Nvidia CEO Sneers at AMD Radeon VII, Calls It 'Lousy'

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Jen-Hsun

There's never been much honey lost between AMD and Nvidia when information technology comes to GPUs, just Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang's recent comments well-nigh AMD'due south only-announced Radeon VII are rather cutting.

Huang blasted the GPU as "underwhelming," co-ordinate to PCWorld, noting "The performance is lousy and there's null new…[There's] no ray tracing, no AI. It'south 7nm with HBM memory that barely keeps upwardly with a 2080. And if nosotros turn on DLSS we'll crush it. And if we turn on ray tracing we'll crush it."

As for FreeSync, according to Jen-Hsun, it's non even in competition with AMD. "We never competed," Huang told PCWorld concerning FreeSync support. "(FreeSync) was never proven to work. As y'all know, nosotros invented the area of adaptive sync. The truth is near of the FreeSync monitors exercise not work. They do not even work with AMD'southward graphics cards."

Huang went on to brag that the RTX 2080 SEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce is sold by every vendor before saying "It'southward a weird launch, maybe they thought of it this forenoon." Huang didn't confine himself to insulting AMD; he also went afterwards Intel, proverb: "Intel's graphics team is basically AMD, correct?" Huang asked. "I'm trying to figure out AMD'south graphics team."

Fact Check: Radeon VII vs. Nvidia RTX

AMD's Radeon Seven has non yet launched and its performance has not been measured. Nosotros tin, still, judge how the menu might perform based on public statements. Anandtech's Bench has data on GPU performance and the Vega 64 and RTX 2080 can be compared.

If we assume a flat 1.25x operation improvement over Vega 64 SEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce , the field is mixed. In some cases, AMD would now be in contest with the RTX 2080. In some cases, it would still be behind. Simply AMD has never said that Radeon VII is 25 percent faster than Vega 64; it said only that it picked upward 25 percent more than performance in the same ability envelope. That's typically a reference to process node improvements rather than architectural improvements, and we don't know if AMD fixed whatever low-hanging fruit with Radeon Vii. Information technology'southward possible that the chip is nix simply a directly 7nm port. It's also possible it picks up some boosted perf.

Regardless of how bonny Radeon Seven is, Nvidia has no ground to stand on when it talks virtually offering lousy performance and underwhelming value, considering the entire Turing GPU family is zilch but a price increase married to promises of future gaming support for ray tracing features you lot tin can currently use in a single game and an admittedly smashing anti-aliasing characteristic available in just one other. In 2016, $350 bought you 8GB of Nvidia VRAM with the GTX 1070. In 2019, $350 buys y'all 6GB of Nvidia VRAM on the RTX 2060, despite the nearly-term inflow of new consoles and the inevitable increase in RAM demands that comes with each new gaming generation. Yeah, more games will eventually feature RTX and DLSS support, but the country of access to these features today is very weak.

I'll be the commencement to admit that the Radeon Vii could exist underwhelming and the 6GB VRAM buffer on the RTX 2060 could be properly sized. But the company that's spent 4 months trying to shove price increases, currently useless features, and reduced VRAM at the same price point downwardly the throats of the gaming community doesn't get to complain about the lack of features in its competitors' product as if it had demonstrated some kind of astonishing alternative value proposition.

Fact Check: FreeSync

Claiming that FreeSync was "never proven to piece of work" is a flat prevarication. Furthermore, it's an insult to the reviewers that have evaluated FreeSync GPUs, monitors, and functioning. I've never written a specific FreeSync versus G-Sync eval myself, but I've tested FreeSync and Thou-Sync displays. I've seen the effect of both with my own eyes in games I played. I've used tools like OCAT to compare performance with FreeSync enabled versus disabled. Information technology works. Then does G-Sync.

Replacing thoughtful and nuanced commentary with fact-gratuitous hurling of insults may fit the current political climate of the United states, but it's a poor way to run a visitor. I have tested FreeSync and G-Sync on a variety of displays. While I've seen the usual gamut of oddities and compatibility issues that tin can crop up, I've seen absolutely nothing to suggest that nigh FreeSync monitors "don't work." And information technology's hard to argue that he intended to brand a more specific statement, given that he claims FreeSync doesn't fifty-fifty piece of work with AMD GPUs.

Apparently, nosotros tin't literally state that at that place are no FreeSync monitors that mis-implement the standard. In that location are literally hundreds of FreeSync displays. But what we can say is that FreeSync panels take been reviewed. The feature has been tested. The implication that the standard was "never proven to work" is claptrap of the highest order. There have also been no general user reports indicating that FreeSync displays suffer from catastrophic failures when the feature is engaged and FreeSync has been in market for several years now. If this problem has flown nether the radar it needs to be addressed, but the standard works.If information technology didn't,why would Nvidia be moving to back up it?

Nvidia's overall market position is exceptionally strong. Truth exist told, I'll be surprised if the Radeon VII is robust competition for the RTX 2080, considering it'southward clear that AMD'southward major focus is on Navi and time to come GPU generations. 7nm Vega may be a high-end replacement, but information technology'due south also something of a terminate-gap. But these kinds of remarks aren't professional and they aren't authentic. And to be perfectly edgeless, we expect better. No ane expects Nvidia to exist full of praise for AMD products, but there's a difference between talking up ane's own solution and lying near a competitor's. Claiming that most FreeSync displays don't work, even with AMD cards, is the kind of bombshell statement that can merely be fabricated responsibly if backed up past specific model data and third-party demonstrations nether neutral conditions. When it comes to challenge FreeSync has never been proven to work at all, we have merely two words in response:

[Citation Needed].

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