AMD Cancels Implicit Primitive Shader Driver Support

[btarunr]

Primitive shaders are lightweight shaders that break the separation of vertex and geometry shaders, promising a performance gain in supporting games. Initially announced during the Radeon RX Vega launch, the feature has been delayed again and again. At one of its 2018 International CES interactions with the press, AMD reportedly announced that it had cancelled the implicit driver path for primitive shaders. Game developers will still be able to implement primitive shaders on AMD hardware, using a (yet to be released) explicit API path. The implicit driver path was the more interesting technology though, since it could have provided meaningful performance gains to existing games and help cut down a lot of developer effort for games in development. AMD didn't state the reasons behind the move.

To explain the delay, some people were speculating that the Primitive Shader feature was broken unfixable in hardware, which doesn't seem to be the case, now that we are hearing about upcoming API support for it, so this can also be interpreted as good news for Vega owners.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[RejZoR]

So, they were selling us hardware on premise of awesome new features that are now getting sacked. Come on AMD, do you even try anymore?

 

[MuhammedAbdo]

This was pretty much a given, we all knew Vega imaginary features were nothing more than empty promises, those expected Vega to get 50% more performance through imaginary drivers have nothing but wishful thinking to blame for their false hope.

 

[kruk]

Did anyone here read the actual article?

Game developers will still be able to implement primitive shaders on AMD hardware, using a (yet to be released) explicit API path.

 

[ZoneDymo]

really wonder what the reason is, maybe its just too difficult to work out like Project Larabee or so, or maybe we will still see it but on the next generation

 

[MuhammedAbdo]

Did anyone here read the actual article?

Which pretty much means nothing, AMD doesn't have any significant marketshare left for Vega cards compared to the huge Pascal/Maxwell cards marketshare. No developer is going to waste time on a feature that is not going to be used by anyone.

 

[R0H1T]

Did anyone here read the actual article?

Doesn't the upcoming FC5 advertise primitive shaders, rapid packed math among others?

 

[v12dock]

They are trying to move past the Vega blunder

 

[Divide Overflow]

AMD had a LOT of time to get Vega working right. They've had problems with tile based rasterization, Freesync and now it's revealed their primitive shaders aren't working and will need special, yet unreleased workarounds to implement.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

"broken unfixable"

Does that mean "fixable?"

 

[R0H1T]

"broken unfixable"

Does that mean "fixable?"

Except that it isn't broken so there's nothing to fix, so double negative sounds about right.

 

[bug]

Did anyone here read the actual article?

And they're going to implement it just as readily as they implemented mGPU. If this is the same for everybody, it belongs in the driver.

 

[MuhammedAbdo]

Doesn't the upcoming FC5 advertise primitive shaders, rapid packed math among others?

Only FP16.

 

[natr0n]

@btarunr "cut" should be "could" I believe


They/AMD promise much and backtrack a lot like always it seems.

 

[R0H1T]

Only FP16.

You sure about that?

 

[ZoneDymo]

Which pretty much means nothing, AMD doesn't have any significant marketshare left for Vega cards compared to the huge Pascal/Maxwell cards marketshare. No developer is going to waste time on a feature that is not going to be used by anyone.

Oddly enough, same thing as with PhysX

 

[W1zzard]

@btarunr "cut" should be "could"

Fixed, thanks

 

[Midland Dog]

nvidia and amd need to own a big share in the console space for any of these techs to make it to pc because companies seem to want to put peasants before us

 

[MuhammedAbdo]

Oddly enough, same thing as with PhysX

PhysX is used in more than 35 titles already, it's still used to this day, the upcoming Final Fantasy 15 is using it as well. Developers use PhysX because NVIDIA has such a massive marketshare that may people will actually get to enjoy the feature. NVIDIA also managed to use exclusive technologies like HFTS (which only works on Maxwell and up), or VXAO (which works only on Pascal and up) because of their influence and huge marketshare.

 

[Fluffmeister]

The two people that use Vega to game with will be devastated.

 

[Vya Domus]

people will actually get to enjoy the feature.

Sure buddy , everyone is bursting with joy whenever they see the GameWorks logo.

I mean who the hell doesn't want half the frame-rate in exchange for some shitty hair simulation and a ludicrous amount of tessellation.

NVIDIA also managed to use exclusive technologies like HFTS (which only works on Maxwell and up), or VXAO (which works only on Pascal and up) because of their influence and huge marketshare.

Oh man Nvidia is so amazing. Is that all , has the eulogy ended ? How are does shares doing ?

 

[OfficerTux]

The two people that use Vega to game with will be devastated.

Indeed, I am.

That FC5 will be using Rapid Packet Math sounds interesting though.

 

[Anymal]

So, they were selling us hardware on premise of awesome new features that are now getting sacked. Come on AMD, do you even try anymore?

OMG, you really took their glorious Powerpoint presentation seriously last year.

 

[iO]

They didnt really cancel anything. PS was always planned to be implemented per game and the implicit path was only an option. Still bad.

 

[CandymanGR]

Oh man Nvidia is so amazing. Is that all , has the eulogy ended ? How are does shares doing ?

If you are biased you can say what you've just said. You can even say about fanboys and the same old cliche "you should not support companies". Well, we DON'T.
But it is quite simple really. Nvidia usually makes better products than AMD. Thats a fact of life. Get over it.