Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation (DX12)

A veteran from both our 2016 and 2017 game lists, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation remains the DirectX 12 trailblazer, with developer Oxide Games tailoring and designing the Nitrous Engine around such low-level APIs. The game makes the most of DX12's key features, from asynchronous compute to multi-threaded work submission and high batch counts. And with full Vulkan support, Ashes provides a good common ground between the forward-looking APIs of today. Its built-in benchmark tool is still one of the most versatile ways of measuring in-game workloads in terms of output data, automation, and analysis; by offering such a tool publicly and as part-and-parcel of the game, it's an example that other developers should take note of.

Settings and methodology remain identical from its usage in the 2016 GPU suite. To note, we are utilizing the original Ashes Extreme graphical preset, which compares to the current one with MSAA dialed down from x4 to x2, as well as adjusting Texture Rank (MipsToRemove in settings.ini).

We've updated some of the benchmark automation and data processing steps, so results may vary at the 1080p mark compared to previous data.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - 2560x1440 - Extreme Quality

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - 1920x1080 - Extreme Quality

Ashes: Escalation - 99th Percentile - 2560x1440 - Extreme Quality

Ashes: Escalation - 99th Percentile - 1920x1080 - Extreme Quality

Interestingly, Ashes offers the least amount of improvement in the suite for the GTX 1660 Ti over the GTX 1060 6GB. Similarly, the GTX 1660 Ti lags behind the GTX 1070, which is already close to the older Turing sibling. With the GTX 1070 FE and RX Vega 56 neck-and-neck, the GTX 1660 Ti splits the RX 590/RX Vega 56 gap.

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  • peevee - Monday, February 25, 2019 - link

    What are you talking about? 3-5% Look at 960 vs 1060, right there in this article. About 100%!
  • Smell This - Monday, February 25, 2019 - link

    Uhhh, Peewee?
    Get back to me when you compare the GTX 960 2GB specs to the 6GB GTX 1660 Ti specs (and the GTX 1060 3/6GB specs, as well).

    I know it's hard for you. It's tough to hit all those moving targets (and goal posts) ...
  • eva02langley - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    Not impressive at all when the Vega 56 sold for the same price with 3 AAA games and offering 15%+ performances.
  • cfenton - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    "Instead, AMD’s competitor for the GTX 1660 Ti looks like it will be the Radeon RX Vega 56. The company sent word last night that they are continuing to work with partners to offer lower promotional prices on the card, including a single model that was available for $279, but as of press time has since sold out. Notably, AMD is asserting that this is not a price drop, so there’s an unusual bit of fence sitting here; the company may be waiting to see what actual, retail GTX 1660 Ti card prices end up like. So I’m not wholly convinced we’re going to see too many $279 Vega 56 cards, but we’ll see."

    If Vega 56 becomes available for $279 regularly, then it will be a better deal. Right now, that price is only being offered on one model that you can't buy. The cheapest Vega 56 model on Newegg is $399 right now.
  • eva02langley - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    You can get it for the same price, move on, it is the better deal. Also, expect higher price than MSRP from OEM creating special models with different coolers.

    And basically... RX 3080 is supposed to be between 250-300$ with Vega 64 + 15% performances. The interest of this card is going to be short lived.
  • MadManMark - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    Yes, we know -- AMD's next card is always going to be the one to buy.

    But isn't it odd that by the time it stops being the "next" card and becomes the current card, suddenly it isn't that appealing anymore, folks like you immediately move onto the next "nest" card? Vega was the "next" card a year ago ...
  • cfenton - Saturday, February 23, 2019 - link

    Where? I can't find one at that price anywhere, while there are several 1660TIs in stock at $279.
  • Retycint - Tuesday, February 26, 2019 - link

    Not anymore, no. As far as I've checked, all the $279 Vega 56s have sold out at the moment, and with AMD stating that it's a temporary price cut, I'm not expecting anymore $279 Vegas to come our way.
  • Cellar Door - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    You should try reading the actual article sometimes - once again 'jjj' with a pointless comment of the day.
  • Ushio01 - Saturday, February 23, 2019 - link

    It costs what a GTX1060 did at launch and offers GTX1070 performance which still costs more.

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