Telegrams for September 2020 Loose Ends

In addition to this channel being fun, I've learned a lot as well. I never really thought much about energy consumption before but I can see why it matters now. I think of the electricity cost to run a 3080 and 10900K in terms of "steam games per year". It's meaningful, and also, the noise of heavy cooling is a big turnoff for me. If the benefit of an extra 200W consumed (with intel/nvidia) is only 5-10% FPS, its not worth it. It looks like beginning this November you won't even get the +10%. I was thinking about building a 4k120hz system with the new Eve IPS monitor with DLSS/RTX/Gsync but now I'm not so sure I want Ampere. Minecraft RTX is pretty cool but if I can do 4k/120hz high for less money and noise I'm leaning that way. That's my thoughts. My question is if you think I should wait for a better type of panel than IPS LCD?

Matthew Lane

With all the major releases this year(PS5, Xbox Series, Quest 2, RDNA2, Ampere, and Zen 3), in the midst of overall production and logistical shortfalls, do you think the majority people will actually have an opportunity to procure the products before the holidays? This seems like a perfect storm for the most hard hit scalper holidays in tech history.

Vipast

With current gen GPU, consoles (more or less) built with RT ability, how long does it take for game studios to make rt the new norm of AAA titles? Or will it ever get there?

Type2501

How soon do you think RTX IO will actually be functional and/or make a difference in game performance, and will AMD have anything to compete? Alternatively, will windows direct storage coming sometime “soon” mean that you don’t need specialized hardware to get that functionality?

Erik-Anders Nielsen

What do you think the overclocking capabilities of RDNA2 will look like? Id love to be able to push the power up to ampere levels of inefficiency but... with zen2 being pushed so close to the limit out of the box I'm skeptical RNDA2 will have much headroom either, at least in terms of actual performance gains. Or is it incorrect to assume that just because they are on the same node they will have comparable yields and binning (respective of die size). Also just wanna say that you do some incredible work, keep it up!

I remember seeing timing benchmarks with the current consoles using external usb 3.0 ssd and nvme drives. the latest xbox series x information seems to only be slightly faster in some cases. is that due to lack of optimization? i was expecting sub-10 second load times for next gen.

So much is happening on the PC HW side right now, will there be a huge leap in performance for Laptops in its wake, and not just gaming laptops, but "CPU-only" work machines like the Lenovo ultrabooks (and the likes), is it possible we will see more AMD-powered-laptops and when do you see theese new generation Intel/AMD-laptops coming out?

GriffDeLaGriff

Do you think the reason NVIDIA gave for the delay in the 3070 launch is legitimate or are they trying to pull something else buy delaying to take sales from AMD?

Will next years $1000 ryzen laptops, use pcie 4.1M.2 ssds?

Michael Costa

they quote this in their TU102 whitepaper.

TSPCFS

Now that AMD has gotten there memory Bandwidth in line with NVIDIA and can compete and cards that cost less, what kind of things would an NVIDIA representative tell perspective stock holders in order to downplay another lost advantage?

Michael Costa

What do you think of the fact that no one in wider or more technical tech press looked at the TU102 whitepaper which would cause one to expect at minimum the 3080/3090 to perform as if they only had about 3/4th of their rated TFLOPs for their average gaming at best? (Nvidia quotes 26% for non-raytracing and 35% for raytracing as the percentage of INT instructions that make up the INT+FP instructions for rasterized/raytraced shaders.)

TSPCFS

For this holiday season, what games are you excited for. Name top 3 for each console that you are going to buy if you can

DeusNightFire

Q: How long does it take to port an architecture from one node to another? Some seem to imply going from Samsung to TSMC or from 10nm to 7nm is a walk in the park, while others seem to imply it takes lots of effort. If making a mistake with a node selection, what is the cost with adjusting that? Sounds like it clearly isn't as easy as changing mobile phone carriers. Like the Nvidia leaks, it sounds like they tried to used TSMC and another, but choose Samsung, so those that mean they have it already ported to those nodes?

Both Zen 3 and RDNA 2 have potential to make big gains in each division. Which division do you think makes the bigger gain this generation?

cajuncanuck

Do you have any knowledge on launch models for Zen3 and expected availability? High demand SKUs enough units to avoid selling out?

Asshole

Given Nvidia's shady benchmarking tactics when raster and tessellation were new features, do you see Nvidia pairing DLSS to RT for their RT benchmarks to throw shade at AMD?

The Immortal Cameraman

Tom, since you basically have your perfect pc Build, in all its 16x glory , what exactly about Big NAVI and the new mother boards, and CPUs is really a useful reason to splurge compared to the best of 2019? From here, it looks like just a ramp increase in ram speed, and 4tb m.2s just showed up. Nice to haves but nothing that overshadows a year ago.

Michael Costa

Hey guys! I’m looking forward to buying some sort of GPU, from either Nvidia or AMD, that’s somewhere in the neighbourhood of a 1080ti. I’m guessing that will be the 3060/3600XT. When will these kinds of mid-range cards be launching? I’m thinking Q1 2021, but I believe it’s possible that they release by the end of this year. Which scenario do you think is most likely? Also, thanks for all the awesome technology content you’ve been posting for the last two years. I really love it and hope you keep up the great work! :D

Jake_ Dude_23

Q: Am I wrong to think that Nvidia and TechTubers are wrong to call the 3080 a flagship? The 3090 seems much more like a flagship, and not a Titan. It has AIB versions, and follows the naming scheme of higher sequential numbers = gaming.

Sabre Zeh Burr

Q: Something seems fundamentally broken with Ampere but I cannot put my finger on it. Both power and compute doesn't match performance. Additionally, they seem to be clocked right to the edge of crashing. What do you think is going on? Will it improve over time?

Q: How much difference does the hardware implementation of ray tracing make to game developers? I imagine it'd be small, but could AMD potentially have an advantage on PC if game developers primarily target the consoles implementation of ray tracing? Or does DX12 etc just abstract this difference away so they need do nothing different between platforms?

Charlie Pearce

Is it any coincidence that AMD is looking for a Red October? Is AMD in a similar position as Nvidia for screwing up their launch, given the incredibly cautious approach to board partner collaboration?

Hi Tom, I hope you and yours are doing well. I’m curious which PlayStation 5 exclusives, if any, you’re looking forward to most whether officially revealed or trapped within the depths of Sony’s PR? Also, these don’t necessarily be games that you’d like to play, but could be games you’re excited to see from a technical, sales, etc. point of view. Feel free to use your so-phisticated lexicon to silently hint at your solid choice if you’re in an uncharted zone where you have to resist the urge to reveal a game’s title. Love what you do - best regards, Trav Hogan

Question: Are you aware if Something like Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) will be implemented into RDNA2/3 cards? Any potential whatsoever? I just want to give up on Windows as my base completely and switch to Linux through that.

JR69420

Given that Nvidia is pushing the 3070 back to 29th, do you think we'll see last minute driver/BIOS changes to boost performance vs whatever card AMD is positioning against the 3070?

Cleansweep

How do you project this new, more efficient caching system AMD has invested in will affect the R&D and implementation of HBM in the coming years?

Julian Licht (jmasta111)

Final question, do you think that we will see a radical shift in PC technology to simplify/modernise how components work together to be more efficient like consoles?

TransTechGirl

Not a question: I really appreciate your balanced coverage and discussions, even when it flies in the face of "popular opinion". There's so many outlets that will just jump on the flavor of the month bandwagon, but you do your best to report with thought and integrity.

Sayonara

It looks like AMD's demand for wafers is going to outstrip production. Where do you expect AMD to focus production on a specific market/s?

What do you personally think about how Nvidias mindshare has been affected by both Turing and Ampere over the last 3 years?

Do you think that the faster SSD in the PS5 will be wasted in the short term given most games need to be designed for multiple platforms and when do you think PC technology will catch up?

TransTechGirl

And if you do think RDNA2 has better overclocking potential than Amper. Is it enough to beat something like a stock 3090 FE when overclocked.

Rogue Scholar

Assuming the worst scenario happens for Ampere vs RDNA2, do you think Samsung 7nm will be good enough by Q4 2021 for Nvidia to emergency launch a new GPU series on that node?

Rootknight

Do you think Nvidia have backed themselves into a design corner with Ampere that AMD will be able to exploit with RDNA3 in the same way that they did with Ryzen against Intel?

TransTechGirl

I've been hearing about both how revolutionary Zen 3 is going to be and also how mediocre it's going to be. We really haven't had much from AMD's apparent iron-grip on leaks, what is your summary on what we could expect this coming week with what we know so far? Thanks!

Treble Sketch

Hi, do you think that rtx on ps5 is just empty words too? I have heard many people say all over the internet that until now rtx reflections have not been discovered once in any trailer. Also I have heard that realistically this 60 FPS 4k target will be more like 40-45 most of the time on next gen consoles.

arcon

I recently bought an Ultrawide 1440p 144hz monitor, and I would like to know where the sweet spot for price and performance for that monitor will be with Ampere and RDNA2?

Hey Tom, thanks for everything you do for us! Just mainly wondering what plans are when you hit 100K Youtube Subs?

Will there be a new x670 chipset? Is there a 5950x at launch?

Kirbyrules

Do you think AMD's new RDNA2 graphics cards will have more overclocking potential then Ampere and, if so, by how much?

Rogue Scholar

I know you said no Rocket Lake (u?) due to it being canceled, but I'm having a hard time remembering what all Intel's names and releases are, maybe a quick rundown of what's coming in the next year or so on Server/Desktop/Laptop? I'm just talking uArches and maybe a general size (like 8c Tiger Lake)

Nils

Do you think RDNA2 will have more overclock headroom than Ampere?

Dylan Bundy