AMD Launches Radeon Pro V340 Virtualization GPU, Supports Up To 32 Users Per Card

Gamers might be getting anxious to hear more about an NVIDIA RTX-killer AMD might have in the pipe, but for now, it’s the enterprise market that’s enjoying the recent fruits of AMD’s labor. At this month’s SIGGRAPH, I was surprised to learn that AMD’s Radeon Pro Duo was still considered an active product, since I heard from someone that it wasn’t. I admit when I was talking about this to AMD, I didn’t expect the company to churn out another dual-GPU card mere weeks later.

That card is the Radeon Pro V340, one that squarely targets the likes of NVIDIA’s Tesla, and in particular, the P40. AMD says that the P40 can support only 24 users per card, while allocating 1GB to each, whereas the AMD MxGPU-infused (based on SR-IOV) V340 can support up to 32, retaining that important 1GB/user configuration.

Based on that information, you can probably tell that this isn’t a standard GPU. It’s not meant for deep-learning, or regular ProViz work. Rather, it’s for enterprises that roll out environments in the cloud to ultimately reach employees, or regular end-users taking advantage of a service. With 32 users supported per card, the total user density in a rack is very attractive.

What’s really interesting about this card isn’t so much the fact that it includes 32GB of super-fast HBM2, but instead the fact that it’s the first dual Vega GPU. The Pro Duo, released two years ago, is based on Polaris, and while its aggregate performance would be very impressive, it wouldn’t match dual Vegas, so seeing this V340 makes me dream of a Vega-based Pro Duo.

The V340 can support 32 users per card, but that doesn’t mean that it has to. It could support fewer users, but increase the allocated VRAM, which would be useful for multiple users doing more intense workloads, such as CAD design, or even rendering. Because the GPU is virtualized, one user’s workload won’t impact another’s.

Other perks of the Radeon Pro V340 include dedicated encode engines for H.264 and H.265, helping to reduce CPU bottlenecks, and of course, the HBM2 will aid with that as well. That memory also happens to have error correction capabilities – very important to this kind of multi-user virtualized environment. The GPU has a built-in security processor to help with secure boot and storage encryption – also expected of such a product.

AMD is planning to release the V340 sometime in Q4, which happens to be right around the corner. This card is well outside our focus, so no review is in store. That doesn’t stop me from drooling over one to give a good exercise, though!