Rapid Packed Math fp16 to be used in FM Serra, Wolfenstein 2 and Far Cry 5
In our Vega technology overview we talked a bit about AMD having the ability (with Vega) to have several render targets in a scene to render at lower precision (fp16 versus fp32). AMD calls this feature fp16 Rapid Packed Math (floating point 16). According to AMD this will increase performance.
Rapid Packed Math basically halves the floating point calculations for data request, resulting in a faster turnaround time of that request/data, however with less precision and thus quality in some form. Considering lowering image quality in specific segments will pretty much always create more FPS, we'll just have to wait and see how the feature will evolve. Basically half-precision would be applied in segments where it really isn't needed. AMD has not revealed anything specific as to what and where excatly the feature can be used.
Two developpers have shared that their games will be supporting Rapid Packed Math fp16, Publisher Bethesda and Ubisoft. These initial titles are Wolfenstein 2 The New Colossus and Far Cry 5. Futuremark also is working on a new scene called "Serra" that will Support it.
NVIDIA has not announced plans of supporting the new option, it is a hardware feature, meaning that owners of current NVIDIA GPUs and current AMD GPUs won’t be able to benefit from it.
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AMD Vega.
The game/application also has to support it. The difference in quality to the end user will probably be neglible to non-existent, and certainly not visible considering the likely moving nature of where the calculations apply. No doubt someone will do something in 4K, zoom in, enhance the contrast and othre things, and say that in the zoomed, enhanced pic there is 'huge' difference, something someone usually says and you have to look and scan over the picture to see it. This of course would be pointless, because you don't play the game single frame at a time, zoomed in 8 times on a 4K image, with unsuitably high contrast.
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how does this compare to NVIDIA Multi-Res Shading in Shadow Warrior 2?

I remember using the middle settings on a mid-end graphics card and the result was pretty good
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From what I have seen in the last few years, if Nvidia is not going to jump on the band wagon of fp16 and support it on a hardware level, then you will only see a small hand full of games with this feature and then it will disappear in the dust. Same like all the other unique features that AMD has created in the last couple of years. Features like AMD true audio, mantle and the list go on... The reality is no support from Nvidia means no future support in games...
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So AMD need to sacrifice image quality now to keep up with the competition... Then they're selling it as a "feature".
Interesting
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coool but where can I buy a GPU like this? When is the NDA lifted as I see no reviews yet?