The AMD Ryzen 9 3950X Review: 16 Cores on 7nm with PCIe 4.0
by Dr. Ian Cutress on November 14, 2019 9:00 AM ESTGaming: Grand Theft Auto V
The highly anticipated iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise hit the shelves on April 14th 2015, with both AMD and NVIDIA in tow to help optimize the title. GTA doesn’t provide graphical presets, but opens up the options to users and extends the boundaries by pushing even the hardest systems to the limit using Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine under DirectX 11. Whether the user is flying high in the mountains with long draw distances or dealing with assorted trash in the city, when cranked up to maximum it creates stunning visuals but hard work for both the CPU and the GPU.
For our test we have scripted a version of the in-game benchmark. The in-game benchmark consists of five scenarios: four short panning shots with varying lighting and weather effects, and a fifth action sequence that lasts around 90 seconds. We use only the final part of the benchmark, which combines a flight scene in a jet followed by an inner city drive-by through several intersections followed by ramming a tanker that explodes, causing other cars to explode as well. This is a mix of distance rendering followed by a detailed near-rendering action sequence, and the title thankfully spits out frame time data.
There are no presets for the graphics options on GTA, allowing the user to adjust options such as population density and distance scaling on sliders, but others such as texture/shadow/shader/water quality from Low to Very High. Other options include MSAA, soft shadows, post effects, shadow resolution and extended draw distance options. There is a handy option at the top which shows how much video memory the options are expected to consume, with obvious repercussions if a user requests more video memory than is present on the card (although there’s no obvious indication if you have a low end GPU with lots of GPU memory, like an R7 240 4GB).
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
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FreckledTrout - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
While I cant argue that Intel 7nm chips will destroy AMD's current chips. However you are talking two generations of process that need to come out for Intel so at best end of 2021 but more likely in 2022. AMD will either be on or just about ready to release chips on 5nm by the time Intel has chips on 7nm so I expect no destroying from either side but instead healthy competition.Oliseo - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Had to sit down after reading that. A sensible comment on the Internet.Faith in humanity restored.
abufrejoval - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
Was sitting already, but you made me smile :-)brantron - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Intel's priority #1 for 7nm also may not be a new CPU architecture. GPU comes first. Willow Cove derivatives could very well appear on 14nm, 10nm, and then wait until 7nm+.And there could also be a 14nm Double Plus Good process. :p
Teckk - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Not sure if you intended to reply to me 🤔 I'm already of the opinion there's no destroying anyone anytime soonIrata - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
You could argue that prior to Ryzen 3000, Intel was on the better process (14nm ++... vs. GloFo 14nm and 12nm). And they did not exactly destroy Ryzen / Threadripper back then.Not saying this would not help them if they were on 7nm right now, but considering the impressive manner in which Intel's engineers have tweaked 14nm, the difference in performance may be smaller than expected.
nico_mach - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
… Except everyone insists that Intel's 10nm IS equivalent to everyone else's 7nm. But sure, next process they'll destroy the competition, any year now.GraveNoX - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Equivalent in what ? Is like saying all diesel cars will have the same performance.Oliseo - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
"Everyone in my imagination insists Intel will destroy AMD. And the voices in my head don't lie"lobz - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
I'm sure they all mean: any decade now :)