Friday, May 5th 2023
AMD Shares Reminder of Radeon RX 7900 Series & FSR 2 Maximizing Ray Tracing Performance
Real-time ray tracing (RT), using Microsoft DirectX ray tracing (DXR) and Vulkan Ray Tracing, adds a new level of incredible realism to games through effects like ray-traced reflections, shadows, ambient occlusion, and global illumination. Ray tracing is used in many of the latest games such as The Callisto Protocol, F1 22, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Returnal to maximize graphics fidelity and deliver the ultimate visual experience.
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 (AMD FSR 2) is the cutting-edge temporal upscaling technology designed to produce incredible image quality and boost framerates in supported games. AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series graphics feature advanced AMD RDNA 3 compute units with 2nd generation ray tracing accelerators to help deliver incredible RT performance in games.
And when you combine AMD FSR 2 with AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series graphics in today's top games with ray tracing, you can have an amazing RT gaming experience at maximum performance on AMD Radeon graphics at maximum RT quality. You can see this for yourself in 12 games using ray tracing in the video we recently released below.
Now looking at some of the comments on the video, we know many of you had some questions about what we're showing and the claims we are making. We'd like to use this blog to help address and answer some of those questions and provide some additional ray tracing performance data in a few other games at all the AMD FSR 2 quality modes.
4K 60 FPS+ Gaming at Maximum RT Settings
Firstly, let's start by setting expectations on what can be considered a great gaming experience at 4K resolution, and that is being able to play at 60 FPS or higher at maximum graphics settings (including ray tracing, if available) for ultra-smooth, responsive, and high-fidelity gameplay.
If 60 FPS is the bar that needs to be reached or surpassed to have a great experience, then any FPS on top of that should be considered a bonus, especially for single-player gaming experiences. I will caveat that with yes, for competitive gaming, the more FPS the better for the highest level of responsiveness. However, in most cases, when playing competitive games, you'd want to turn off demanding effects like ray tracing to maximize your performance.
With that in mind, we did see some comments from some of you about the video asking why we didn't show ray tracing performance using the highest image quality AMD FSR 2 "Quality" mode setting (see table above for quality mode details). And although the games in the video are using AMD FSR 2 "Performance" mode to showcase the significant performance boost AMD FSR 2 brings to games with RT, on average 2X at 4K, AMD FSR 2 in "Quality" mode can still deliver 60 FPS+ gaming on average at 4K in some of today's top games at maximum ray tracing settings.
Let's have a complete look at AMD FSR 2 performance in all the quality modes at maximum graphics and ray tracing settings in some of the games featured in the video, on both the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT GPUs.
Along with the games shown in the video, one of the newest games with ray tracing to get AMD FSR 2 has been added to the charts above, Returnal, which features beautiful graphics with ray-traced shadows and reflections.
As you can see from the data above, when combined with AMD FSR 2, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU easily surpasses the 60 FPS bar at all AMD FSR 2 quality modes at 4K at the maximum graphics and ray tracing settings in these top games with RT. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU does so too in all the games apart from Dying Light 2 Stay Human and HITMAN World of Assassination, where at the FSR 2 "Quality" mode, performance is just shy of 60 FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077 60 FPS+ Gaming at Maximum RT Settings
Cyberpunk 2077 is considered one of the "benchmark" games for ray tracing and incorporates the full suite of ray-traced effects - shadows, ambient occlusion, reflections, and global illumination. With RT at the maximum settings, visually it is one of the most impressive games available today.
At the same time though, this level of graphical fidelity, especially when using the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" preset at 4K, can be incredibly demanding on your PC - even when using the most powerful graphics cards. Currently, there are no GPUs available that can run the game at native 4K using the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" preset at 60 FPS or higher. Using upscaling technology such as AMD FSR 2 to boost framerates when using RT in Cyberpunk 2077 is essential if you want to have a great gaming experience.
Taking that into account, let's have a look at AMD FSR 2 performance in all the quality modes in Cyberpunk 2077 at both 4K and 1440p at the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" preset when using AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series graphic cards.
Looking at the data in the chart above, at 1440p when using AMD FSR 2 with the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" graphics preset, both the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphic cards can deliver 60 FPS and above on average at all the AMD FSR 2 quality modes. Then when it comes to 4K, even though Cyberpunk 2077 is incredibly demanding when using the highest RT settings at 4K, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU can still achieve nearly 60 FPS on average when using AMD FSR 2.
What about the new "Ray Tracing: Overdrive" mode, though? Well, we're not including that preset here because as per CD PROJEKT RED, this new mode is a "technology preview" and a "vision of the future that we want to share" rather than a standard graphics preset. We recommend using the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" preset as the highest setting in the game for everyday gaming.
Amazing Gaming Experiences at Maximum RT Settings with AMD
When it comes to ray tracing gaming performance and experiences in today's top games, there are a lot of different factors to consider. As we've covered in this blog, one of the key considerations is to help ensure that you can play ray tracing games at 60 FPS or higher for the best gaming experience.
And what we've shown here, in both the video and the additional performance data shared in this blog, is that AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series graphics cards when combined with AMD FSR 2 can deliver 60 FPS+ on average in many of today's top games with ray tracing, even at 4K and when using maximum RT settings.
But there is one more factor to take into consideration, and that is value. All this amazing maximum ray tracing performance at 4K is available on the most advanced graphics cards available today at under $1,000. As of today, May 4, 2023, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU is available starting at $999, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU is now available starting at $849.
LEARN MORE ABOUT AMD FIDELITYFX SUPER RESOLUTION
LEARN MORE ABOUT AMD RADEON RX 7900 SERIES GRAPHICS
Source:
AMD Community
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 (AMD FSR 2) is the cutting-edge temporal upscaling technology designed to produce incredible image quality and boost framerates in supported games. AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series graphics feature advanced AMD RDNA 3 compute units with 2nd generation ray tracing accelerators to help deliver incredible RT performance in games.
Now looking at some of the comments on the video, we know many of you had some questions about what we're showing and the claims we are making. We'd like to use this blog to help address and answer some of those questions and provide some additional ray tracing performance data in a few other games at all the AMD FSR 2 quality modes.
4K 60 FPS+ Gaming at Maximum RT Settings
Firstly, let's start by setting expectations on what can be considered a great gaming experience at 4K resolution, and that is being able to play at 60 FPS or higher at maximum graphics settings (including ray tracing, if available) for ultra-smooth, responsive, and high-fidelity gameplay.
If 60 FPS is the bar that needs to be reached or surpassed to have a great experience, then any FPS on top of that should be considered a bonus, especially for single-player gaming experiences. I will caveat that with yes, for competitive gaming, the more FPS the better for the highest level of responsiveness. However, in most cases, when playing competitive games, you'd want to turn off demanding effects like ray tracing to maximize your performance.
Let's have a complete look at AMD FSR 2 performance in all the quality modes at maximum graphics and ray tracing settings in some of the games featured in the video, on both the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT GPUs.
As you can see from the data above, when combined with AMD FSR 2, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU easily surpasses the 60 FPS bar at all AMD FSR 2 quality modes at 4K at the maximum graphics and ray tracing settings in these top games with RT. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU does so too in all the games apart from Dying Light 2 Stay Human and HITMAN World of Assassination, where at the FSR 2 "Quality" mode, performance is just shy of 60 FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077 60 FPS+ Gaming at Maximum RT Settings
Cyberpunk 2077 is considered one of the "benchmark" games for ray tracing and incorporates the full suite of ray-traced effects - shadows, ambient occlusion, reflections, and global illumination. With RT at the maximum settings, visually it is one of the most impressive games available today.
At the same time though, this level of graphical fidelity, especially when using the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" preset at 4K, can be incredibly demanding on your PC - even when using the most powerful graphics cards. Currently, there are no GPUs available that can run the game at native 4K using the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" preset at 60 FPS or higher. Using upscaling technology such as AMD FSR 2 to boost framerates when using RT in Cyberpunk 2077 is essential if you want to have a great gaming experience.
Taking that into account, let's have a look at AMD FSR 2 performance in all the quality modes in Cyberpunk 2077 at both 4K and 1440p at the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" preset when using AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series graphic cards.
What about the new "Ray Tracing: Overdrive" mode, though? Well, we're not including that preset here because as per CD PROJEKT RED, this new mode is a "technology preview" and a "vision of the future that we want to share" rather than a standard graphics preset. We recommend using the "Ray Tracing: Ultra" preset as the highest setting in the game for everyday gaming.
Amazing Gaming Experiences at Maximum RT Settings with AMD
When it comes to ray tracing gaming performance and experiences in today's top games, there are a lot of different factors to consider. As we've covered in this blog, one of the key considerations is to help ensure that you can play ray tracing games at 60 FPS or higher for the best gaming experience.
And what we've shown here, in both the video and the additional performance data shared in this blog, is that AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series graphics cards when combined with AMD FSR 2 can deliver 60 FPS+ on average in many of today's top games with ray tracing, even at 4K and when using maximum RT settings.
But there is one more factor to take into consideration, and that is value. All this amazing maximum ray tracing performance at 4K is available on the most advanced graphics cards available today at under $1,000. As of today, May 4, 2023, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU is available starting at $999, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT GPU is now available starting at $849.
LEARN MORE ABOUT AMD FIDELITYFX SUPER RESOLUTION
LEARN MORE ABOUT AMD RADEON RX 7900 SERIES GRAPHICS
30 Comments on AMD Shares Reminder of Radeon RX 7900 Series & FSR 2 Maximizing Ray Tracing Performance
Fsr2 is just really not good though — neither is the rt performance— better to keep turning the screws on the vram thing and overall performance/$ for now.
Want to turn everything up resulting in a sub 30fps experience? no problem.
Personally I think ray tracing is cool, and I love the videos from digital foundry that show where RT can fall well short or where it barely does anything because it gets augmented by screenspace etc etc but also parts where it really makes the image a lot nicer and grounds all the stuff in the scene without actually making anything more "high end", its purely a case of lighting.
So yeah RT is cool imo and if it needs some upscaling for now so devs have a fallback to catch them if their RT makes the performance unplayable, thus allowing them to experiment with it and go a bit perhaps overboard with it so the tech advances faster (recent Cyperpunk update as example) then im all for it.
And none of that upscaling bs, too many weird issues that can't/won't be solved (or at least not in the near future).
I've posted my various reasons before but in summation: i'll take native resolution and no RT over RT with upscaling.
FSR and DLSS could be used on top of 4K to improve image stability.
I really don't understand AMD's marketing team sometimes.
Look at (stupid) youtube videos with tons of views where they even advertise "RTX ON" in the Thumbnail even though they just want to praise some Reshade nonsense....
Nvidia's marketing sadly works and I bet if you ask many a gamer they will be convinced that only Nvidia can do Ray Tracing or at least "RTX" and that that means it "looks better" so you should go for Nvidia.
This is AMD trying to reach those people with some clarification
Though ANY noise is better than no noise, I suppose. Perhaps that's what they thought as well. I don't know. I did like their VRAM dig at Nvidia, that one was bullseye and I think it'll put a dent in those green sales, even if they don't gain much for Red, it'll definitely stop people from impulse buying anything with 8~12GB. Ironically including AMD's 7000 series with similar VRAM :) And it doesn't get better there either for AMD because they're still advertising how they can bring 16GB at +- 500 bucks today with last gen cards.
Cannibalism is the new marketing I guessHonestly I tried RT now in many games and not even Cyberpunk path traced impresses me enough to sacrifice 80% perf for it. Yes, some lights move differently when you walk around. Is it objectively better? No, I can't say that it is. Its different. It is, most of the time and especially in Cyberpunk, not realistic, and not improving immersion either. It tries hard to stand out with overly reflective surfaces, everything is mirror polished, it looks damn right near ridiculous to me.
After Cyberpunk I entered one of those vaults in Horizon Zero Dawn. Metal all over the place, almost everything is reflective and lit dynamically. It all just works, the scene, the lighting and shadows and all those differently reflective metals. I double check to find RT options in the menu. None available.
I'll stick to rasterized graphics/performance as a metric, and that ain't changing soon. This whole RT push is a solution looking for nonexistant problems, all it takes is one skilled dev studio that is willing to invest time in building nice things, to make all those fancy RT effects a complete joke. 'But devs ain't got time for that'... Oh? I think corporate ain't got time for that, but we don't need corporate to bring us good games, I think we have living proof of that on the daily. People oughta wake up.