AMD’s Radeon Boost could be a secret weapon to take down Nvidia’s budget graphics cards

We know AMD has a major driver update planned for its Radeon products in December – rumors have even indicated official ray tracing support could be part of this, but whether that’s true or not, there might also be a seriously smart sounding new feature coming to ramp up frame rates. And this could be particularly useful for less powerful GPUs – with AMD about to launch new budget models, as it happens…
AMD’s Radeon Boost is the feature in question, and it was mentioned in grabs that look like marketing materials which were leaked online (posted on Reddit and Twitter, as spotted by Videocardz). According to the marketing spiel, this feature will ‘turbocharge your game’, so given that and also the name, it’s clearly some kind of performance boosting mode.
As you can see above, another image was uncovered introducing the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition, stating that the new package is available for download ‘today’, indicating that this is all part of the aforementioned big December driver launch coming later this month.
So what is AMD Radeon Boost exactly? Obviously we can’t say for sure going by the tiny amount of info gleaned here, which points to little more than the existence of the boost mode.
However, AMD bought a firm called HiAlgo back in 2016, which had developed two major technologies – HiAlgo Chill and HiAlgo Boost. And AMD’s Radeon Chill was introduced at the end of 2016, so it’s a fair guess that Radeon Boost could be the second part of HiAlgo’s technology finally coming to fruition for AMD (albeit with a lot more development and tinkering, evidently).

Adaptive resolution

If this is the case, HiAlgo Boost is essentially a process involving dynamically adjusting the resolution of the game on the fly, otherwise known as adaptive resolution.
In more detail, HiAlgo itself explains that: “Boost intercepts and on the fly modifies commands sent from the game to the graphics card, optimizing performance frame by frame. When you are in action and the camera moves, Boost decreases the resolution to boost the framerate. When camera stops, it restores full resolution. This provides optimal responsiveness and smoothness for the game, even with weak graphics card.”
So, in short, when you’re static, and for example looking around at a pretty landscape scene, the full resolution and detail is present. But when you’re moving, or indeed in the thick of the action – and not likely to notice any finer details anyway – the resolution is dropped to keep the frame rate smoother.
Of course, we don’t know for sure that AMD’s new feature is HiAlgo Boost, by any means – or how much it might have changed down the line since the acquisition of HiAlgo a few years back – but it certainly makes a good deal of sense. Whatever the case, it certainly seems like AMD has some frame rate boost tech up its sleeve with its incoming graphics driver.
If this does indeed turn out to be the case, a lot will depend on exactly how AMD has implemented this, and whether the sacrifice in image quality used to boost frame rates is at all noticeable.
This is likely designed with more wallet-friendly cards in mind, to enable them to better deal with more demanding games, as the prospect of sacrificing any visual fidelity at all probably doesn’t appeal so much to the sort of enthusiasts who buy higher-end cards. Indeed, there are already concerns being aired about how HiAlgo Boost – if that is the implementation used – detects when the camera stops moving, and whether there might be any issues involved in that process.
As ever in these sort of situations, any gremlins in the works may be noticeable to those with sharper eyes, and not a problem at all for others. In other words, it will be a pretty subjective thing, and may depend on how sensitive you are to these sort of visual details (just as with TVs – some folks notice the ‘soap opera’ effect and think it’s hideous, others don’t even bat an eyelid).
At any rate, we know that AMD is currently pushing with its budget Navi offerings – with RX 5500 and 5500 XT launches reportedly imminent – so bringing Radeon Boost in at the same time to make these wallet-friendly offerings perform better, and compete more ably against Nvidia’s GTX 16-series, also makes sense.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Linktree’s free workaround lets you add multiple links to your Instagram bio

Image
Instagram only gives you one opportunity to link to outside resources inside its photo sharing platform. This might not be a problem for a majority of the users, but for those wanting a little more customization and even more options, it leaves much to be desired. Enter  Linktree , a free tool for Instagram designed to improve traffic to your outside link, be it a blog, portfolio, or store. How it works is fairly straightforward. After connecting Linktree to your Instagram profile, you’ll receive a single link to place in your Instagram bio. Once that link in place, you can customize what it’s linked to within your browser, be it a single website, or a collection of sites you’re looking to direct followers to Say you’re a photographer who’s using Instagram as a marketing tool for your wedding photography. Using Linktree, you can direct Instagram followers to your blog, your portfolio site, and even your other social media accounts. Until now, you would’ve been stuck c...
Read more

EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THE PIXEL 4, THE MOST-LEAKED PHONE EVER

Image
Google’s  Pixel 3 might have been the  most-leaked phone in history . Long before its unveiling, we knew practically everything about it from unboxing videos, photo comparisons, even a full review of the device. Surely, for the Pixel 4, Google would clamp down on leaks to leave some surprises for its debut on  October 15th , right? Let’s just say, if that was the plan, it didn’t exactly work out. We’ve now seen the Pixel 4 XL from every angle and in three different colors. At least seven different sources have touched this phone, many of them confirming the same specs. We not only know which cameras it’ll have, but also what they may be capable of, including air gestures (go figure). That doesn’t even count information Google has already shared  on purpose. So if you want to know almost everything about the Pixel 4 nearly a month before it’s announced, buckle up. We’ve sifted through all of the rumors and information we can find to compile everything we know —...
Read more

The best antivirus software to download in September 2018

Image
You probably don't need us to tell you just how important it is to download antivirus software for your computer and mobile devices in 2018. But where we can help is to tell you what the best antivirus is right now, having tested and reviewed the latest packages from the biggest names in cyber security. Hackers are always coming up with new ways to gain access to your PC and other internet enabled devices (with your mobile phone and tablet included). Luckily the best antivirus companies are constantly updating their security software packages. We're already starting to see their 2019 packages come to market, with user experience tweaks and the latest protection against phishing scams, ransomware and all other types of viruses and malware. Right now, we think that  Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2019  is the best antivirus that your money can buy  (or  head here for UK pricing ). It combines watertight antivirus tools with an array of other excellent security...
Read more