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The Nvidia Turing GPU Architecture Deep Dive: Prelude to GeForce RTX

anandtech.com

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Re: The Nvidia Turing GPU Architecture Deep Dive: Prelude to GeForce RTX

#3

Post by mrep »

jaytaylor wrote: post #2

On mobile all I see is the comments section. Friendlier link: https://www.anandtech.com/print/13282/nvidia-turing-architec...

Happened for me on desktop too probably because the link is a comments link. Mods, can you change the link?

Re: The Nvidia Turing GPU Architecture Deep Dive: Prelude to GeForce RTX

#4

Post by jaytaylor »

So the new top-end Nvidia cards will have dedicated ray tracing cores. However, real-time ray tracing is still so computationally expensive that games can only implement a hybrid form of it whereby ray tracing is applied for a certain effect or single object, and plain old rasterization is used for everything else.

I applaud NV for stepping up and delivering something in a new direction. Just think- how long has it been since something truly new has been introduced in the gfx world?

Reading through the full article, it was no small feat to dream up and build these cards. A very complex project from both product and engineering perspectives. Hardware-wise, the 2080 specs are quite insane, and these babies are thirrrsty, drawing ~250 watts.

That said, the move definitely seems risky, as it increases complexity significantly for game devs to code for this hybrid approach. What if the market doesn't warm up to this, or perhaps ATI or someone else comes up with something more novel?

I also wonder if it's just a few years premature. Not feeling compelled to give up the good old 970GTX yet. Wake me up when full ray tracing is ready :)

---

P.S. I couldn't help but snicker when looking at the table near the end showing which games will support what new imaging modes.

Of course, PUBG doesn't support ray tracing. Hardly a surprise, considering they can't patch without hours of downtime, and also frequently deliver patches containing "fixes" which break more than they fix.

(FWIW I've stopped PUBG and moved on to Elite:Dangerous, aka space truckers, thanks to it being recommended in an HN thread. Fun game, if you enjoy the solitude of loneliness of endless space! ;)

Re: The Nvidia Turing GPU Architecture Deep Dive: Prelude to GeForce RTX

#5

Post by KaoruAoiShiho »

jaytaylor wrote: post #2

On mobile all I see is the comments section. Friendlier link: https://www.anandtech.com/print/13282/nvidia-turing-architec...

This is the link you want: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13282/nvidia-turing-architect... Both the article and comments.

Re: The Nvidia Turing GPU Architecture Deep Dive: Prelude to GeForce RTX

#6

Post by jarfil »

jaytaylor wrote: post #4

So the new top-end Nvidia cards will have dedicated ray tracing cores. However, real-time ray tracing is still so computationally expensive that games can only implement a hybrid form of it whereby ray tracing is applied for a certain effect or single object, and plain old rasterization is used for everything else. I applaud NV for stepping up and delivering something in a new direction. Just think- how long has it b…

10 GigaRays/sec = 80 rays per pixel at 1080p60fps.

That should be enough to do full scene real-time raytracing with rays per pixel to spare (usually 10 rays per path are more than enough).

Re: The Nvidia Turing GPU Architecture Deep Dive: Prelude to GeForce RTX

#7

Post by [deleted] »

jarfil wrote: post #6
jaytaylor wrote: post #4

So the new top-end Nvidia cards will have dedicated ray tracing cores. However, real-time ray tracing is still so computationally expensive that games can only implement a hybrid form of it whereby ray tracing is applied for a certain effect or single object, and plain old rasterization is used for everything else. I applaud NV for stepping up and delivering something in a new direction. Just think- how long has it b…

10 GigaRays/sec = 80 rays per pixel at 1080p60fps. That should be enough to do full scene real-time raytracing with rays per pixel to spare (usually 10 rays per path are more than enough).

[deleted]

Re: The Nvidia Turing GPU Architecture Deep Dive: Prelude to GeForce RTX

#8

Post by MBCook »

jaytaylor wrote: post #4

So the new top-end Nvidia cards will have dedicated ray tracing cores. However, real-time ray tracing is still so computationally expensive that games can only implement a hybrid form of it whereby ray tracing is applied for a certain effect or single object, and plain old rasterization is used for everything else. I applaud NV for stepping up and delivering something in a new direction. Just think- how long has it b…

MS is pushing this kind of hybrid ray-tracing in DirectX 12. I imagine that Nvidia has been holding off on this until that came about because otherwise it would’ve been way too hard to push.

Of course you know Microsoft worked with all the major vendors because they don’t want to be seen as playing favorites. I would expect AMD would have whatever their version of this is in their next generation chip.

The article made it sound like DirectX only specifies a very high-level interface. So there’s probably a lot of room for AMD and Nvidia to maneuver for performance and quality without breaking compatibility.

Re: The Nvidia Turing GPU Architecture Deep Dive: Prelude to GeForce RTX

#9

Post by zokier »

jarfil wrote: post #6
jaytaylor wrote: post #4

So the new top-end Nvidia cards will have dedicated ray tracing cores. However, real-time ray tracing is still so computationally expensive that games can only implement a hybrid form of it whereby ray tracing is applied for a certain effect or single object, and plain old rasterization is used for everything else. I applaud NV for stepping up and delivering something in a new direction. Just think- how long has it b…

10 GigaRays/sec = 80 rays per pixel at 1080p60fps. That should be enough to do full scene real-time raytracing with rays per pixel to spare (usually 10 rays per path are more than enough).

Looking at the demo video Nvidia released yesterday[1], it is pretty obvious that the performance is still bit limited. The shadows and reflections are distinctly low-resolution and I don't think its solid 60fps either.

Sure it's still pretty nice for first-gen product, so not complaining too much. But there is still fair bit of road to go on.

[1] Atomic Heart: Official GeForce RTX Real-Time Ray Tracing Demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IIiQZw_p_E

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