Ubisoft details their use of FP16 compute/Rapid Packed Math in Far Cry 5
Detailed water simulations with simplified calculations
Published: 26th March 2018 | Source: PC Games Hardware |
Ubisoft details their use of FP16 compute/Rapid Packed Math in Far Cry 5
While this feature has the most impact on AMD Vega series GPUs, that doesn't mean that the function is not useful on older hardware. Radeon Vega series GPUs make use of a feature called Rapid Packed Math, which replaces a single FP32 calculation with two FP16 calculations, doubling mathematical throughout for FP16 workloads.
This acceleration of FP16 calculations is not available on older GPU architectures like Polaris, but they do require fewer resources, reducing memory bandwidth usage while freeing up space in the GPU's buffers to offer a performance benefit elsewhere.
One example of Ubisoft's use of half-precision compute is in Far Cry 5's water simulations, which use both Async Compute (on consoles) and rapid packed math to deliver realistic water without a huge performance impact. FP16 calculations are likely utilised elsewhere in Far Cry 5, where high levels of mathematical accuracy are not required, though lake/river areas with rapids and a lot of vehicle interactions are expected to see the largest performance gains. Another thing to note is that Ubisoft has used Rapid Packed Math in a DirectX 11 game, which means that this feature doesn't require a modern low-level API to exploit.
Far Cry 5 also makes use of Shader Intrinsics, a feature which can give developers to achieve deeper levels of hardware access on Radeon GPUs, allowing them to squeeze more performance out of the hardware. Right now Wolfenstein: The New Colossus uses this feature to great effect, similarly to Far Cry 5.
(Far Cry 5's lighting and water simulations make use of FP16 compute)
The use of FP16 compute in games will reduce resource utilisation while having no impact on rendered images, while also offering a 2x performance increase in GPUs where features like AMD's Rapid Packed Math are available. So far only the PS4 Pro console and Radeon Vega series GPUs have this feature.
You can join the discussion on Far Cry 5's use of FP16 calculations and Rapid Packed Math on the OC3D Forums.
Most Recent Comments
According to KitGuru, Vega64 performs quite well in FC5, Only behind a 1080 Ti by about 9FPS at 1440P and 8FPS ahead of a 1080.
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Right now both AMD and Nvidia lack optimised drivers for the game, which will no doubt release later today.Quote
Nice to see FP16 and Async being utilised too, Vega is shaping up to be a decent gaming card at MSRP at least...Quote
