Vulcan and Asynchronous Compute - Please explain!

[Mr.Twabfish]

I am looking at getting a GTX 1070 for my build, but having seen the massive difference/advantage AMD cards have over Nvidia ones when it comes to games with Vulcan and Asynchronous Compute support, I wonder whether to wait and get an AMD equivalent in early 2017. What I want to know is whether Nvidia can use driver/software updates to use these APIs to the same effect as AMD, or is there some Polaris magic going on here? I am fine buying a Nvidia GPU if I know they can optimize the cards to use these API's to full capacity.  

[don_svetlio]

Pascal has software support but that introduces some overhead as the hardware scheduler is not beefy enough to handle it and thus, Nvidia have to control the pipelines precisely via drivers. End result is - even a small driver bug can be catastrophic.

[MaxBunny]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Twabfish said:

 I am fine buying a Nvidia GPU if I know they can optimize the cards to use these API's to full capacity.  

Wait for one of their next gen cards that does it via hardware, or if they finally get the software drivers down.

[Dackzy]

Nvidia has software support, not hardware support, while AMD has hardware support. This means that if a game is not coded to the way Nvidia cards can run A-sync compute then there would be no benefit or close to none. So a driver bug with Nvidia in A-sync can really mean a lot.

[Mr.Twabfish]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

Pascal has software support but that introduces some overhead as the hardware scheduler is not beefy enough to handle it and thus, Nvidia have to control the pipelines precisely via drivers. End result is - even a small driver bug can be catastrophic.

Therefore, it may be some time before Nvidia adopts this effectively, but it is possible for Vulcan to be optimized through driver updates, given some time. Correct?

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Mr.Twabfish said:

Therefore, it may be some time before Nvidia adopts this effectively, but it is possible for Vulcan to be optimized through driver updates, given some time. Correct?

Vulkan? That's a different story - keep in mind that drivers aren't magic. And as soon as Volta comes out, Pascal will get shafted alongside Maxwell and Kepler. Fun fact - Kepler has full hardware support for A-sync pipelines but Nvidia refuse to optimize drivers for it.

[Mr.Twabfish]

2 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Vulkan? That's a different story - keep in mind that drivers aren't magic. And as soon as Volta comes out, Pascal will get shafted alongside Maxwell and Kepler. Fun fact - Kepler has full hardware support for A-sync pipelines but Nvidia refuse to optimize drivers for it.

So- Is it safe to say that AMD has a better grip on both Vulcan and Asynchronous Compute compared to Nvidia?

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Mr.Twabfish said:

So- Is it safe to say that AMD has a better grip on both Vulcan and Asynchronous Compute compared to Nvidia?

That has been the story for over a year now.

[Mr.Twabfish]

2 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

That has been the story for over a year now.

Are these APIs here to stay for the foreseeable future, to where the majority of game creators will allow support for this stuff? 

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, Mr.Twabfish said:

Are these APIs here to stay for the foreseeable future, to where the majority of game creators will allow support for this stuff? 

90% of AAA games coming are DX12 and more than 50% of Windows users are on Windows 10 so yes, DX12/Vulkan are the future.

[Mr.Twabfish]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

90% of AAA games coming are DX12 and more than 50% of Windows users are on Windows 10 so yes, DX12/Vulkan are the future.

Would you then say that based on the current market, AMD has a very good chance of releasing some really good GPUs very soon? Something to really compete with the likes of the 1080/Titan XP?

[Dackzy]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Twabfish said:

Are these APIs here to stay for the foreseeable future, to where the majority of game creators will allow support for this stuff? 

well that is a bit hard to say how long it is going to be a thing, BUT a-sync compute is a feature of DX12 and more and more games are getting DX12. I am sure that Vulcan/DX12 is going to be with us for a long time, so yes I would say it is the future. DX 11 has been with us since 2009 and will still be with us for a long time, so yeah.

[Dackzy]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Twabfish said:

Would you then say that based on the current market, AMD has a very good chance of releasing some really good GPUs very soon? Something to really compete with the likes of the 1080/Titan XP?

you are talking about Vega. Polaris was mid and low en, Vega is high end and "enthusiast". We are not 100% sure when Vega is coming, but it should come with cards that can atleast compete with the 1080 and Titan X(P), Vega should beat Pascal, atleast if everything we "know" (leaks and such) is true and with the extra time they have used on Vega.

 

Pascal is IMO just hotfixed maxwell with a die shrink.

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, Dackzy said:

you are talking about Vega. Polaris was mid and low en, Vega is high end and "enthusiast". We are not 100% sure when Vega is coming, but it should come with cards that can atleast compete with the 1080 and Titan X(P), Vega should beat Pascal, atleast if everything we "know" (leaks and such) is true and with the extra time they have used on Vega.

 

Pascal is IMO just hotfixed maxwell with a die shrink.

Keyword - hot

[Dackzy]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

Keyword - hot

have you heard of dry ice? You see with dry ice heat is not a problem  

[Mr.Twabfish]

2 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

you are talking about Vega. Polaris was mid and low en, Vega is high end and "enthusiast". We are not 100% sure when Vega is coming, but it should come with cards that can atleast compete with the 1080 and Titan X(P), Vega should beat Pascal, atleast if everything we "know" (leaks and such) is true and with the extra time they have used on Vega.

 

Pascal is IMO just hotfixed maxwell with a die shrink.

Well. Hmm. random question... if I could get a Fury X for 350.00... should I do it?

[don_svetlio]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Twabfish said:

Well. Hmm. random question... if I could get a Fury X for 350.00... should I do it?

Not a terrible price - performs similar to a stock 1070

[Mr.Twabfish]

Does it?? how well do you think it would do in ARK?

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Mr.Twabfish said:

Does it?? how well do you think it would do in ARK?

Nothing does well in ARK

[Mr.Twabfish]

Just now, don_svetlio said:

Nothing does well in ARK

lol. In respect to a 1070

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Mr.Twabfish said:

lol. In respect to a 1070

No idea. All I know is that currently, 980 Ti, Fury X and 1070 perform close to each other

[Mr.Twabfish]

okay cool. 

[Dackzy]

11 minutes ago, Mr.Twabfish said:

Well. Hmm. random question... if I could get a Fury X for 350.00... should I do it?

That is a pretty good price, you might run into some Vram problems, but it has performance similar to a stock 1070.