So pretty much confirmed AMD is sucking in this game and another example of "shoddy programming" that doesn't seem to affect the gpu manufacturer who works closesly with the developer.
This game was made specifically for NV again and is a GW title. What did you expect? Every single GW title is like this and has been since day 1. You can't deny the trends here that NV's GW's purpose is to sabotage AMD hardware/make NV hardware look better than it really is by virtue of inserting game code that AMD's driver can't optimize. You cannot optimize any code NV puts in there and neither can the developer without NV's permission.
Imagine if MS or Sony made a console but only 1st party developer had access to the most effective/lower level access code of XB1 and PS4 but everyone else couldn't? 3rd party developers would instantly be at an unfair disadvantage. Inserting black box game code that no one can alter and no one can optimize for
except NV means NV is no longer just a hardware but a software developer because they literally ask the developer to insert NV's code that controls the shaders, lightning, physics effects, etc. I was always of the view there should be a separation of duties between software and hardware developers UNLESS the code was shared with everyone in the eco-system, so that everyone could benefit (that's the entire premise of x86 open source or Android). By means of financing/bribing developers, NV's GWs is alienating all customers who don't own NV hardware which leads to those customers being forced to get an NV card and that only gets us closer to a monopoly. It's startling how you aren't seeing this as one of the most ludicrous business practices that simply isn't allowed in almost any other industry sector of the economy I can think of. No car company in the world is allowed to pay off the world's leading car tire manufacturers or fuel manufacturers to produce tires and fuel that ONLY benefits them. That's monopolistic competition.
I would wait for AMD's drivers that will try to improve the other areas of the game they can optimize but no this game won't magically work faster on an R9 290X over a 970.
What's the most amazing part is so many sites refused to include Dirt Showdown into their testing during a period of time when NV couldn't get the driver to optimize for the game. That game used DirectCompute for various effects such as Global Illumination that specifically targeted GCN. As a result, naturally nV's performance bombed because initially they had no access to the code and couldn't optimize for the game. Major review sites removed this title from testing after seeing the results because it was clear the game was coded with a bias towards 1 AIB. However, both the AMD and the developer later shared the entire source code and NV was able to improve the game's performance without issues.
If NV truly thinks its products are superior to AMD's, why don't they share the source code with the world? They won't because AMD could quickly optimize the game and the entire premise behind GW is destroyed. If CF now requires a developer patch before it works in a GW's title, that means it's already proof enough that certain developers obstruct driver optimizations for one of the AIBs.
The irony and double standard is that the professional reviewers are not only NOT removing GW titles from their review testing but they keep putting more and more of them and blaming AMD's drivers on poor GW's performance(HardOCP as a prime example). It's like they forgot that 3 years ago they criticized Dirt Showdown for the very same thing and removed it. :whiste:
As NV gains more market share, they have even more control over review sites. If any site tries to be fair and go head-to-head with NV, give a negative review to a turd like the 960 or try to say something negative about NV's GWs publicly, NV will stop sending them review samples. With nearly 80% market share, NV can now do all of that since the review site is now at the mercy of NV or they'll have to buy all of the NV hardware on their own.
This also translates to AIBs. As NV gains more and more market share, AIBs have less negotiating power for margins, etc. An AIB can't just leave anymore and go with AMD because 80%+ of the discrete GPU market is NV. NV is nearly monopoly status now which is why we are starting to see this adversely making its way directly into game development. The more market share NV gains and the more earnings they get, the worse it's going to get really.
Many feared years ago that AMD GE or NV TWIMTPB could eventually turn into a game of who throws more money at developers to win and we are seeing this exactly in front of our eyes. That's not "investment in better business", this type of practice is not allowed in other industries -- it's called a bribe under the veil of marketing. TWIMTPB and AMD GE are
not like this as all of the code was shared.
Since NV has more money, they can buy nearly every AAA title now and basically ensure AMD goes out of business. If none of this bothers you, that's fine as it's your choice but other people do understand what GWs is and why it's a cancer to PC gaming.
Wow!!!
Even the ubisoft gamewoks titles din't had that difference between radeon and geforce. Congrats do SMS!
Notice how closely stacked R9 280/280X/290/290X are? Clearly the game has 0 optimization for AMD. You can't have 290 beating 280X by 3 fps but then 290X is 5 fps faster than the 290. That's not even remotely logical. :whiste:
PCLabs is pretty much a worthless site as they've been
proven to skew GTA V results by favouring NV. That alone makes all their GPU testing irrelevant. PCGamesHardware has favoured NV for as long as I can remember too, pretty much almost every generation in the last 6 years.
How can both of those sites show 960 beating 290X but GameGPU has 290X nearly 50% faster than a 960?