Ashes of the Singularity

Sorely missing from our benchmark suite for quite some time have been RTSes, which don’t enjoy quite the popularity they once did. As a result Ashes holds a special place in our hearts, and that’s before we talk about the technical aspects. Based on developer Oxide Games’ Nitrous Engine, Ashes has been designed from the ground up for low-level APIs like DirectX 12. As a result of all of the games in our benchmark suite, this is the game making the best use of DirectX 12’s various features, from asynchronous compute to multi-threaded work submission and high batch counts. What we see can’t be extrapolated to all DirectX 12 games, but it gives us a very interesting look at what we might expect in the future.

Ashes of the Singularity - 2560x1440 - Extreme Quality (DX12)

Ashes of the Singularity - 1920x1080 - Extreme Quality (DX12)

Ashes is a game that in our GTX 1080 review we found AMD does rather well in, with their last generation cards still challenging GTX 1070 at times. So I was surprised to see GTX 1060 and RX 480 so close here. At 1440p GTX 1060 trails by just a couple of percent, and at 1080p it’s a dead heat. Given that of all of the games in our current benchmark suite this is the game that AMD seems to do the best on, it’s notable that GTX 1060 can keep up with AMD’s card even when it’s on the backfoot. Given that NVIDIA is charging a slight price premium for the GTX 1060, it’s helpful for NVIDIA that the card never falters against its slightly cheaper competitor. That said there is also the spoiler effect of the cheaper 4GB RX 480, but that’s a slightly more complex matter for the conclusion of this article.

Meanwhile on a generational basis, GTX 1060 continues to deliver GTX 980-like performance. Or against the GTX 960, we’re looking at a considerable 74% performance improvement. GTX 1060 is even fast enough to do better than 30fps at 1440p with the Extreme settings, which for an RTS is perfectly playable. However GTX 1070 still has a significant lead over the GTX 1060 here.

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  • ddriver - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link

    You are imagining things, I did not state that it "doesn't make me happy", nor does this implies some website determines how I feel, the very notion is stupid on its face. As for zepi and all the other "happy" campers - it is understandable, they are "happy" because reading 'in-depth" materials cultivates an illusion of being smart, and even if they don't get the just of it, they will at least memorize a few phrases to add to their fanboy internet warrior arsenal ;)

    The point people seem to be missing is I was not complaining about "in-depth" articles, merely stating that vendors wouldn't be too motivated to send samples if they don't get immediate publicity for their products. And this site is not about anyone's happiness but the people who bought it to cram stupid ads in our faces for profit.
  • Alexvrb - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link

    The whole basis of your argument is that they won't give samples to sites that "take too long". But they didn't give samples out to many sites that DO produce swift reviews, as Devo pointed out. Nice try though, I'm sure you'll find something else to whine about soon enough. I mean, uh, something else to educate us peons on. Since you're so insightful and clever.
  • mkaibear - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link

    Oh dear. Calm down ddriver, you'll give yourself palpitations.

    It amuses me that you're quite happy to throw aspersions on other people's motives for liking the in-depth articles and yet don't spot the obvious counterpoint.

    Ah well. I have better things to do than argue with a troll. Ta-ta!
  • Fujikoma - Sunday, August 7, 2016 - link

    ddriver,
    In the matter of cultivating the illusion of being smart...
    It's 'gist of it' not 'just of it'.
  • ddriver - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    OK strawmen, you win because "grammar nazi" ;)

    BTW would love yo see your proficiency across half a dozen of languages.
  • Manch - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    It's gist, not just. If you're going to stand on your pedestal of superiority mocking all the small minded peons that disagree with your all knowing word, at least use proper grammar so they do not see that the God like keyboard warrior bleeds too, you twit...
  • ddriver - Monday, August 8, 2016 - link

    Gotta love it how with your illusions threatened you cuddle together like a herd of frightened sheep, to find comfort in your numbers, and strength to try and "make a point" using your limited arsenal of insinuations, grammar nazism and personal attacks. Hopefully you do realize that this only adds further proof to my point, not that it needed any, as it is already totally obvious. Try harder next time...
  • snowmyr - Tuesday, August 9, 2016 - link

    You're right. You seem very happy.
  • Michael Bay - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link

    >ddriver
    >expecting any self-awareness
  • at80eighty - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link

    he's explaining why your wall of whining in response to Ryan's brief & matter-of-fact answer is irrelevant. you want average/sub-par reviews? plenty of sites available.

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