Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing Overdrive Image Quality Comparison Jarred Walton 2023-04-14 | Cyberpunk 2077 now supports an experimental "full path tracing" rendering solution that it calls RT Overdrive. Here's a comparison video showing the built-in benchmark running RT Overdrive, RT Overdrive with DLSS Performance mode and Frame Generation, RT Ultra with DLSS Performance mode and Frame Generation, and the regular Ultra (non-RT) modes.Everything is from an RTX 4090 Founders Edition on a Core i9-13900K test PC, running at 1080p.
Forza Horizon 5, Benchmark Causes Crash to Desktop — Mar 1, 2023 Jarred Walton 2023-03-01 | This is for Forza support, who wants a video of something that should be easily reproducible, since I get this exact behavior on multiple PCs after the latest update. Even more damning, I was able to successfully run the built-in benchmark by copying old Steam files from a different PC — so the game is not updated but Steam things it is. So, yes, this is a new bug and thankfully I have a workaround because it will probably be a week or more before it gets fixed.Note that I set the desktop resolution to 1080p, but apparently this still captured at 4K and left some artifacts. Just ignore those, please, as they don't exist in actual use. It's just from the video capture.
Excited Elephant at the Denver Zoo, Makes You Feel Inadequate! Jarred Walton 2023-02-11 | We showed up at the right time for some tricks and eye drops. Awesome!
Denver Zoo Harbor Seal Feeding Jarred Walton 2023-02-11 | We showed up at the right time for some tricks and eye drops. Awesome!
Exceeding 8GB VRAM on an RTX 3060 Ti Causes Memory Thrashing and Power Fluctuations Jarred Walton 2023-02-04 | ...
Testing Nvidia Broadcast Eye Contact — Its Terrifying and Hilarious, All at Once! Jarred Walton 2023-01-18 | Nvidia Broadcast recently added the much discussed Eye Contact feature, in beta, to the latest version of the software. The idea is that you can look somewhere besides directly at the camera, and AI-driven processing will correct your video feed to make it look like you're still maintaining eye contact. Mostly. This is going to be a short video with me talking, with and without Eye Contact enabled. I'll probably chat about GPUs, prices, and such but that's not the main point. And if you laugh, that's all part of the fun.Sound off in the comments. Do you like the Eye Contact effect here, or do you think it's awful? I wish I had a good way to show the pre- and post-processing video side by side, so you can get a better idea of what's actually being changed. A couple key segments if you just want to see Eye Contact in action:1:05 — I'm looking straight at the camera for a moment and then looking to the top-right, then about half-way between the top-right and the camera (which is top-center). What you'll see when I'm looking at the corner is my eyes appearing to move back and forth, which is the AI processing.7:14 — Another segment where I am staring straight forward at the center of the screen and my eyes seem to keep shifting. There's about 30 seconds where I try to stay focused on roughly the spot between my eyes (just above the nose), so all the movement is again the AI algorithm.
Feeling the RTX 4090 Power Adapter While Running Red Dead Redemption 2 Jarred Walton 2022-10-28 | After reports of melting and overheating RTX 4090 power adapters, I was curious how hot they get under basically ideal circumstances. Due to the frequency with which I swap GPUs, I leave the side off my PC case. That means there's not forced bend on the power adapter cable, though the weight of the cables does cause a slight curve. Still, this is about as little bend as you're likely to see without using a right-angle adapter.I don't have an infrared camera, but I can tell you that the metal backplate was definitely hotter than the adapter. Where things appear to go south is if there's enough of a bend that it causes the solder inside the adapter to crack, which then results in arcing and a melted connector. You're definitely better off avoiding bend on the Nvidia quadropus adapter.
Colorado Avalanche vs Seattle Kraken — Kurtis MacDermid Jamie Oleksiak Five for Fighting Jarred Walton 2022-10-22 | Even watching this replay, I'm not quite sure what set things off. I was there watching and suddenly we're like, "Holy cow, they've dropped gloves and are ready for a fight!" Then I yelled, "Blood on the ice!" LOLI also detect a bit of a smile on MacDermid right near the start, making me think the whole thing might have been pre-planned. Shades of WWF and such! Except about five seconds into the fight, things get real.MacDermid got the better of Oleksiak in this one I think it's safe to say, but the Kraken won the game. Boo!
Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC: FurMark 1440p Stress Test with 24.5Gbps memory overclock Jarred Walton 2022-10-13 | I'm finishing up testing on the Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC card, and I just have to do a quick share of this. I've seen at least one other teardown where the card clearly had Micron GDDR6X memory labeled as 21Gbps, and that’s what this card has as well… but I'm pretty much positive the card I got has 24Gbps memory. It ran my entire game suite at 25Gbps, and only FurMark required me to drop the memory a bit. I went with 24.5Gbps for this video.Peak power with this overclock, with a 120% power limit and running over 2.9GHz on the GPU and 24.5Gbps on the memory, was 582W. Average power was more like 570W. It was more than a little nerve wracking to see such power draw, though the card remained cool (GPU at 60C), thanks to the high fan speed of around 82%.I'm sharing this just for fun, not as something I would necessarily recommend, and I'm still not sure if there's a lottery on the memory type or if Asus or s binning the GDDR6X for these Strix cards, or if it’s something else. I do know that the memory chips are labeled D8BZC (21Gbps and 16Gb capacity), but the overclocking and temperature characteristics seem far more in line with D8BZF chips (24Gbps and 16Gb capacity).Is Micron labeling some 24Gbps chips as D8BZC because it has an excess of D8BZF? I couldn’t say for certain, but that certainly seems to be the case with this particular card that I received for review. YMMV!
Intel Arc A380 encoded 6Mbps H.265/HEVC sample (Borderlands 3) Jarred Walton 2022-08-24 | This is a sample video file encoded using the HEVC/H.265 codec with an Intel Arc A380 graphics card. This is also a test to see if YouTube will then stream HEVC back to the end users, or if the video will get converted to some other codec by YouTube.AVC/H.264 Version: youtu.be/XCB-SCYtuT8AV1 Version: youtu.be/lpBaPAz9Csk
Intel Arc A380 encoded 6Mbps AV1 sample (Borderlands 3) Jarred Walton 2022-08-24 | This is a sample video file encoded using the AV1 codec with an Intel Arc A380 graphics card. This is also a test to see if YouTube will then stream AV1 back to the end users, or if the video will get converted to some other codec by YouTube.AVC/H.264 Version: youtu.be/XCB-SCYtuT8HEVC/H.265 Version: youtu.be/6yl9AX6UaUk
Intel Arc A380 encoded 6Mbps H.264 sample (Borderlands 3) Jarred Walton 2022-08-24 | This is a sample video file encoded using the H.264 codec with an Intel Arc A380 graphics card. This video should be compared with the H.265 (HEVC) and AV1 videos that show the same content.HEVC/H.265 Version: youtu.be/6yl9AX6UaUkAV1 Version: youtu.be/lpBaPAz9Csk
Marvels Spider Man Remastered GTX 650 Ti Boost Rendering Errors Jarred Walton 2022-08-11 | Sony suggests at least a GeForce GTX 950 is required to run Spider-Man Remastered. I gave it a shot with a GTX 650 Ti Boost, at 1280x720 and minimum settings. It almost worked but was sluggish and had rendering errors. The flashing lights from the police vehicles were particularly problematic.
Corbin at Beehive Buttress Rock Climbing Jarred Walton 2022-07-23 | Corbin’s first time rock climbing in a harness. He didn’t like the feeling of going down backward but eventually got the hang of it. 12 years old young men’s camp out, July 2022.
Nvidia Broadcast Choppiness Test and Fix Jarred Walton 2022-06-19 | I love Nvidia Broadcast, in particular the noise removal. Except, lately I've noticed it adds a lot of choppiness to my audio streams for Tom's Hardware. That's a problem, almost a deal breaker, but I think I've found a fix. Or at least most of a fix! I'll demonstrate the various options, live, in this video and we'll see how it goes.Note that I also set my recording quality to 44100 Hz (down from 48000 Hz) and disabled the exclusive microphone access in Windows' sound manager. That may have also helped with the choppiness and glitches from before. We'll find out next week in the TH Show stream!
GeForce RTX 3050 Review Jarred Walton 2022-01-29 | Check out the full review on Tom's Hardware:tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3050-review-evga-xc-blackI've tested the EVGA GeForce RTX 3050 XC Black (using reference clocks) and the Zotac GeForce RTX 3050 Twin Edge OC (1807MHz boost clock) in a collection of games, focusing on 1080p medium and ultra performance, including ray tracing testing. Performance comparisons provided with the AMD RX 6600, RX 6500 XT, RX 5600 XT, RX 5500 XT 8GB/4GB, RX 570 4GB; from the Nvidia side, I've tested the RTX 3060, RTX 2060, GTX 1660 Super, GTX 1650 Super, GTX 1650, and GTX 1060 6GB.0:00 - Introduction and overview6:06 - 1080p medium testing11:39 - 1080p ultra testing16:09 - 1080p medium ray tracing testing
God of War Native DLSS and FSR Modes full sequence Jarred Walton 2022-01-15 | This is a video of the nine full test sequences from the previous video: youtu.be/SVfxlkWGhFMThere's no commentary, and the video is being uploaded in 4K but will take a while for YouTube to process, so if you're only seeing 360p come back later!00:00 - Native 4K00:45 - DLSS Quality01:27 - DLSS Balanced02:10 - DLSS Performance02:54 - DLSS Ultra Performance03:42 - FSR Ultra Quality04:28 - FSR Quality05:15 - FSR Balanced06:03 - FSR Performance
God of War DLSS and FSR Comparison Jarred Walton 2022-01-12 | Image quality comparison of God of War PC version running at 4K target resolution, on a GeForce RTX 3090 and Core i9-9900K. These comparisons are done using Nvidia's ICAT utility, and the content was captured via ShadowPlay.Full sequences viewable here:youtu.be/q6oKcVD3DHA
New TH Alder Lake GPU Testbed Jarred Walton 2022-01-11 | New Tom’s Hardware graphics card testbed for 2022! Thanks to all our partners who provided parts. Full specs for the initial boot:Intel Core i9-12900KMSI Pro Z690-A WiFi DDR4HyperX 2x16GB DDR4-3600Crucial P5 Plus 2TB M.2Corsair iCue Capellix Elite H150iCooler Master HAF500Cooler Master MWE Gold 1250 V2Now all I need to do is run about 50 GPUs through the new test suite!
Necromunda Hired Gun ICAT split screen Jarred Walton 2021-11-16 | Image quality comparison between DLSS and FSR best quality modes using Nvidia's new ICAT utility. This shows the split-screen mode, where you can slide back and forth between two videos and see the difference in quality. Note that there is no commentary provided, and this is more to show the utility than to provide a definitive statement on which upscaling algorithm is "best." DLSS and FSR have slightly different use cases and image quality.
Necromunda Hired Gun ICAT side by side Jarred Walton 2021-11-16 | Image quality comparison between native, FSR, and DLSS modes using Nvidia's new ICAT utility. Note that there is no commentary provided, and this is more to show the utility than to provide a definitive statement on which upscaling algorithm is "best." DLSS and FSR have slightly different use cases and image quality.
Back 4 Blood ICAT side by side Jarred Walton 2021-11-16 | Image quality comparison between native, FSR, and DLSS modes using Nvidia's new ICAT utility. Note that there is no commentary provided, and this is more to show the utility than to provide a definitive statement on which upscaling algorithm is "best." DLSS and FSR have slightly different use cases and image quality.
Forza Horizon 5 Ray Tracing On/Off Comparison Jarred Walton 2021-11-09 | Forza Horizon 5 only supports ray traced reflections in the ForzaVista garage right now. How much of a different do they make? Here's a video, running on RTX 3090, showing extreme settings with and without ray tracing.
Forza Horizon 5 Preset Image Quality Comparisons and Performance Jarred Walton 2021-11-06 | I've benchmarked Forza Horizon 5 on multiple GPUs, and you can see the full benchmarks at: tomshardware.com/features/forza-horizon-5-pc-performance-benchmarks-testedHere's a video showing the image quality of the six different presets, all running on an RTX 3090 and Core i9-9900K, along with commentary on the various graphics effects, technology, and performance. Enjoy!Samples of reflections (watch the Apex sign reflection in the rear window of the car):0:10 - Extreme1:47 - Ultra3:26 - High5:06 - Medium6:47 - Low8:27 - Very Low
Red Dead Redemption 2 Settings Jarred Walton 2021-10-09 | Red Dead Redemption 2 has far too many graphics settings to tweak, and the "preset" option sucks because it chooses settings based on your GPU's VRAM rather than on static presets. Also, the benchmark takes five minutes to run, when only the last of the five test sequences represents actual gameplay in a meaningful fashion. Basically, Rockstar sucks at making a convenient and user-friendly benchmark.
Assassins Creed Valhalla on Intel Xe DG1 Jarred Walton 2021-07-22 | This is running at 720p Low, as you can see at the start. Performance isn't great, but the bigger issue is the rendering errors where the whole screen goes blocky and fades to white quite frequently. Trying 1080p Medium just caused the game to crash.
Horizon Zero Dawn Xe DG1 running in a window Jarred Walton 2021-07-22 | This works, though I think performance takes a significant hit. There's no way to tell, however, since fullscreen mode is currently broken.Fullscreen mode shown here: youtu.be/pQS_DrbcTfY
Horizon Zero Dawn Xe DG1 Fullscreen Broken Jarred Walton 2021-07-22 | The Intel Xe DG1 with current drivers (9684) as well as previous driver (9667 and 9666) doesn't render the game properly in fullscreen mode or borderless window mode — only windowed mode works, but that likely hurts performance.Windowed mode shown here: youtu.be/JtwAZEEsL5Q
My dog is awesome! Jarred Walton 2021-02-01 | Scout is the smartest and best dog I’ve ever owned. He even learned how to play dead (mostly) and roll over. Sometimes he tries to combine the two, all in pursuit of treats.
Hitman 3 Reflections Demonstration Jarred Walton 2021-01-22 | Hitman 3 uses screen space reflections (SSR) like many other games, but it also has special cases where it appears to do a full projection from a surface to create a proper reflection. It's mostly in areas where not a ton of other stuff would be happening, like outside a skyscraper or in a bathroom, but it's still nice to get something more than pure SSR in a game that doesn't (currently) use ray tracing.
Hitman 3 Benchmark on RTX 3080 and Core i9-9900K: Dartmoor vs Dubai Jarred Walton 2021-01-20 | Hitman 3 is out, and it has two built-in benchmarks. I've tested both of them on an RTX 3080, at 4K and maxed out settings (except for supersampling), and VRS is set to Quality mode. The two benchmarks are quite different, with the Dartmoor being more a demonstration of the engine's destruction physics while the Dubai is a decidedly more sedate look at performance.The Dartmoor test is almost entirely devoid of NPCs. There are two brief appearances of an NPC during the 90 second test, but the focus is clearly on physics. Dartmoor also tends to have extreme stuttering during the first 10 seconds as the engine warms up, which makes it less useful as a repeatable test in my opinion.The Dubai scene isn't perfect either. It has plenty of scenes with crowds, but also some exterior views that have more in common with a cutscene than actually playing the game. Still, there are times when Hitman 3 will be relatively quiet and empty, running at higher fps, which is why I'm using Dubai for benchmarking -- this is a stealth game, not Call of Duty.As with any scripted benchmark, it's only fully representative of the sequence being tested. Other areas of the game may run better or worse. The benefits of a scripted test (repeatability and eliminating the need to manually do every test) outweigh the cons, in my view.Full article: tomshardware.com/news/hitman-3-benchmarks-and-performance
Cyberpunk 2077 Benchmark Directions - Toms Hardware Jarred Walton 2020-12-21 | Here's the path we use for Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarking. It's based off my save game, so if you start at the same place you might not see the same people. Still, begin at 11:21 am and the results should be comparable. We test each component at least twice on each setting (after one warmup run), and use the higher of the two results.tomshardware.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-pc-benchmarks-settings-performance-analysis
Dude Perfect Cereal Rebuttal Jarred Walton 2020-10-07 | My son was *very* unhappy about Ty giving the pumpkin and flax granola the boot in Overtime 18. Shame on you, TT! 😀
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio Teardown Jarred Walton 2020-10-01 | We take a quick look at the PCB and other components hiding under the heatsink and backplate on the MSI RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio. This is a large custom GPU, with ample cooling and triple 8-pin power connectors
Asus RTX 3090 TUF Gaming OC Unwrapped Jarred Walton 2020-09-24 | My friendly neighborhood Dallin stopped by, so I let him help me unwrap the new Asus RTX GeForce 3090 TUF Gaming OC graphics card. Full review coming next week or two, after I finish some other reviews. I give it eight Dallins!
Fortnite RX 6000 Flyby Jarred Walton 2020-09-14 | AMD's RX 6000, aka Big Navi, is coming soon. The first reveal of the graphics card is a new Fortnite Creative map that can be accessed via code 8651-9841-1639.
Flight Simulator G-Sync Test Jarred Walton 2020-08-25 | This is just a quick video showing Flight Simulator running on a G-Sync display. Someone else reported issues with getting it to work, so I set about trying to confirm that. G-Sync seems to be working for me, but this definitely isn't the best display for verifying the numerical refresh rate. Watch the red bar in the bottom left, though. It changes more or less in concert with the frame rate (upper right). Note that I had to enable windowed G-Sync or I’d just get a static 60Hz, apparently with triple buffering.
Horizon Dawn Zero Intel Graphics Fail Jarred Walton 2020-08-17 | This is running the latest Intel 27.20.100.8581 drivers on August 17, 2020, with version 1.01 (first patch) of Horizon Dawn Zero. The shader optimization pass always fails at around 73%, so right now it’s impossible to even try and run the game on Intel Graphics. I’ve had this error on both UHD Graphics 630 (i7-9700K) and Iris Plus Graphics (i7-1065G7).
Horizon Zero Dawn doesn’t like 4GB GPUs Jarred Walton 2020-08-10 | Horizon Zero Dawn doesn’t like 4GB GPUs very much. It was worse on AMD than Nvidia in limited testing, but stick with medium to high settings on 4GB GPUs, and probably wait for a patch if you have a 2GB GPU.You'll also need a DirectX 12 compatible GPU, which eliminates the AMD Radeon HD 6000 series and earlier and Nvidia GTX 500 series and earlier. Not that I'd really recommend trying anything older than a GTX 900-series or R7 200 series GPU. YMMV.
Death Stranding Benchmark Jarred Walton 2020-07-14 | Here's the 60 second path I use for benchmarking Death Stranding PC. It starts at the first distribution center (west of Capitol Knot City). Frametimes captured via OCAT.
Battlefield V on Ice Lake Core i7-1065G7 Iris Plus Graphics using Razer Blade Stealth 13 Jarred Walton 2020-06-24 | Intel (Ryzen Shrout who now works at Intel) recently posted a video showing Battlefield V running at 1080p with high settings on a Tiger Lake laptop using the integrated Xe Graphics. See: twitter.com/ryanshrout/status/1273352056208850944I have recreated the test setup, only this time using the current fastest Intel integrated graphics: Iris Plus on a Core i7-1065G7. I'm using a Razer Blade Stealth 13 as well, which has a configurable TDP that allows the user to switch the CPU between 15W TDP and 25W TDP.This video shows the resulting performance, which gives us a reasonable indication of how much faster Tiger Lake will be. There are still some disclaimers, as we don't know the full specs of the Tiger Lake laptop—and specifically, we don't know the TDP it was using. Regardless, Tiger Lake and Xe Graphics look like they will provide a substantial boost to Intel's GPU portfolio.
The Witcher 3 Novigrad benchmark on Core i9-9900K, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at ultra quality with HBAO+ Jarred Walton 2020-06-16 | This is a benchmark run in the city if Novigrad, with all of the settings maxed out (ultra quality and HBAO+) running at 1440p. The benchmark is running on a Core i9-9900K with GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory, all off NVMe SSD storage. Performance for this test was 117 fps. This video is to show the path run for the benchmark, so others can compare performance using a standardized testing run.
Minecraft RTX benchmark on Core i9-9900K and GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, at 1440p and maximum settings Jarred Walton 2020-06-16 | This is a short benchmark on the Imagination Island RTX map, with all of the settings maxed out (24 chunks ray tracing render distance), running at 1440p with DLSS 2.0 enabled. The benchmark is running on a Core i9-9900K with GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory, all off NVMe SSD storage. Performance for this test was 71 fps. This video is to show the path run for the benchmark, so others can compare performance using a standardized testing run.
Doom Eternal benchmark on Core i9-9900K and RTX 2080 Ti at 1440p Ultra Nightmare settings Jarred Walton 2020-06-16 | This is a benchmark run taken from the first level of the game, using the Ultra Nightmare settings running at 1440p. The benchmark is running on a Core i9-9900K with GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory, all off NVMe SSD storage. Performance for this test was 207 fps. This video is to show the path run for the benchmark, so others can compare performance using a standardized testing run.
Dishonored 2 benchmark Jarred Walton 2020-06-16 | This is a short benchmark run at the docks in the Karnaca level, with all of the settings maxed out running at 1440p. The benchmark is running on a Core i9-9900K with GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory, all off NVMe SSD storage. Performance for this test was 143 fps. This video is to show the path run for the benchmark, so others can compare performance using a standardized testing run.
Control benchmark on Core i9-9900K with GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at 1440p with maxed out settings and DXR Jarred Walton 2020-06-16 | This is a short benchmark run at the beginning of the game, with all of the settings maxed out running at 1440p. This includes DXR (DirectX Raytracing) and DLSS 2.0. The benchmark is running on a Core i9-9900K with GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory, all off NVMe SSD storage. Performance for this test was 89 fps. This video is to show the path run for the benchmark, so others can compare performance using a standardized testing run.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019 benchmark - Core i9-9900K with RTX 2080 Ti at 1440p max with DXR Jarred Walton 2020-06-16 | This is a benchmark run on the first Call of Duty singleplayer mission, used to standardize performance comparisons. This particular test is run on a Core i9-9900K with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, at 1440p with maxed out settings, including DirectX Raytracing (DXR) for shadows. Average framerates for this test were 96 fps. This video is to show the path run for the benchmark, so others can compare performance using a standardized testing run.
Battlefield V Tirailleur benchmark - 9900K + RTX 2080 Ti 1440p Ultra with ray tracing Jarred Walton 2020-06-16 | This is a sample benchmark of Battlefield V, using the singleplayer Tirailleur mission, about half-way through. Performance in this benchmark on the test system was 90 fps. This is to show the method of the benchmark, so others can potentially compare their results using the same test sequence.
Gigabyte AX370-Gaming 5 BIOS fix Jarred Walton 2020-06-14 | After flashing to BIOS F31 from F3 I was stuck with a board that refused to POST. It would lock right at the end of the POST sequence. I tried multiple RAM kits and CPUs, and none worked. But then I pulled out the NVMe SSD and managed to get back in to Q-Flash. The screen is partially garbled but the flashing process worked. After it finished and the PC restarted, the screen was okay.I also booted off a single DDR4-2667 4GB stick, in slot 4. I don’t know if that mattered. I was able to boot off the backup BIOS and updated that as well. Hopefully this helps some others.
Minecraft RTX world download Jarred Walton 2020-04-17 | Here's how you get the Minecraft RTX enabled worlds. This was done with a GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, but note that the worlds will still not let you use ray tracing.If you don't have the Windows 10 Store Bedrock edition of Minecraft, you cannot download these new maps. The Java edition of Minecraft also doesn't support ray tracing (at least not via RTX). Sorry.
