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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  • PeachNCream - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    This article reads a little like that infamous Steve Ballmer developers thing except it's not "developers, developers, developers, etc" but "traditional, traditional, traditionally, etc." instead. Please explore alternate expressions. The word in question implies long history which is something the computing industry lacks and the even shorter time periods referenced (a GPU generation or two) most certainly lack so the overuse stands out like a sore thumb in many of Anandtech's publications.
  • Oxford Guy - Saturday, February 23, 2019 - link

    How about the utterly asinine use of the word "kit" to describe a set of RAM sticks that simply snap into a motherboard?

    The Altair 8800 was a kit. The Heathkit H8 was a kit. Two sticks of RAM that snap into a board doth not a kit maketh.
  • futurepastnow - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    A triple-slot card? Really, EVGA?
  • PeachNCream - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    Yup, for 120W TDP of all things. But it's in the charts as a 2.75 slot width card so EVGA is probably hoping that no one understands how expansion slots actually would not permit the remaining .25 slot width to support anything.
  • darckhart - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    lol this was my first thought upon seeing the photo as well.
  • GreenReaper - Saturday, February 23, 2019 - link

    I suspect it was the cheapest way to get that level of cooling. A more compact heatsink-fan combo could have cost more.

    130W (which is the TDP here) is not a *trivial* amount to dissipate, and it's quite tightly packed.
  • Oxford Guy - Saturday, February 23, 2019 - link

    I think all performance GPUs should be triple slot. In fact, I think the GPU form factor is ridiculously obsolete.
  • Oxford Guy - Monday, February 25, 2019 - link

    Judging by techpowerup's reviews, though, the EVGA card's cooling is inefficient.
  • eastcoast_pete - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    @Ryan and Nate: What generation of HDMI and DP does the EVGA card have/support? Apologize if you had it listed and I missed it.
  • Ryan Smith - Friday, February 22, 2019 - link

    HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4.

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