Monday, July 22nd 2024
Several AMD RDNA 4 Architecture Ray Tracing Hardware Features Leaked
We've known since May that AMD is giving its next generation RDNA 4 graphics architecture a significant upgrade with ray tracing performance, and had some clue since then, that the company is working on putting more of the ray tracing workflow through dedicated, fixed function hardware, unburdening the shader engine further. Kepler_L2, a reliable source with GPU leaks sheds light on some of the many new hardware features AMD is introducing with RDNA 4 to better accelerate ray tracing, which should give its GPUs a reduced performance cost of having ray tracing enabled. Kepler_L2 believes that these hardware features should also make it to the GPU of the upcoming Sony PlayStation 5 Pro.
To begin with, the RDNA 4 ray accelerator introduces the new Double Ray Tracing Intersect Engine, which should at least mean a 100% ray intersection performance increase over RDNA 3, which in turn offered a 50% increase over that of RDNA 2. The new RT instance node transform instruction should improve the way the ray accelerators handle geometry. Some of the other features we have trouble describing include a 64-byte RT node, ray tracing tri-pair optimization, Change flags encoded in barycentrics to simplify detection of procedural nodes; improved BVH footprint (possibly memory footprint): and RT support for oriented bounding box and instance node intersection. AMD is expected to debut Radeon RX series gaming GPUs based on RDNA 4 in early 2025.
Sources:
Kepler_L2 (Twitter), VideoCardz
To begin with, the RDNA 4 ray accelerator introduces the new Double Ray Tracing Intersect Engine, which should at least mean a 100% ray intersection performance increase over RDNA 3, which in turn offered a 50% increase over that of RDNA 2. The new RT instance node transform instruction should improve the way the ray accelerators handle geometry. Some of the other features we have trouble describing include a 64-byte RT node, ray tracing tri-pair optimization, Change flags encoded in barycentrics to simplify detection of procedural nodes; improved BVH footprint (possibly memory footprint): and RT support for oriented bounding box and instance node intersection. AMD is expected to debut Radeon RX series gaming GPUs based on RDNA 4 in early 2025.
247 Comments on Several AMD RDNA 4 Architecture Ray Tracing Hardware Features Leaked
I'd much rather see it in action, or at least have some official confirmation on dates or specs instead of getting all these barely intelligible leaks all year round.
Light probes are the future of lighting....
Even if AMD can deliver similar performance to Nvidia, they will still have problems selling their cards because it's a marketing and mindshare issue more so than an issue of people caring about what RT performance is. Tech reviewers would still claim AMD cards not having features proprietary to Nvidia as a downside.
Edit: Time will tell, that's for sure. Personally, I'd be happy with the rumoured 7900 XT equivalent card with improved RT, but I have my doubts about its widespread success.Well, then RDNA 4 isn't for you, either, as it won't even compete in the high end.
But why don't you think it won't be aimed at 40 users? You mean that people upgrade every 2 gens?I have a 2nd pc with a 3060ti that will need recycling soon. Bring it on amd, my body is ready
From the day RX 7000 was announced, I was screaming that the focus will be on RT performance, not raster. While gamers will be using raster graphics 99% of their time, marketing will be focusing mostly on RT performance. So buyers will be looking for RT performance, not raster. And I was right. Also RX 7000 didn't improve in raster either with the exception of bigger chips for the high end. So yes, it was a lost generation for AMD. They build good momentum with RX 5700 and RX 6000 series, they completely lost it with RX 7000.
AMD is gone back in pre RX 5700 period and tries to start again with another RX 5700 story. If RDNA4 is a success in mid range, RDNA5 might be another try on the high end. But it needs to be a killer in RT.
DLSS only drops quality to amd users, whoever has an nvidia card prefers it over native. Heck I activate it even in games that can easily play native.
FSR is fine, worse than dlss but it's fine. Question is, why would you buy an amd card for FSR when nvidia cards also have access to it?
I do agree with the rest of your post. It's the current situation where the average consumer will pay $230 for an RTX 3050 over $200 for an RX 6600. AMD failed to read the market last time, they let Nvidia drive the narrative and focus on RT performance, especially with Path Tracing that is a joke today but does make headlines that make Nvidia hardware look unique and everything else obsolete.
Hope AMD also starts integrating AI in it's FSR. Seeing Microsoft's upscaling software doing it, I bet AMD isn't far behind to offer a -for example as with FreeSync- Premium version of FSR.
Setting aside the Nvidia mindshare issue which is real but what AMD is doing about RT performance isn't going to turn that around completely but possibly make a dent in it. I hear it over and over that AMD needs to compete more with Nvidia but sometimes it seems that the message is really that AMD needs to compete more with Nvidia by not competing with Nvidia. Nvidia is pushing RT hard. That's going to be the future. There will continue to be software improvements to keep frame rates from tanking but eventually all those old GPUs will get replaced with GPUs that can handle RT better. Note that I'm not talking about fully raytraced games, just a mixture of raytracing and rasterization like we have now.
Inevitably someone will say that there are hardly any games that use RT but that's not true. For now there are over 500 games using some RT and there are guaranteed to be thousands and thousands more as the years roll by.
If the price is right, I'll probably get a big Navi 4 to replace the 7800 XT that I sold not long ago, and call it a day for the next few generations.