Graphics Cards

[HoneyThinner2]

I want to play all my games at 4K or 1440p 144 FPS with max settings, so I'm not really going to be playing new games since that's impossible even if I get a 4090. I'll play those many, many years from now. Would a 3070Ti be better if I'm EXCLUSIVELY playing old games then? Obviously, DLSS and RT don't really matter then since the games I'll be playing don't even have them. I know a 6800 XT is like 20-40% faster at 1440p, but that difference apparently doesn't matter in old games according to PC Magazine's review which shows that a 6800 XT matches a 3070 (not even a Ti) in legacy games like Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite and is actually worse in Sleeping Dogs: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-6800-xt.

I currently have a 6800 XT, but I’m still within the return window. My performance matches in those games from PC Magazine, so it seems the DX11 improvements didn’t help in every game. My performance in Sleeping Dogs is actually significantly worse… I’m hoping they used the original instead of the Definitive Edition.

I don't know about stuttering in those games though since that doesn't mention 1% and 0.1% lows. I know AMD has supposedly fixed their issues with old games recently, but I've seen threads complaining about how DXNavi actually makes many games worse in terms of stuttering. The solution is to turn off DXNavi, so it seems I won't really benefit from that improvement if I have to disable DXNavi... is there still an improvement even with that disabled? And would this mitigate stuttering if this is disabled? I get really annoyed by stuttering, so I'd rather have lower framerates with less stuttering than higher framerates with more stuttering.

If I can get rid of stuttering but presumably lower FPS just by disabling DXNavi, then, well, I'll just disable it. I am having stuttering issues in some games like Portal, Minecraft Java, Arkham Origins, and Arkham Knight. I know the last three are just poorly optimized, but it seems Minecraft Java performance was better on NVIDIA cards back then due to better OpenGL support. I don't know if that's true now, but I still have stuttering issues in Java with the latest AMD drivers. I'm hoping NVIDIA cards have stuttering too lol. Portal is 16 years old, so are compatibility issues expected even with NVIDIA cards? I tried to switch it to Windows 7 compatibility mode which helped with stuttering, but there was still some shader cache stuttering which is at least very rare.

I could try one of those modded drivers out there too. It does seem to mostly be shader cache stuttering, admittedly, so that's not really the worst if it just happens whenever something new is introduced and then never again; it'll be annoying in games like Portal which constantly introduce new things throughout the whole game though. I suppose I'd also get worse performance with DXNavi off, but, like I said, I don't really care about FPS as long as I'm getting over 144 FPS. Does DXVK work better than DXNavi? Do the modded drivers work better than DXNavi? With either DXVK or the modded drivers, will performance be the same as NVIDIA in terms of stuttering? It'll be nice if the framerates match too, but stuttering is the most important. 

I think it'd be nice to have better streaming as well; I know AMD has improved that too, but NVIDIA is still better. I do have an external capture card which I got for my Switch though, so I just need to buy a decent laptop to use that capture card. Yeah, it's only 1080p 60 FPS since I got it for my Switch, but it's good enough. I would also like better productivity, but I guess that mostly manifests as faster loading times and I can wait a minute or two longer. I won't be able to use AI at all, but I doubt I'll be touching that. What do you all think?

[cpurpe91]

I don't experience much stuttering in DX11 games with the current drivers. What are the specs of the rest of your system? It is true some older titles don't run well but I have had no real issues playing DX11 games like Guild Wars 2, and the like. It must vary on a game to game basis. 

While I have never used modded drivers many do. I don't because for my use case, playing games that are usually DX12, I have little to no issue. I also don't know what these modded drivers do as I have not looked to deeply into them.

I cannot speak for streaming performance but many people just use a separate system to stream using a capture card and they advise dual system setups across the board even when using Nvidia GPUs, as it removes overhead. 

My RX 6800 XT is only pushing 1440p in my case, and I do not hit 144FPS on many newer games at max settings. I usually sit in the high 80s to low 100s. 4k max settings would require both the games to be very well optimized and a more powerful GPU. 

Games are being less and less optimized now due to advent of these beastly GPUs that can run nearly anything maxed out at 60FPS. This means, regardless of the graphical quality, many games just don't scale to that high frame rate target that we all want, and that many have to the GPU power to get to.  

The best and most recent example is the poor performance due to lack of optimization in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Even years after the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, it is still very poorly optimized. The Witcher 3 next gen update is another example of a game that is very poorly optimized. The list goes on. 

Since you said you are within the return window, and you are targetting 4k 144fps I would go with something much more powerful than the RX 6800 XT if you intend to max out the graphical settings.

Don't just take my word for it though. I would look into the games you want to play, and look for videos on YouTube that show the games average performance with different GPUs and look for one that lines up with the games you intend to play. 

[HoneyThinner2]

It's good to hear that most DX11 games work fine then. Have you tried many DX9 and DX10 games? Portal apparnetly uses DX9 which is ancient... I'll try out Guild Wars 2 since that's free and report back to make sure it's not a  problem with my system or a defective GPU. As for streaming, I see. So even NVIDIA cards have overhead which makes sense. I won't really care about that then and just get a new, cheap laptop for capture card purposes. 

And that 4K thing definitely makes sense. I was hoping I could play extremely old games at 4K 144 FPS, but that's not feasible. I was checking benchmarks for Arkham Knight, and even that only gets to 130-140 FPS at 4K and around 200 FPS with 1440p with a 3080 and a 6800XT. I suppose I underestimated how intensive it is to run games at 1440p and 4K, even in games from 8 years ago... 

As you said, it makes sense that it's mostly down to a game by game basis in terms of whether they're optimized properly or not. I guess there are a lot of old games out there that were not properly optimized. I thought I could just brute force it with a 6800XT, but even it seems ridiculous power doesn't always help fix unoptimized games like Arkham Knight. I was looking at all the benchmarks I could find for older games, but the problem is that no one really runs benchmarks in ridiculously old games except esports games. The oldest ones I could find were Portal, TF2, CSGO, League of Legends, Warsow, Xonotic, and Unvanquished, all games I don't really play but just wanted to try out. I'll keep trying other ridiculously old games to see how well they work. TF2, CSGO, and League all work amazing without any noticeable stuttering, but Portal is causing issues. I haven't tried the other 3 yet. 

[HoneyThinner2]

Has anyone been able to disable DXNavi for DX9 with a 6800 XT? If I disable it, it causes my DX9 games to just not launch. DXNavi apparently improves FPS but causes more severe shader cache stuttering. I’m having shader cache stuttering in DX9 games from 10-18 years ago like Half-Life 2 and BioShock Infinite.

I’m using a registry edit to disable DXNavi for DX9 since im getting bad shader cache stuttering in games from 15-18 years ago that should be silky smooth like Half-Life 2, Darksiders, Portal, Portal 2, BioShock Infinite, and Arkham Origins. I also used a registry edit to turn the shader cache on, but that didn’t help in these games, at least. I suppose some instability is expected if I’m using registry edits to change my driver behavior, but are other people able to disable DXNavi for DX9 without any issues or am I just doing something wrong?

I know that DXNavi improves FPS, but it apparently causes more shader cache stuttering. I don’t really care about FPS in games that are that old since they’re consistently above 140 FPS anyway… except during shader cache stuttering moments. That’s why I’d rather disable DXNavi. I thought something was just wrong with my system, but my new game benchmarks match other people’s game benchmarks; I’m actually having more issues in old games than new games which seems bizarre.

I tried DXVK in Portal 2 and Darksiders, and this actually made the stuttering worse. Are there any other fixes I can implement? I’ve tried everything I can find, but nothing is working. Well, am I doing something wrong with the DXNavi thing anyway? Should it be working?