[Digitimes] AMD expected to reach 40% GPU share in 6 months

[sniffin]

Fabricated? Highly doubt it. Besides which, I'm not even talking functionality. It's all about user experience - I'm talking features such as AO, Adaptive vsync, the plethora of options in NVidia CP / NVidia inspector, versatile custom profiles (more versatile than AMD's), so on and so forth. The software is more fully featured by a mile. Meanwhile, vsync forced still doesn't work in CCC from what I've read. It didn't work for sure in DX11 when I had 7970s.... Seriously, I think some folks used to AMD's CCC need to have a look through nvidia inspector. The functionality it offers is downright absurd, you can customize your graphics to the extreme using it. Meanwhile, CCC is very limited in comparison.

While I understand the sentiment that AMD need to work on the whole package, RadeonPro is easily as good as Nvidia Inspector. It has dynamic vsync and all that other stuff you mentioned.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=373303

 

[wand3r3r]

Unfortunately AMD's PR department is a disaster, so even if they put out excellent cards over and over, I have a hard time believing they will catch up to Nvidia any time soon

Just take that recent press conference for the R290X as an example... They completely left out any performance previews which is actually the best part of the card, wtf?
One does not simply say "TrueAudio" at a video card conference and expect people to give a damn

Its a pity because they have launched great cards all the way since the 4870, always with highly competitive pricing, but their marketing really makes me cringe

Did you forget NV announcing the 780 ti without performance previews?

 

[Silverforce11]

While I understand the sentiment that AMD need to work on the whole package, RadeonPro is easily as good as Nvidia Inspector. It has dynamic vsync and all that other stuff you mentioned.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=373303

Its better than NvI, I use both. SMAA inject on Radeon Pro is just awesome, excellent AA with minimal blurring and almost no performance loss. Great for games without native MSAA support. All the other features are very useful as well, but clearly RPro is doing some magic with its SMAA.

AMD is offering "support" to the developer (one dude) of Radeon Pro.. from what I read, he apparently did not want to have a nice job at AMD for some reason..

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I always found Radeon Pro to be buggy and often it doesn't even work in games.

The sweetfx and smaa functions are just injectors you could do yourself.

I also found Nv Inspector didn't always apply my custom AA methods either, but overall I found the software to be more powerful and less buggy/annoying than radeonpro.

 

[sniffin]

Its a pity because they have launched great cards all the way since the 4870, always with highly competitive pricing, but their marketing really makes me cringe

TBH I think AMD have had the better of Nvidia overall since the 4870. Even when they've been behind in performance (4870, 6970) they've always priced the cards so that they've been clear winners in perf/dollar. Evergreen was a clear victory on all counts, the sub $300 6950 with its unlockability was the star of 2 gens ago and the 7970 beat the 680 out the door and ended up being faster anyway once the driver team got it's poo together. The 6 month+ advantage Nvidia have had with GK110 over Hawaii would have stung though.

What's amazing is that Nvidia have had a clear market share advantage throughout which is a testament to how Nvidia have marketed the Geforce brand and a reflection of how poorly AMD have done marketing the Radeon brand.

The notebook sector is even worse for AMD thanks completely to their inept software division. Hardware is great, but unlike on the desktop side where they have made significant strides, notebook drivers were an absolute mess. As a result Nvidia practically owns the mid range and high end notebook markets, all thanks to the driver team not doing their jobs. If I was Rory Read the first thing I would have done upon taking over is completely gutting the Catalyst team and starting over.

 

[AnandThenMan]

True Audio is a waste of time and is the LAST thing needed on a GPU.

I think this will be proven completely wrong.

 

[3DVagabond]

I think this will be proven completely wrong.

The first time someone is sitting at their computer gaming and they hear the action all around them while using a 2 speaker setup, I think they'll be pretty blown away.

 

[NTMBK]

True Audio is a waste of time and is the LAST thing needed on a GPU. IMHO. If that junk cost money in the final BOM of the 290X, which it probably did, it was a waste of time and effort.

Hey, if it improves the sound quality of my game I'm all for it. Nice little value-add, if it saves me buying a dGPU to improve my terrible sound quality (yay onboard...). It's a little DSP, I really doubt it added much to the die size of Hawaii.

 

[Keysplayr]

The first time someone is sitting at their computer gaming and they hear the action all around them while using a 2 speaker setup, I think they'll be pretty blown away.

Because that doesn't happen now. Not at all. Or for the past decade.
I think the only way "sound" can be improved is if it is delivered to our brains via a form of telepathy.
I think we will find that True Audio is "meh" at the very best compared to all other options available to us today, or tomorrow.

 

[Silverforce11]

Its gonna be "meh" compared to a dedicated sound card that costs some pretty penny, for sure. If not, then those making sound cards better worry.

Mantle if it turns out as hyped, and the R290X "ridicules" Titan.. that may really be the game changer. BF series has always been renowned for making people upgrade their rigs.

 

[Keysplayr]

Its gonna be "meh" compared to a dedicated sound card that costs some pretty penny, for sure. If not, then those making sound cards better worry.

Mantle if it turns out as hyped, and the R290X "ridicules" Titan.. that may really be the game changer. BF series has always been renowned for making people upgrade their rigs.

No, it'll be "meh" compared to even the simplest onboard motherboard audio chips.
And Mantle, to me, just sounds like another round of "Stream" to me.

 

[NTMBK]

No, it'll be "meh" compared to even the simplest onboard motherboard audio chips.

Yes, the DSP that adds extra effects and processing in addition to the onboard sound chip is going to be "meh" by comparison... What

Just because it's making your corporate overlords look bad, doesn't mean you need to start making stuff up

 

[Keysplayr]

Yes, the DSP that adds extra effects and processing in addition to the onboard sound chip is going to be "meh" by comparison... What

Just because it's making your corporate overlords look bad, doesn't mean you need to start making stuff up

Don't go here man ^ it's totally petty and small.

Audio has gone as far as it can man. At least from a human perception standpoint. To me, an onboard 5.1 audio chip sounds no better than a uber expensive Delta series (which I've owned several).

 

[joshhedge]

Don't go here man ^ it's totally petty and small.

Audio has gone as far as it can man. At least from a human perception standpoint. To me, an onboard 5.1 audio chip sounds no better than a uber expensive Delta series (which I've owned several).

I disagree with your first statement, for some the difference would be noticeable, especially to trained ears.

 

[Erenhardt]

Don't go here man ^ it's totally petty and small.

Audio has gone as far as it can man. At least from a human perception standpoint. To me, an onboard 5.1 audio chip sounds no better than a uber expensive Delta series (which I've owned several).

TureAudio is something different than 5.1 audio. I've read somewhere how 3d sound on headphones work. It is not splitting signal to different channels like in 5.1 and such work. What it does is simulating human skull. It deforms the sound in the way the skull bones do, making your brain think it comes from a specific point.
So many time in horror games there were missed scares just because people couldn't pin-point the sound source, often looking the opposite way.

Comparing it to on-board audio is just plain wrong. Two different things entirely. TrueAudio, opposite to soundcard, does not output sound.

What it does is processing sound effects, think about real-time PhysX sound effects. But here, you actually have dedicated hardware as opposite to PhysX visual effects (not true if one puts dedicated physx card in the system).

 

[EndlessWargasm]

What it does is processing sound effects, think about real-time PhysX sound effects. But here, you actually have dedicated hardware as opposite to PhysX visual effects (not true if one puts dedicated physx card in the system).

Head-related transfer function

Finally some progress after Creative screwed us all out of the goodness that was A3D

RIP Aureal. Right up there with 3dfx Interactive for sad closures in semiconducting history.

 

[Skurge]

TrueAudio is pretty impressive when you look at how it actually works instead of assuming. A sound card is still useful cause it will improve the quality.

 

[Erenhardt]

I can't remember when (if ever!) I had put my headphones of my head to check if the sound was coming from my room or it was in game. While it is so immersive, I can also be problematic if you have to make sure every 5 min that really, no one is trying to break into your house, and it all comes from game.

Creepy @3:20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKnhcsRTNME

 

[MrK6]

TureAudio is something different than 5.1 audio. I've read somewhere how 3d sound on headphones work. It is not splitting signal to different channels like in 5.1 and such work. What it does is simulating human skull. It deforms the sound in the way the skull bones do, making your brain think it comes from a specific point.
So many time in horror games there were missed scares just because people couldn't pin-point the sound source, often looking the opposite way.

Comparing it to on-board audio is just plain wrong. Two different things entirely. TrueAudio, opposite to soundcard, does not output sound.

What it does is processing sound effects, think about real-time PhysX sound effects. But here, you actually have dedicated hardware as opposite to PhysX visual effects (not true if one puts dedicated physx card in the system).

Anything that gets me closer to a more immersive and realistic gaming experience is golden in my book. Thanks for the explanation, I'll be following this closely.

 

[AnandThenMan]

No, it'll be "meh" compared to even the simplest onboard motherboard audio chips.
And Mantle, to me, just sounds like another round of "Stream" to me.

Don't go here man ^ it's totally petty and small.

Audio has gone as far as it can man. At least from a human perception standpoint. To me, an onboard 5.1 audio chip sounds no better than a uber expensive Delta series (which I've owned several).

You should do a little reading to understand what TrueAudio actually is.

By operating through the graphics driver, we aren’t held accountable to the limitations imposed on the hardware audio layer. We do not touch the Windows audio stack at all. TrueAudio offloads directly from the game via Wwise or FMOD, right at the point of conception, before the audio is sent through the rest of the audio pipeline to the user’s endpoint device (e.g. headsets). It’s real-time, it’s an earnest revival of advanced gaming audio

AMD TrueAudio comes into the audio chain at the application level, long before sound ever reaches the user’s audio chip or audio endpoint. Whether you have integrated audio on the motherboard, a discrete sound card, or a standalone USB headset, AMD TrueAudio is already part and parcel of the audio stream that’s being fed to these devices by the game’s audio engine. That’s the beauty of operating at the level of the audio library: it’s the first stop in the audio process! And because it’s the first stop, only AMD TrueAudio is fully aware of the game’s positional and environmental data.

source

 

[VulgarDisplay]

If my understanding is correct the chip is there to take game data off the GPU and calculate distances and directions of audio sources before handing sound information off to whatever DAC you have. With actual position data it should make sound much more directional instead of L or R.

 

[realibrad]

Don't go here man ^ it's totally petty and small.

Audio has gone as far as it can man. At least from a human perception standpoint. To me, an onboard 5.1 audio chip sounds no better than a uber expensive Delta series (which I've owned several).

What do you think TrueAudio is?

Its not about making the audio clearer, its about making the audio more dynamic.

 

[AnandThenMan]

If my understanding is correct the chip is there to take game data off the GPU and calculate distances and directions of audio sources before handing sound information off to whatever DAC you have. With actual position data it should make sound much more directional instead of L or R.

Yes. I believe there are actually 3 DSP's on die not one. Also the Xbone has a Tensilica chip as well I think.

 

[Irenicus]

TureAudio is something different than 5.1 audio. I've read somewhere how 3d sound on headphones work. It is not splitting signal to different channels like in 5.1 and such work. What it does is simulating human skull. It deforms the sound in the way the skull bones do, making your brain think it comes from a specific point.
So many time in horror games there were missed scares just because people couldn't pin-point the sound source, often looking the opposite way.

Comparing it to on-board audio is just plain wrong. Two different things entirely. TrueAudio, opposite to soundcard, does not output sound.

What it does is processing sound effects, think about real-time PhysX sound effects. But here, you actually have dedicated hardware as opposite to PhysX visual effects (not true if one puts dedicated physx card in the system).

a demo is more useful here

http://www.genaudioinc.com/

play the first demo video with headphones

You don't need 5.1 headphones to get 3d sound perception, stereo headphones work wonders. That was a pre-recorded sample, but presumably the true audio built into the new cards can calculate that stuff based off positional data within the game on the fly. Sounds promising, we'll see.

 

[OCGuy]

They have some room to go still:

http://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/News/2014/Add-in-Board-Market-Up-in-Q3-Nvidia-Gains-Market.aspx