The text discusses the performance improvements of Vulkan over DX11 in Star Citizen on AMD GPUs, particularly focusing on lower-end cards with less VRAM. Tests show that while Vulkan may have slightly lower average FPS compared to DX11, it offers smoother and more consistent performance, making it a preferable choice for AMD users, especially those with lower-end GPUs.
The video discusses the performance of Vulkan in Star Citizen on AMD GPUs. The author conducted tests comparing Vulkan and DX11 on various AMD cards, focusing on issues with memory management and performance drops. They found that lower-end AMD cards with less VRAM experienced significant performance drops in the past, but with the implementation of Vulkan, these issues seem to have been addressed. Vulkan allows for more active GPU memory management by game developers, resulting in smoother performance compared to DX11, despite lower average FPS.
The baseline comparison was made using the AMD 6700 XT, a card with 12 GB of VRAM that did not suffer from performance drops. The tests showed that while DX11 had higher average FPS, Vulkan provided steadier performance with fewer spikes in frame times. Moving on to lower-end cards like the AMD 6600 with 8 GB of VRAM, DX11 exhibited performance issues with noticeable slowdowns, while Vulkan offered smoother and more consistent performance. The author also tested the AMD 7600, another 8 GB card, and found similar results with Vulkan providing more stable performance compared to DX11.
The video emphasizes that AMD users, especially those with lower-end GPUs, may benefit from switching to Vulkan for a more playable experience. While average FPS may drop slightly with Vulkan, the elimination of major performance drops and spikes makes gameplay smoother and more enjoyable. The author suggests that the improvements seen with Vulkan may have been intentional on the part of the game developers or a positive outcome of transitioning to the API. Overall, the text highlights the significant performance improvements observed on AMD GPUs with Vulkan in Star Citizen, making it a preferable choice over DX11 for AMD users.
The author notes that the latest version of Vulkan used for testing was 3.23.1, which potentially included additional fixes and improvements. While there are still some issues with HDR and resolution settings in Vulkan, the overall performance benefits for AMD users seem to outweigh these drawbacks. The video concludes by expressing optimism for future updates to Vulkan in Star Citizen, particularly with the possibility of multi-threaded rendering being enabled in upcoming versions. Overall, the implementation of Vulkan in Star Citizen has shown promising results for AMD GPU owners, providing a smoother and more stable gaming experience compared to DX11.