PCPERDX12 GPU and CPU Performance Tested: Ashes of the Singularity Benchmark

[Silverforce11]

AMD GCN GPUs are going to age very well given the console heritage and the low level APIs (DX12/Vulkan/Mantle). Now what we need is AMD to improve the efficiency of their GPUs to compete with Nvidia (perf/watt, perf/sq mm and perf/transistor). Thats the key battle for the next gen FINFET GPUs launching in late 2016. AMD has disappointed in terms of efficiency and has lost market share badly. Maxwell is a fantastic showcase for GPU efficiency and AMD need to get back in the game.

AMD has poor efficiency but they mostly caught up with Fury/X, still behind, but that's a given since they have a lot of performance left on the table in DX11 since their uarch can't stretch its legs.

Now, if they gain massive performance in DX12 like in this game, would you say their efficiency is bad? Hardly, it would be excellent since efficiency is a measure of perf/w, perf goes up, if power use remain similar, then its a massive boost. What we didn't see and the interesting data, are the power usage differences between DX11 vs DX12!

Currently AMD's DX11 driver means CPU have to work harder so it hurts their total system power. I think with DX12, once GCN can really fly as its designed to do, efficiency will jump across the board for current GCN GPUs.

 

[biostud]

I wonder how it would run on gcn 1.0 cards an gtx 7xx.

 

[Silverforce11]

I wonder how it would run on gcn 1.0 cards an gtx 7xx.

280X is there, 7970 with a new name.

 

[monstercameron]

Borrowing from .vodka's quote:

Thank goodness for no vendor specific middleware! This is how games should be developed and helmed by the developer themselves beginning to end.

hey, FTFY!

 

[TheELF]

Now, if they gain massive performance in DX12 like in this game, would you say their efficiency is bad?

This game is unique because it's designed for PC and you can change the amount of units.
For the slew of console ports the ability to draw this much stuff will be much less important.
And I think that's what nvidia meant by saying that this game is not representative,ashes is the one game in a thousand that will be designed for pc.

 

[Pottuvoi]

Would love to get the demo and try with radically different settings.
Like high resolution and MSAA, but very low sampling rates and so on.

The engine is quite different from most engines we have and MSAA itself shouldn't cause huge drops of performance, especially as their framebuffer shader should be quite simple. (shading has been done before rendering into framebuffer.)

 

[3DVagabond]

This game is unique because it's designed for PC and you can change the amount of units.
For the slew of console ports the ability to draw this much stuff will be much less important.
And I think that's what nvidia meant by saying that this game is not representative,ashes is the one game in a thousand that will be designed for pc.

It's also sponsored by AMD and it's nVidia's standard corporate marketing line to dismiss AMD supported games as insignificant.

 

[Noctifer616]

http://forums.oxidegames.com/470406

MSAA is bugged in the NVidia DirectX 12 driver.

Nvidia mistakenly stated that there is a bug in the Ashes code regarding MSAA. By Sunday, we had verified that the issue is in their DirectX 12 driver. Unfortunately, this was not before they had told the media that Ashes has a buggy MSAA mode. More on that issue here. On top of that, the effect on their numbers is fairly inconsequential. As the HW vendor's DirectX 12 drivers mature, you will see DirectX 12 performance pull out ahead even further.

 

[biostud]

280X is there, 7970 with a new name.

Great to see that it gets a performance boost too, 30-35% is pretty good. If better CF support through DX12 is also happening, then I'm a happy camper.

 

[Rvenger]

Thread reopened. I still owe some of you infractions. Don't think you will be getting away with the insults anymore.

To all the members who have positively contributed, my apologies for locking the thread. You may proceed as you were.

-Rvenger

 

[sm625]

Why is there no data on a 295x2 under DX12? That is the one that matters more than anything since DX12 was supposed to be all about multi gpus.

 

[Silverforce11]

Why is there no data on a 295x2 under DX12? That is the one that matters more than anything since DX12 was supposed to be all about multi gpus.

Oxide doesn't have DX12 multi-GPU mode ready, its on their official blog post.

Also for those aren't aware, the current alpha build in DX12 mode forces vsync on. So sometimes you don't see much higher than 55 avg is indicative of being locked to 60 on the test setup. For those wondering at the lesser scaling for some cards. Would be nice to see min fps reported by these sites too.

 

[TheELF]

Oxide doesn't have DX12 multi-GPU mode ready, its on their official blog post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cvmDjVYSNk
They upped a video two months ago, showing that it's working.
(3 mins in)

So maybe when they said that the game scales with cores/up to 16 cores,maybe they meant compute cores (gpus)

 

[Silverforce11]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cvmDjVYSNk
They upped a video two months ago, showing that it's working.
(3 mins in)

So maybe when they said that the game scales with cores/up to 16 cores,maybe they meant compute cores (gpus)

There's a few more vids with AMD & Oxide showing of Ashes & CF too so it was working, but probably not ready for prime time.

Definitely quite a few exciting things to come from DX12 with the new multi-GPU being a bonus for enthusiasts.

 

[Kippa]

Out of curiosity how many DX12 games that are coming out are AAA+? The only proper DX12 game I am aware of is this Ashes game, though I am a bit behind with the times. On another note, is Source 2 based games coming out soon like the possibility of L4D 3? The only fps game on my horizon is the new Star Wars game coming out soon.

 

[Krteq]

Out of curiosity how many DX12 games that are coming out are AAA+?

There will be some:

Ark: Survival Evolved
Arma 3 (Tanoa DLC)
Ashes of the Singularity
DayZ
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Fable Legends
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
Hitman
King of Wushu
Project Cars (Patch)
Umbra

 

[TheELF]

Out of curiosity how many DX12 games that are coming out are AAA+?

Probably every console port will have an dx12 option

 

[Paratus]

Ars Techica tested the benchmark using a 980TI and a 290X

Long story short. The 290X and 980TI were neck and neck under DX12

 

[ShintaiDK]

Ars Techica tested the benchmark using a 980TI and a 290X

Long story short. The 290X and 980TI were neck and neck under DX12

A 390X pretty much also performs like a Fury. Seems CPU in that chart is the limiting factor.
It also shows no gain from 4 cores to 6C/12T.

 

[positivedoppler]

280X is there, 7970 with a new name.

I'm not sure if this is representative of AMD's DirectX 11 driver being bad overall or just for this one game. Usually the 390 and 970 are neck and neck in DirectX 11, but in AOS the difference is huge. I'm wondering if AMD neglected AOS DirectX 11 and it makes DirectX 12 look artifically much better.

 

[Glo.]

Shintai, Arstechnica's results show that GPUs are hitting their performance wall, at least on the AMD side. No difference whatsoever between how many cores are working on CPU.

Other thing is shown with benchmarks of 2160p in GTX 980 Ti test. It always shows regression in performance on 4 cores compared to 6 cores.

And this is consistent for every test that has been thrown at Nvidia GPUs. There is 1440p boarder where there is no difference between performance on Nvidia GPUs. But higher you go, the more horsepower Nvidia GPU needs to cope.

It is quite funny, because its not coincidence. Nvidia GPUs get increase in low details, but gets more bottlenecked when there is more to do on screen simultaneously. AMD GPU does not have this problem.

Which exactly explains where the real power lies. Asynchronous Compute.

Also why there is this small difference between both GPUs in DirectX 12? Because Both cards have similar compute power. GTX 980 Ti at least reference has 5.6 TFLOPs of compute power, roughly the same as reference Hawaii XT chip.

 

[ShintaiDK]

In the Ars test, DX11 is faster than DX12 for nVidia. So its not really useful besides the fact that the benchmark doesnt scale beyond 4 cores and its buggy on nVidia DX12.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Probably every console port will have an dx12 option

That might very well be true going forward once dx12 is officially on Xbox one. I just hope nvidia can fix their negative performance by then.

 

[Glo.]

It does scale higher than 4 cores. But only for Nvidia GPU, Shintai. And only where it is needed. In 4K resolution. R9 290X hits its own performance wall, because its performance is not impacted by the amount of cores.

 

[ShintaiDK]

It does scale higher than 4 cores. But only for Nvidia GPU, Shintai. And only where it is needed. In 4K resolution. R9 290X hits its own performance wall, because its performance is not impacted by the amount of cores.

I dont see it.