Shadow of the Tomb Raider Gets XeSS Update and Benchmarked on AMD Radeon RX 6800XT

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Image: Square Enix

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has received a new patch adding support for Intel’s upscaling solution and has already been benchmarked with it. This update was rolled out the same day as Intel announced the release date for its upcoming Intel Arc A770 graphics card so it’s probably a safe bet that benchmarks for that card will be forthcoming once the embargo is lifted.

Image: CapFrameX

The new solution shows promise as another alternative for improved performance metrics and is now the second non-proprietary method to become available following AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology. Testing was done at 4K using the in-game Ultra preset with ray tracing also set to Ultra. In performance mode, the Radeon RX 6800XT gained nearly 30 FPS over native rendering for an impressive 74 FPS while Ultra Quality only saw an uptick of 6 FPS which still got the game closer to the sweet spot of 60 FPS many gamers prefer.

In recent years Shadow of the Tomb Raider has become one of the defacto titles to receive patches for numerous new solutions. It’s possible that this is because the way its engine was designed and adding new features may be less difficult for it than others. The 2018 title had already launched with support for DX 11/12, NVIDIA DLSS 1.0, ray tracing, 3D, and DX12 mGPU, thus covering a number of advanced PC features for the time. Later on, it was among the first to get AMD FSR and DLSS 2.0 (albeit later). Add in its use of ray tracing effects and the game becomes a prime candidate for benchmarking rival technologies across many different kinds of hardware at high resolutions.

Intel XeSS 1.0 SDK

Interestingly enough the Intel XeSS 1.0 SDK was also released yesterday on GitHub. While the code may not be completely open-source it does now allow people to experiment with trying to add it to other games using methods already seen where DLSS has been replaced with FSR.

Image: Github

It should be noted that Intel has already stated that XeSS performance will vary by use but when used with its Intel Xe GPUs performance will be better.

Open & Accessible

XeSS is implemented using open standards to ensure wide availability on many games and across a broad set of shipping hardware, from both Intel® and other GPU vendors2.

Additionally, the XeSS algorithm can leverage the DP4a and XMX hardware capabilities of Xe GPUs for better performance.

Source: VideoCardz

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Discussion (6 replies)

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Brian_B
Brian_B 👍 1

NVidia gave Intel an early Christmas present with the 4000 series rollout.

Grimlakin
Grimlakin 👍 2

I still don't think running games at lower resolutions will be the ultimate solution.

Peter_Brosdahl
Peter_Brosdahl 👍 3

I'm just happy that Intel's Arc train is finally about to leave the station. They've got a long way to go but at least the first product will be out in a matter of weeks.

T
Tempest 👍 3

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised to see an actual date of availability published, and the pricing seemed reasonable.

However, I just read a post from last night by Kyle in the HardForum news section, in which he wrote: "All the Alchemist GPUs that will be built were made almost a year ago. Intel has lost all big 3 AIB support. If you want one, get it quickly."

That didn't sound very promising. I don't know what it means for the rest of Intel's roadmap, if they still have one. I want to be optimistic, because the discrete GPU market has been awful for too many years.

Riccochet
Riccochet 👍 3

Intel is like Craig from Friday. How you get fired on your day off?

Peter_Brosdahl
Peter_Brosdahl 👍 3

"Tempest, post: 60461, member: 5189" wrote:

All the Alchemist GPUs that will be built were made almost a year ago. Intel has lost all big 3 AIB support. If you want one, get it quickly."


Yeah, there were some stories floating around about that around a month ago. One of them came from Igor Wallosek who was speaking about it back then stating his sources had said they'd stopped production amid quality concerns and Intel directed partners to focus on OEM sales for now.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.thefpsreview.com/2022/08/05/intel-arc-board-partner-has-reportedly-stopped-production-due-to-quality-concerns/[/URL]

Peter Brosdahl
As a child of the 70’s I was part of the many who became enthralled by the video arcade invasion of the 1980’s. Saving money from various odd jobs I purchased my first computer from a friend of my dad, a used Atari 400, around 1982. Eventually it would end up being a lifelong passion of upgrading and modifying equipment that, of course, led into a career in IT support.

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