It seems AMD hasn't jumped yet at the idea of dedicated cores for auxiliary functions like Nvidia has. So I doubt we can expect anything beyond some post processing half accelerated by hardware. It's why AMD's RT performance is so bad right now, because it takes away cores from rasters.

That's why I'm also kinda pissed that AMD is harping so much on that power efficiency, which of course is much better if you don't waste space and power on RT and Tensor cores. I would like to see some power efficiency graphs with DLSS and RT turned on.

DLSS 1.0 wasn't that bad. If AMD can whip up something on their first try as performant as DLSS 1.0 I'd be impressed.

Erm... what?

If you set the resolution by hand to match the framerate you got with DLSS 1.0, you got the same framerate with a better, clearer picture. In other words, DLSS made it worse than you could do by yourself. Why do you think everybody ridiculed DLSS at release?

I don't think it can go against DLSS perfomanace wise, I don't think there's dedicated hardware inside RX6000, as opposed to nVidia's offerings.

Might've been selective memory on my part. Had a look back at old benchmarks and what I remembered was mostly the not insignificant performance increase at the same or maybe slightly worse sharpness. I don't think it's entirely true that DLSS made things worse than native at the same performance. DLSS1.0 might not have looked as great, but the performance gain was undeniable.

Which brings me back to AMD. What kind of technology will they employ to increase performance at the same sharpness?

The Thursday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG is adding four classic games from Throwback Entertainment to its catalog, and they'll be up to 50% during the next 7 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/throwback_thursday

Steam has two new daily deals:

• The first daily deal is Star Renegades, 15% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/651670/Star_Renegades/
• And the second one is Football, Tactics & Glory, that has a demo and is 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/375530/Football_Tactics__Glory/

Fanatical has two new deals:

• Warner Bros has put its games up to 81% off for the next 5 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/warner-bros.-games-inc.
• And the new Build Your Own Lockdown Bundle 5 features 22 games to choose for your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-lockdown-bundle-5

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.11.2 driver adds support for the RX 6800 series GPUs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/amd-radeon-software-adrenalin-20-11-2-driver-adds-support-for-the-rx-6800-series-gpus/
AMD has released a new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.11.2 driver adds official support for the RX 6800 series GPUs.
Furthermore, this driver fixes some corruption issues on some surfaces in Far Cry Primal on Radeon RX 5000 series GPUs. Additionally, it improves performance in Xuan-Yuan Sword VII for the Radeon RX 5700 series GPUs.
>> Available from here.

Steam improves support for the PS5 DualSense controller
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-improves-support-for-the-ps5-dualsense-controller/
The latest update to the Steam Client Beta, Valve's public test branch, adds additional support for the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller. The controller did already work with the Steam API, but without support for its bespoke features: here's how to get the DualSense set up on your PC.
Valve's update notes read: "Added additional support for the PS5 DualSense controller including LED, trackpad, rumble, and gyro functionality" and "Added a directional swipe mode for use with trackpads and gyro." That's more or less every DualSense feature bar the adaptive triggers.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Turn the world autumn with this fall colors mod for Microsoft Flight Simulator
https://www.pcgamer.com/turn-the-world-autumn-with-this-fall-colors-mod-for-microsoft-flight-simulator/
In Earth's northern hemisphere (leading globe scientists call it the planet's 'top part') we are now fully enmeshed in autumn. It's getting colder, it's getting darker, and we're barreling headlong into the festive twin nightmares of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
But there's one nice thing about the fall season—the leaves begin to turn lovely shades of yellow, orange, and red. Before those beautiful leaves all fall to the ground and the air fills with the sound of gas-powered leaf-blowers 24 hours a day, you can briefly enjoy the majesty of autumn.
That's now true of Microsoft Flight Simulator, too. The Fall Season for Microsoft Flight Simulator mod takes the trees of the simulated planet earth and paints them with beautiful amber hues and glorious crimson... um, hues. Look, I'm not a poet.
Sure, it's not accurate for the southern hemisphere (the planet's 'under part') and doesn't make sense for forests of pines and other trees whose leaves don't turn, but the bright splashes of color as you soar over the landscape still provide a cozy and immersive autumn feel. You can almost sense the crisp, cool autumn air as you tailstrike on takeoff, get nagged with "STALL, STALL, STALL" 40 times, and then fly wobbly toward your destination.

GAMING NEWS

Godfall supports Ray Tracing only on AMD GPUs, NVIDIA support coming in the future
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/godfall-supports-ray-tracing-only-on-amd-gpus-nvidia-support-coming-in-the-future/
Counterplay Games has just announced that a new PC patch is available for Godfall that adds support for Ray Tracing effects. However, and contrary to what Codemasters did with Dirt 5, Godfall will only support Ray Tracing on AMD GPUs right now. Counterplay will add support for NVIDIA GPUs in a future update.
>> Bad move.

Teaser trailer released for an unannounced Total War game [UPDATE]
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/teaser-trailer-released-for-an-unannounced-total-war-game/
SEGA and Creative Assembly have released a teaser trailer from an unannounced Total War game. This teaser shows an in-game environment, so we can assume that these are the graphics that PC gamers can expect from it.
UPDATE: Apparently, this is a teaser trailer for a new DLC for Total War: Warhammer 2. So yeah, that kind of sucks.

Microsoft Store hints at Far Cry 6 releasing on May 25th, 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/microsoft-store-hints-at-far-cry-6-releasing-on-may-25th/
It appears that Microsoft Store has leaked the release date for Far Cry 6. According to the store, this new Far Cry game will release on May 25th, 2021.

The Riftbreaker now supports Ray Tracing Shadows, Ray Tracing Ambient Occlusion & Variable Rate Shading
https://www.dsogaming.com/editorial/the-riftbreaker-now-supports-ray-tracing-shadows-ray-tracing-ambient-occlusion-variable-rate-shading/
EXOR Studios has released a new update for The Riftbreaker that adds support for DirectX 12 Ultimate. As the press release reads, the Alpha 4 preview update introduces a number of the latest rendering techniques and a benchmark mode to test if your PC is ready for raytracing.

Capcom may be working on Dragon’s Dogma 2, a new Onimusha game and Street Fighter 6
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/capcom-may-be-working-on-dragons-dogma-2-a-new-onimusha-game-and-street-fighter-6/
Earlier this month, we informed you about some Capcom games that could be under development. And today, some new details about a number of unannounced games have surfaced online. The following release schedule comes from the massive Capcom leak that occurred in October 2020.
>> I'm all in for a new Onimusha... but I don't know if I trust Capcom enough to make a proper new game.

Thursday news, part two:

Phasmophobia's upcoming prison level looks phantastic
https://www.pcgamer.com/phasmophobias-upcoming-prison-level-looks-phantastic/
Excellent spook-em-up Phasmophobia is shortly due to receive a new prison level, and developer Kinetic Games has showed off the first screens. These are quite dark, but I'll post a link to some enhanced versions afterwards.

The managing director of Ubisoft's Skull & Bones studio has been ousted
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-managing-director-of-ubisofts-skull-and-bones-studio-has-been-ousted/
Ubisoft has removed the managing director of its Skull & Bones studio in Singapore, Hugues Ricour, following a leadership audit performed over the last few weeks.

PUBG adds dirt bikes, the ability to shoot while driving, and the 'battle bride pass'
https://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-adds-dirt-bikes-the-ability-to-shoot-while-driving-and-the-battle-bride-pass/
PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds' latest patch has arrived, bringing with it a new vehicle, the long-requested ability for players to shoot while driving, and something called the Bride Battle Pass.

B-Wings, TIE Defenders and custom games are coming to Star Wars: Squadrons
https://www.pcgamer.com/b-wings-tie-defenders-and-custom-games-are-coming-to-star-wars-squadrons/
I'll be honest EA Motive, you had me worried for a moment. But after suggesting that Star Wars: Squadrons would be getting no new content post-launch, the developer today announced two massive content drops for the stellar dogfighter over the coming month.

Hades and The Last of Us Part 2 head up The Game Awards 2020 nominees
https://www.pcgamer.com/hades-and-the-last-of-us-part-2-head-up-the-game-awards-2020-nominees/
The Game Awards, the Geoff Keighley-led annual event in which game fans around the world come together to watch teasers and trailers for new games (and see a few trophies handed out), is set to kick off on December 10. Today we found out who's in the running, as the full slate of nominees has now been revealed. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, Hades, and The Last of Us Part 2 are all vying for game of the year, while Sony Interactive Entertainment leads the way as most-nominated publisher.

Our national nightmare is over: Call of Duty's MP5 has been nerfed
https://www.pcgamer.com/our-national-nightmare-is-over-call-of-dutys-mp5-has-been-nerfed/
That was quick. Less than a week after release, Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War developer Treyarch has nerfed the MP5. The approach the studio has taken is two-pronged: opening recoil and effective damage range have been adjusted.

Among Us is getting a new map, and here's what it looks like
https://www.pcgamer.com/among-us-is-getting-a-new-map-and-heres-what-it-looks-like/
Among Us is getting a new map soon, and above is our first glimpse of it. Aside from being unmistakably a screenshot from Among Us, there's very little to go on aside from the obvious—it appears to be set on a spaceship, and one of the characters is wearing a stylish monocle. Seriously, it looks great.

WoW designer quits after 13 years, says he's 'unhappy with the state of the game'
https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-designer-quits-after-13-years-says-hes-unhappy-with-the-state-of-the-game/
Game designer Chris Kaleiki was an employee of Blizzard for 13 years, and in that time worked on World of Warcraft PvP, class design (in particular the monk), and its Ashran zone, among others. He's been there so long he's got two characters and an item named after him. But this year Kaleiki left Blizzard, and in a 15-minute video posted to YouTube he explains why.

Even House Flipper has gone cyberpunk now
https://www.pcgamer.com/even-house-flipper-has-gone-cyberpunk-now/
The inescapable theme of 2020 has been cyberpunk, and now it's here to extend the relevance of House Flipper, the sim about cleaning and renovating filthy houses to sell them for profit that went viral back in May.

Anno 1800 announces Season 3 pass with beautiful teaser
https://www.pcgamer.com/anno-1800-announces-season-3-pass-with-beautiful-teaser/
Just four months ago, Ubisoft seemingly had no plans to release a third season pass for Anno 1800, at least according to comments made by brand manager Marcel Hatam at the time. But with the success of Season 2, the turns have tabled, and Season 3 has become a reality. The teaser trailer, which you can catch above, is completely devoid of info save for a 2021 release window, but it sure is pretty.

Left 4 Dead 2 adds achievement to celebrate Gaben blasting Gnome Chompski into space
https://www.pcgamer.com/left-4-dead-2-adds-achievement-to-celebrate-gaben-blasting-gnome-chompski-into-space/
As we reported earlier this month, Gabe Newell is going to launch a garden gnome into space for charity. (...)
Left 4 Dead 2 has now received an appropriately small update that adds an "Honorary achievement for Gnome Chompski's upcoming journey into space on Rocket Lab's "Return To Sender" mission." Chompski appears several times in Left 4 Dead 2, both in-the-clay so to speak and on posters, and again there's an achievement ('Guardin' Gnome') involving carrying it an unfeasibly long way to a rescue chopper.

Io Interactive is making a James Bond game
https://www.pcgamer.com/io-interactive-is-making-a-james-bond-game/
Io Interactive has announced it's working on an untitled James Bond game, Project 007. The teaser video shows no information about the game, merely a version of the classic gun chamber opening sequence from Bond movies.

Grimes - sorry, Lizzy Wizzy - headlines Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack released as two albums
https://www.pcgamer.com/grimes-sorry-lizzy-wizzy-headlines-cyberpunk-2077-soundtrack-released-as-two-albums/
After unveiling No Save Point by Run The Jewels last week, CD Projekt Red has now announced the track listing for Cyberpunk 2077's entire soundtrack, which is split up into two volumes. Synth-pop artist Grimes is probably the most well-known musician to add a track to the game—her albums such as Halfaxa or the most recent Anthropocene already capture the cyberpunk atmosphere pretty well with their dark electronica.

New Cyberpunk trailer

Also as for the whole DLSS on AMD. The thing to remember is that Tensor cores are just very specialized cores that accelerate INT-4 and INT8 operations and that sort of a function is also available on RDNA 2 but as with RT implementation on RDNA 2, it's just slower than even Turing but it is still doable.

DF did sort of go over the whole thing back in July with the Series X.

The main benefit of Tensor Cores is this:

What that means is, you take the frame rate the game is running at a given resolution, increase the frame time and you can get the performance penalty. Obviously with more Tensor Cores and ML accelerators, the Render Time becomes less and less.

So as an example.

If a game is playing at 30fps which is 33 ms. With DLSS render time hit, a 2060 would run the game at 28fps vs 26fps on the Series X. Now obviously the Series X is faster in Raster but the Tensor Core performance of a 2080 which is it's main raster competitor is leagues faster. And because of that, same resolution with the same settings and lets say using DLSS/DirectML on both systems, Nvidia will still be faster by a noticeable margin because of the Tensor Cores. But you don't need Tensor Cores to do something like DLSS as the performance advantage of the lower resolution outweighs the performance penalty.

Personally I think by the time AMD has a comparable DLSS competitor, it's going to be 2022 or later. RDNA 2 does one thing and one thing really well and that's Raster performance below 4k. I wouldn't get RDNA 2 for anything else.

This potentially seems like a great fit.