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[Eteknix]AMD Accused Of Disabling Async Compute On Older GPUs

15K views 190 replies 53 participants last post by  Tomasas 
#1 ·
Quote:
Since the release of the Radeon Crimson Software Driver 16.9.2, it seems that AMD may have disabled DirectX 12 Asynchronous Compute technology on graphics cards that run first-generation Graphics CoreNext (GCN) architecture, despite the hardware supposedly being able to Aync Compute.

While AMD has blamed developers for disabling Async Compute on GCN 1.0 architecture - 1.1 and above retains Async Compute utilisation - with titles like Total War: Warhammer and Rise of the Tomb Raider, users of the Beyond3D forum - and this angry redditor - have determined that the problem stems from AMD's very own drivers, starting with 16.9.2.
http://www.eteknix.com/amd-accused-of-disabling-async-compute-on-older-gpus/
 
#2 ·
Out with the old, in with the new. Standard practice nowadays to nudge the consumer towards newer products.
 
#3 ·
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The results are far from conclusive; the test is not a benchmark, and was only conducted on one game. However, it does tally with a number of anecdotal reports.
AMD advertised support for async compute when they introduced the support levels for various GCN revisions.

It's not something they can just take away like that and call it a day...

I say shenanigans on this one.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wishmaker View Post

Out with the old, in with the new. Standard practice nowadays to nudge the consumer towards newer products.
Then say it officially.. Don't blame developers if you're then one who's done it.

I'm not sure what AMD would have to gain by doing it though.. It's not like those cards would threaten their newer lineup, it doesn't really make sense..

Need a bit more info, but pitch forks at the ready i guess.
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Quote:
AMD disable Async compute on old GCN architecture, making artificialy new GCN architecture shiny.
Yeah... no. That wouldn't be it, costs maybe? But surely being that they're all GCN, that wouldn't be a problem either..
 
#8 ·
Now watch how it becomes the most important feature ever.

Honestly i believe it will be fixed on tomorrows big update, if not ? well shame on your amd. although it never really made huge difference on gcn1 cuz only 2 ACEs.
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#14 ·
For now, I'll just address the part where "AMD blames Devs" lol. A user in AMD support forum asks why a game no longer has Async on games like ROTR to which the AMD rep replies that he should ask the dev and posts a snippit from their website that shows they will support Async compute in the game for AMD GCN 1.1+

I'm lost, how is this a problem created by AMD and AMD is just blaming others? I'm legitimately confused by this assumption...
 
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#15 ·
if this is true that's a scummy move taken from nvidia's book.
 
#18 ·
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Originally Posted by mtcn77 View Post

GCN 1.0 is past anyway. Asynchronous shaders take +2048 shaders in order to differentiate on its own.
I admit i don't know anything about AMD cards anymore but it seems like a dirty move to disable features.
 
#19 ·
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Originally Posted by philhalo66 View Post

I admit i don't know anything about AMD cards anymore but it seems like a dirty move to disable features.
Just keep in mind there is no real proof AMD is actually disabling features at this point, not from the bit of info posted in OP and the sources I can find linked from there. So we should likely take a wait and see approach to this and simply ask AMD for a clarified statement. Even the "AMD blames Devs" thing is pretty sad "journalism" thats baseless and silly. But hey, it gets page clicks and ad revenue so who cares about truths?
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#20 ·
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Originally Posted by philhalo66 View Post

I admit i don't know anything about AMD cards anymore but it seems like a dirty move to disable features.
If it were Nvidia, you would be supporting G-Sync. Compatibility is exclusive, but the standard is uniform. Same here. Fewer gpus supported, but less variance between support levels. I would prefer AMD to highlight it better. There is a clear benefit to weak laptop cpus and super desktop gpus, however there is far less distinguishable benefit to everything in between.
PS: For instance in this test, triple-core laptop processors @2.0GHz would potentially be faster than quad-core desktop processors @4.4 GHz! Yet again, the tool is in the wrong hands. AMD doesn't have a bone to contend in the performance laptop segment, nor in the enthusiast gpu segment.
 
#21 ·
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Originally Posted by SkateZilla View Post

Pretty Sure GCN 1.0 and 1.1 Cards Do not support all DirectX12_x Modes, they support DirectX12 to an Extent.

Eitherway, I dont use Windows 10 on my 7970/GCN1.0 Machines...
Truish, GCN 1 was 11_1, 2 12_0, and 3/4 12_1. GCN 1 does not support the majority of DX12 and was not a full implementation of the ACEs. Those were fully implemented in GCN 2 with the GCP and SE that separated functions and added more cache, and controllers.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mtcn77 View Post

GCN 1.0 is past anyway. Asynchronous shaders take +2048 shaders in order to differentiate on its own.
True to an extent, the first generation GCN card was released 5 years ago (7970), but the last ones released 3 months ago for OEM cards (R5/R7 4xx cards) and one year for retail cards (R7 370/370x).
 
#22 ·
I always thought nvidia products seemed 5fps slower when a new card came
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Like all optimization that happened during it's life cycle was then removed to make the new card look better but to not make it slower than the launch reviews
 
#24 ·
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Originally Posted by budgetgamer120 View Post

These test are done with the drivers that disable asynch.
In that case I can report Return of the Tomb Raider as well, since it avoids complicated asynchronous shader stuff too.

Kidding:
Quote:
As in AotS, the Glacier engine uses DirectX 12 to reduce the API overheads and Async Compute to accelerate the GPU limit. Unfortunately, the function in Hitman can not switch off separately.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtcn77 View Post

In that case I can report Return of the Tomb Raider as well, since it avoids complicated asynchronous shader stuff too.

Kidding:
Did you read the post in the news?

I'm not sure what you are trying to say. Tomb raider doesn't have async as you said. So why post benchmarks of it to prove async does nothing for 7970?
 
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