anexanhume
Veteran
Well, if it can move the needle to Durango GPU is "like" 1.5 TF instead of 1.2, I think thats all it needs, combined with more RAM.
What I find a bit odd is why MS spent all this engineering time and effort over just adding a few more CU's. Nothing's more expensive these days than people. They'll quickly get more expensive than silicon.
It would seem like MS/AMD would have expended a lot of effort on these "DMA engines" and it's kind of weird.
My guess is that the angle they have is that cases where the GPU would be underutilized, this DME is helping it keep peak throughput, in some cases surpassing what a much larger GPU would do. Second, as workflows evolve and change over time, the fact that this architecture is no longer optimal shows less. Finally, devs will have it easier because they don't have to fudge methods to optimize. It should just work.
However, I still agree with your question on all the NRE this causes. Unless this silicon is going to make more people make exclusive games and content or its going to greatly simplify 1 party games and allow them to make more and/or lower their costs, what's the point?