released the first information about Stadia, it was already clear that AMD GPUs with 56 compute units would be in the servers for the game streaming service. Google also said that the video cards are equipped with hbm2, making the link with the RX Vega cards clear. However, it was not clear whether it was a new gpu made at 7nm or an older variant at 14nm. Google does not say which CPUs are used, but based on the published specifications, it can be concluded that it concerns Intel Xeons.

It is not yet known on what scale Google will launch its first version of Stadia with the 14nm GPUs. In the future, Google could switch to or expand with new GPUs that are made on the more economical 7nm process. Google announced Stadia in March, saying the service will be available this year in the United States and most European countries. Google will provide more information in the summer.