Objective: Boost GPU performance without additional hardware or cooling solutions.
Key Message: You can achieve up to 40% more performance with existing AMD hardware by tweaking settings.
Traditional Methods of Enhancing GPU Performance
More Transistors: Increasing the number of transistors to enhance performance.
More Power: Higher power consumption for better performance, but reaching impractical levels (e.g., 500 watts like a space heater).
Challenges with Increasing Power and Transistors
Heat Issues: High power GPUs generate excessive heat, making systems hard to cool, especially in small rooms.
Power Supply Limits:
North America: 120V outlets allow max 1800 watts per circuit, limiting total power consumption.
Europe: Uses 240V power, reducing circuit overload issues but facing high energy prices.
Physical Limits: Shrinking transistors to fit more on a chip increases cost enormously and approaches quantum tunneling issues.
Alternative Approach: Increase Efficiency
Smart Access Memory (SAM): Allows CPU to access GPU memory more efficiently.
Performance Boost: 5-10% improvement in many games.
Enabling SAM:
Go to BIOS
Ensure DOCP is enabled
Enable 'Resize Bar' or 'Above 4G Decoding' and set 'Resize Bar Support' to auto.
FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) & Radeon Super Resolution (RSR)
Concept: Render the game at a lower resolution and use AI & sharpening to upscale.
Performance Boost: 10-50% increase depending on settings.
Caveats: Comes with some reduction in image quality.
Specific Use Cases and Recommendations
1080p Gaming:
Avoid FSR/RSR unless absolutely necessary due to significant loss in image quality.
1440p Gaming:
Mixed results; some games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla perform well, while others like Tiny Tina's Wonderland and Horizon Zero Dawn show noticeable image quality issues.
4K Gaming:
Best performance with minimal visual degradation; suitable for high-end GPUs struggling with maintaining frame rates at high detail settings.
Advancements and Future Prospects
FSR 2.0: Adds temporal information to address shimmering and image quality issues found in FSR 1.0.
Wider Compatibility: FSR works with AMD, Nvidia, and even Intel integrated GPUs.
Conclusion
Immediate Actions: Enable SAM for immediate performance gains, try FSR for higher resolutions.
Acknowledgement: Sponsored video by AMD, showcasing the benefits of optimizing existing hardware through software tweaks.
Additional Resources
Suggested additional viewing: Play Button PC build video on Linus Tech Tips.