Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation (DX12)

A veteran from both our 2016 and 2017 game lists, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation remains the DirectX 12 trailblazer, with developer Oxide Games tailoring and designing the Nitrous Engine around such low-level APIs. The game makes the most of DX12's key features, from asynchronous compute to multi-threaded work submission and high batch counts. And with full Vulkan support, Ashes provides a good common ground between the forward-looking APIs of today. Its built-in benchmark tool is still one of the most versatile ways of measuring in-game workloads in terms of output data, automation, and analysis; by offering such a tool publicly and as part-and-parcel of the game, it's an example that other developers should take note of.

Settings and methodology remain identical from its usage in the 2016 GPU suite. To note, we are utilizing the vanilla Ashes Classic Extreme graphical preset, which compares to the current one with MSAA dialed down from x4 to x2, as well as adjusting Texture Rank (MipsToRemove in settings.ini). For today, we are also utilizing the vanilla High and Standard presets.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - 1920x1080 - Extreme Quality

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - 1920x1080 - High Quality

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - 1920x1080 - Standard Quality

Ashes: Escalation - 99th Percentile - 1920x1080 - Extreme Quality

Ashes: Escalation - 99th Percentile - 1920x1080 - High Quality

Ashes: Escalation - 99th Percentile - 1920x1080 - Standard Quality

With Ashes, the GTX 1650 continues on trend, solidly slower than the RX 570 yet clearly a step up from predecessor 2GB cards.

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  • Marlin1975 - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link

    Not a bad card, but it is a bad price.
  • drexnx - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link

    yep, but if you look at the die size, you can see that they're kinda stuck - huge generational die size increase vs GP107, and even RX570/580 are only 232mm2 compared to 200mm2.

    I can see how AMD can happily sell 570s for the same price since that design has been long paid for vs. Turing and the MFG costs shouldn't be much higher
  • Karmena - Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - link

    Check the prices of RX570, they cost 120$ on newegg. And you can get one under 150$
  • tarqsharq - Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - link

    And the RX570's come with The Division 2 and World War Z right now.

    You can get the ASrock version with 8GB VRAM for only $139!
  • 0ldman79 - Sunday, May 19, 2019 - link

    Problem is on an OEM box you'll have to upgrade the PSU as well.

    Dealing with normies for customers, the good ones will understand, but most of them wouldn't have bought a crappy OEM box in the first place. Most normies will buy the 1650 alone.

    AMD needs 570ish performance without the need for auxiliary power.
  • Yojimbo - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link

    Depending on the amount of gaming done, it probably saves over 50 dollars in electricity costs over a 2 year period compared to the RX 570. Of course the 570 is a bit faster on average.
  • JoeyJoJo123 - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link

    Nobody in their right mind that's specifically on the market for an aftermarket GPU (a buying decision that comes about BECAUSE they're dissatisfied with the current framerate or performance of their existing, or lack of, a GPU) is making their primary purchasing decision on power savings alone. In other words, people aren't saying "Man, my ForkNight performance is good, but my power bills are too high! In order to remedy the exorbitant cost of my power bill, I'm going to go out and purchase a $150 GPU (which is more than 1 month of my power bill alone), even if it offers the same performance of my current GPU, just to save money on my power bill!"

    Someone might make that their primary purchasing decision for a power supply, because outside of being able to supply a given wattage for the system, the only thing that matters is its efficiency, and yes, over the long term higher efficiency PSUs are better built, last longer, and provide a justifiable hidden cost savings.

    Lower power for the same performance at a similar enough price can be a tie-breaker between two competing options, but that's not the case here for the 1650. It has essentially outpriced itself from competing viably in the lower budget GPU market.
  • Yojimbo - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link

    I don't know what you consider being in a right mind is, but anyone making a cost sensitive buying decision that is not considering total cost of ownership is not making his decision correctly. The electricity is not free unless one has some special arrangement. It will be paid for and it will reduce one's wealth and ability to make other purchases.
  • logamaniac - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link

    So I assume you measure the efficiency of the AC unit in your car and how it relates to your gas mileage over duration of ownership as well? since you're so worried about every calculation in making that buying decision?
  • serpretetsky - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link

    It doesn't really change the argument if he does or does not take into account his AC unit in his car. Electricity is not free. You can ignore the price of electricity if you want, but your decision to ignore it or not does not change the total cost of ownership. (I'm not defending the electricity calculations above, I haven't verified them)

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