GeForce + Radeon: Previewing DirectX 12 Multi-Adapter with Ashes of the Singularity
by Ryan Smith on October 26, 2015 10:00 AM ESTAshes GPU Performance: Single & Mixed 2012 GPUs
While Ashes’ mutli-GPU support sees solid performance gains with current-generation high-end GPUs, we wanted to see if those gains would extend to older DirectX 12 GPUs. To that end we’ve put the GeForce GTX 680 and the Radeon HD 7970 through a similar test, running the Ashes’ benchmark at 2560x1440 with Medium image quality and no MSAA.
First off, unlike our high-end GPUs there’s a distinct performance difference between our AMD and NVIDIA cards. The Radeon HD 7970 performs 22% better here, just averaging 30fps to the GTX 680’s 24.5fps. So right off the bat we’re entering an AFR setup with a moderately unbalanced set of cards.
Once we do turn on AFR, two very different things happen. The GTX 680 + HD 7970 setup is an outright performance regression, with performance 40% from the single GTX 680 Ti. On the other hand the HD 7970 + GTX 680 setup sees an unexpectedly good performance gain from AFR, picking up a further 55% to 46.4fps.
As this test is a smaller number of combinations it’s not clear where the bottlenecks are, but it’s none the less very interesting how we get such widely different results depending on which card is in the lead. In the GTX 680 + HD 7970 setup, either the GTX 680 is a bad leader or the HD 7970 is a bad follower, and this leads to this setup spinning its proverbial wheels. Otherwise letting the HD 7970 lead and GTX 680 follow sees a bigger performance gain than we would have expected for a moderately unbalanced setup with a pair of cards that were never known for their efficient PCIe data transfers. So long as you let the HD 7970 lead, at least in this case you could absolutely get away with a mixed GPU pairing of older GPUs.
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Scootiep7 - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
Actually, shouldn't that be switched? Brown would be the additive tertiary color wheel result, and yellow would be the subtractive tertiary color wheel result last I checked.xenol - Monday, October 26, 2015 - link
Now we can finally put this AMD vs. NVIDIA war to rest. Get both cards to get exclusive technologies, then when the game supports it, get the best horsepower of both.Tunnah - Monday, October 26, 2015 - link
We need to see the SLI/Xfire numbers first. It's all kinda pointless if 2 980Tis trounce em allsilverblue - Monday, October 26, 2015 - link
I doubt two 980 TIs would make much of a difference over a 980 TI and a Titan X.Refuge - Monday, October 26, 2015 - link
i think you are crazy if you are going to use any of these numbers for any argument, or buying decision.While interesting information to digest, it is merely that, this isn't Beta, this isn't even Alpha, this is is literally engineers saying "Hey guys check this shit out!"
I love what I'm seeing so far though, this is exciting, but the thought of EA, Bethesda, and Ubisoft being in control of so much does scare me...
EA = Pure evil
Bethesda = Tree's sticking through walls, Dragons having seizures in the air, and Chickens reporting your crimes to the local Police.
And Ubisoft? Well... I haven't given them much credit since the mid to late 90's...
naretla - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
EA hasn't been the worst publisher for some time now. You could call them greedy, but at least they're relatively competent.Refuge - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
Sim city, and Dragon Age Inquisition beg to differ.naretla - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
Yeah, they went too far with SimCity, but it's been over two and a half years since then. Please elaborate re:DAI.Refuge - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
I pre-ordered that game, against my better judgment I admit, and I wasn't able to play it for months because of fucking bugs. I won't pre-order anything from anyone until I see a change in the way these companies do business.I also agree that Simcity was a long time ago, but I've also not forgotten. I won't expect them to do better until I see them doing better.
it isn't just EA though, I won't pre-order Fallout 4 either for the very same reasons. Different publisher/Developer, but still the industry has left me jaded.
It is insulting to me when a publisher thinks that I'm stupid enough to be ok with paying full price for a game, only to get a beta build.
Its antics like that, that give me pause for celebration over all the new fine grained controls offered by DX12.
The potential is huge, the power and life extracted from the X 360, and PS3 were impressive towards the end of their life cycle, and I would love to see what they could do back then had they had the control they are being offered now. I also agree that the Dev's are the best ones to make the most of this technology.
But Dev's (unless Indie) are under the thumb of Publishers like EA, and their deadlines and budgets. It is this that gives me a lot of fear about the half baked disasters that could this way be headed.
SunnyNW - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
I would think that the GPU vendors would help game developers with engineering resources. Probably not with this particular setup (EMA) but with say like Split Frame Rendering with two identical GPUs being utilized.