Next Generation Hardware Speculation with a Technical Spin [post E3 2019, pre GDC 2020] [XBSX, PS5]

Just to hold everyones horses, new architecture doesn't necessarily mean there's big changes. For example Bobcat and Jaguar & Puma are clearly similar, but AMD considers the latter two to be different architecture from the first (Family 14h vs 16h) ((also Hygon Dhyana is counted as separate architecture even when it's actually Zen with minimal differenes, Family 17h vs 18h, but this could be just to separate it from AMD's own products))

 

True, but still, AMD is giving much more competition on all fronts compared to say 10 years ago. RDNA2 and Zen2 might not match Intel and Ampere (or even Turing), but their close. Give it a year or two and NV will have to level their prices.

 

If the only changes from RDNA1 to RDNA2 are ray-tracing and VRS, then that in itself is a major change. There are probably other things, but it's not like those are minor additions.

 

Word from Matt @ NeoGAF that Sony has a system in place for this as well (should publishers choose to use it). Good on both MS and Sony for getting this right!

Edit: Kind of forgot that Sony had already had Cross-Buy, so they have a system in place even now. The commitment of support for all cross-gen first-party games is a nice addition, though.

 

They are features, not power increase per TF (efficiency).

 

Ok ... So some % of improvements in occupancy are major, but the addition of ray tracing and variable-rate shading are minor?

 

Yes, but word is there'll be 1st party Sony games on the PC too, like Horizon.
Though less likely, it'll be interesting to know if cross-buy will go to the PC too.

 

those features may be very difficult to place into the chip without have to do some rearchitecture.

 

They aren't minor. I had the idea that HW RT was widely known to be included on XSX, before the phil spencer post today. Though that some where wondering how much efficiency increase RDNA2 will bring.

A nice monday, 12TF RNDA2 confirmed, ray tracing 3d audio, MS's VRS etc. Now we know XSX has RT audio too, and basically confirms it's a AMD solution as with RT:

 

So RT will definitely be used for audio, but it doesn't confirm that they're using TrueAudio Next. TrueAudio Next does not include ray tracing. Ray tracing complements TrueAudio Next, like it would any other audio solution. Rays can be used to determine occlusion, semi-occlusion, propagation for dynamic audio sources. A material-aware audio engine could use rays to calculate impulse responses for convolution effects, but those calculations could be done with TrueAudio Next or with DSPs, or on the CPU (likely not the CPU).

 

RDNA2 most likely brings those features aswell.

 

Them announcing their TF specs mean those are very most likely locked at this point. But i'd say the ram specs are not. Could still be 16GB or 20GB.

 

Being able to deliver 120fps is a fringe benefit of limiting your first party game design to something that will run on an original Xbox One. 120hz will probably fall off the same time as Xbox One compatibility is retired by MGS.

 

I'm not so sure. I can easily see cod multiplayer offering an optional 120Hz mode, for example. The game is always a base 60fps, and it'll probably be something sub-1440p, but they could do 1080p120 with upscaling, or something like that, for the multiplayer portion of the game. Let the user decide.

 

He was principal engineer on PS5 until last month. I don't know what he means exactly but I am not sure so sure they use the same RT or VRS implementation than Microsoft.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthargett/

 

Is this confirming that PS5 is not using RDNA2 and is also using a custom ray tracing solution?

 

I think he’s advertising PS5 capability in a pointed criticism of AMD’s arch in a rhetorical way that comes across as a flex.

Matt on ERA said their VRS implementations are similar, so I wouldn’t assume they’re not using VRS from RDNA2.

 

That's my take as well, which lets the cat out the bag in what PS5 is not using.

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d12/vrs for the ones with time and knowledge...

 

Or they're both using RDNA2 VRS and the software implementations differ
We only have couple patents on the subject, no RDNA2 chips to check if they're applied there.