Dampf
Member
Hello,
I still come across RX 5000 recommendations on the internet, specifically the 5700XT, because it has a good price to performance ratio. That might be correct, but only in the present and certainly not in the future.
Why not? Because this cards architecture, RDNA1, is horribly outdated. Let me explain.
This card will simply age like milk because it lacks the featureset neccessary for next generation gaming. It doesn't have DX12 Ultimate support, no DirectStorage, no INT8/4 ML operations support, and of course no HW-accelerated Raytracing. In short, it lacks every features the next gen consoles including the lowest common denominator, the Series S has and thus, will fall significantly behind even that one once true next gen games hit.
The DX12U features are crucial for supporting next generation graphics and performance, let me explain why:
With Sampler Feedback Streaming, modern GPUs from the Ampere, Turing and RDNA2 architecture as well as the new Xbox consoles have around 2.5-3.5x the effective VRAM amount compared to cards without SFS (basically, the 5700XT) (Inform yourself here what this technology does: https://microsoft.github.io/DirectX-Specs/d3d/SamplerFeedback.html ) Simply speaking, it allows for much finer control of texture MIP levels, meaning your VRAM can be used far more efficiently than before. That will result in much higher resolution textures for DX12 Ultimate compatible cards without the need to increase physical VRAM and eliminates stuttering and pop in. Basically, even a entry level RTX card like a 2060 Super has around 20 GB and more effective VRAM compared to a 5700XT.
Next, we have mesh shading. That is a key technology as it replaces current vertex shaders and allows for much, much finer LOD and higher geometry, similar like what you saw at the PS5 Unreal Engine 5 demo. On PS5, it is using Sony's customized next generation Geometry Engine, which is far beyond the standard GE from RDNA1. On the PC however, Nanite will be using mesh shaders, most likely, which the 5700XT does not support, meaning it is incapable of handling that much geometry or it will have huge performance issues when trying to emulate it in software.
VRS can give you 10-30% or even higher performance boost at almost no image quality cost.
Next, there is Raytracing. Raytracing is not a gimmick. Raytracing saves so much time for devs and it gets more efficient each day it's going to be an integral part of Next Gen games in the future. Even the consoles support it in decent fashion and it is the future of rendering, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Nvidia recently released their RTXGI SDK which allows for dynamic GI using updated light probes via Raytracing and it doesn't destroy performance, it is extremly efficient. This means developers don't have to pre-bake lighting anymore and save so much time and cost when developing games. RTXGI will work on any DXR capable GPU, including consoles and RDNA2. However, the 5700XT is not even capable (well it could be if AMD would enable DXR support) of emulating it in software, meaning a game using RTXGI as its GI solution won't even boot up on a 5700XT anymore. However, giving that the RT capable userbase is growing each day with Turing, Ampere, Pascal, RDNA2 and the consoles, this is likely a non issue for devs. If AMD decides to suddenly implement DXR support for the 5700XT you could still play the game, but with much worse performance and visual quality than the DX12U capable GPUs due to the lack of hardware acceleration for Raytracing.
Remember, everything I talked about also applies to AMD's new RDNA2 architecture. It fully supports these features as well. Basically, RDNA1 to RDNA2 is a much, much bigger jump than you might realize.
The 5700XT might be fine for the cross generation if you can live with reduced visual quality, but once next gen games using more DX12U features and DirectStorage hit, the RX 5000 series will struggle heavily, while even Turing cards, the competitor to RDNA1, will still push next gen console settings at higher framerates than the consoles thanks to DLSS, as it supports the next gen featureset.
In short, do not buy a 5700XT or any card from the RDNA1 generation. And if we are at it, don't buy used Pascal cards either if you plan to play next gen games.
I still come across RX 5000 recommendations on the internet, specifically the 5700XT, because it has a good price to performance ratio. That might be correct, but only in the present and certainly not in the future.
Why not? Because this cards architecture, RDNA1, is horribly outdated. Let me explain.
This card will simply age like milk because it lacks the featureset neccessary for next generation gaming. It doesn't have DX12 Ultimate support, no DirectStorage, no INT8/4 ML operations support, and of course no HW-accelerated Raytracing. In short, it lacks every features the next gen consoles including the lowest common denominator, the Series S has and thus, will fall significantly behind even that one once true next gen games hit.
The DX12U features are crucial for supporting next generation graphics and performance, let me explain why:
With Sampler Feedback Streaming, modern GPUs from the Ampere, Turing and RDNA2 architecture as well as the new Xbox consoles have around 2.5-3.5x the effective VRAM amount compared to cards without SFS (basically, the 5700XT) (Inform yourself here what this technology does: https://microsoft.github.io/DirectX-Specs/d3d/SamplerFeedback.html ) Simply speaking, it allows for much finer control of texture MIP levels, meaning your VRAM can be used far more efficiently than before. That will result in much higher resolution textures for DX12 Ultimate compatible cards without the need to increase physical VRAM and eliminates stuttering and pop in. Basically, even a entry level RTX card like a 2060 Super has around 20 GB and more effective VRAM compared to a 5700XT.
Next, we have mesh shading. That is a key technology as it replaces current vertex shaders and allows for much, much finer LOD and higher geometry, similar like what you saw at the PS5 Unreal Engine 5 demo. On PS5, it is using Sony's customized next generation Geometry Engine, which is far beyond the standard GE from RDNA1. On the PC however, Nanite will be using mesh shaders, most likely, which the 5700XT does not support, meaning it is incapable of handling that much geometry or it will have huge performance issues when trying to emulate it in software.
VRS can give you 10-30% or even higher performance boost at almost no image quality cost.
Next, there is Raytracing. Raytracing is not a gimmick. Raytracing saves so much time for devs and it gets more efficient each day it's going to be an integral part of Next Gen games in the future. Even the consoles support it in decent fashion and it is the future of rendering, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Nvidia recently released their RTXGI SDK which allows for dynamic GI using updated light probes via Raytracing and it doesn't destroy performance, it is extremly efficient. This means developers don't have to pre-bake lighting anymore and save so much time and cost when developing games. RTXGI will work on any DXR capable GPU, including consoles and RDNA2. However, the 5700XT is not even capable (well it could be if AMD would enable DXR support) of emulating it in software, meaning a game using RTXGI as its GI solution won't even boot up on a 5700XT anymore. However, giving that the RT capable userbase is growing each day with Turing, Ampere, Pascal, RDNA2 and the consoles, this is likely a non issue for devs. If AMD decides to suddenly implement DXR support for the 5700XT you could still play the game, but with much worse performance and visual quality than the DX12U capable GPUs due to the lack of hardware acceleration for Raytracing.
Remember, everything I talked about also applies to AMD's new RDNA2 architecture. It fully supports these features as well. Basically, RDNA1 to RDNA2 is a much, much bigger jump than you might realize.
The 5700XT might be fine for the cross generation if you can live with reduced visual quality, but once next gen games using more DX12U features and DirectStorage hit, the RX 5000 series will struggle heavily, while even Turing cards, the competitor to RDNA1, will still push next gen console settings at higher framerates than the consoles thanks to DLSS, as it supports the next gen featureset.
In short, do not buy a 5700XT or any card from the RDNA1 generation. And if we are at it, don't buy used Pascal cards either if you plan to play next gen games.