Fulcrum29
Honorary Master
DX12 and DXR 1.2 aren't the same thing. Interestingly enough, AMD collaborated with MS to develop DXR 1.1. It was a move to align RDNA 2's architecture with DX12. Why they haven't kept up with the pace architecturally is unknown. RDNA 3 was lagging in its Shader Model development, which does make it seem like a rushed product. That said, AMD does do what it calls "workarounds", as long as it is architecturally sound.
There is more to DXR than Ray Tracing. All can be read here:
Announcing DirectX Raytracing 1.2, PIX, Neural Rendering and more at GDC 2025! - DirectX Developer Blog
Today in the DirectX State of the Union at GDC 2025, we proudly showcased the next evolution in graphics with the announcement of DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2. This update promises groundbreaking performance improvements and breathtaking visual fidelity, marking another milestone in our mission...
devblogs.microsoft.com
As much as some people like to hate on Nvidia, they are quite ahead here. They 'natively' support OMM and SER. Let's say that FineWine would in time be more applicable to the RTX-series than RDNA. I am also abusing FineWine here, since it was only ever relevant to AMD's GCN, which had a compute overhead that, in time, became more utilized by newer games.
It all depends, really; tech adoption at this time is still nowhere to be seen. It has now been some time since we saw Neural Block Texture Compression applied to Alan Wake 2. Since then, nothing. At least we know it is possible that older games could adopt these technologies.
The only point I am trying to make is that it shouldn't be worth considering a used RDNA 1 or 2 GPU, unless you are planning on playing older games. We have no idea where RDNA 3 is at. It could be that AMD is sandbagging it to advance RDNA 4 sales. RDNA 3 not having Cooperative Vectors, though, might spell its end sooner rather than later. Well, you can still buy brand-new RDNA 2 GPUs today.
