- Nvidia’s Neural Texture Compression characteristic simply grew to become extra environment friendly
- It obtained this increase because of Microsoft’s new Cooperative Vector in DXR 1.2
- Testing with a demo confirmed nearly a 90% discount in video RAM footprint for textures, however that received’t apply in all eventualities (by any means)
Frightened your Nvidia graphics card could also be underpowered by way of the video RAM (VRAM) it has on board? You could remember that Group Inexperienced is engaged on tech to mitigate such issues, and it seems to be taking appreciable strides ahead in that regard.
Wccftech stories that Nvidia’s RTX Neural Texture Compression (or NTC) has obtained an enormous increase because of Microsoft’s new Cooperative Vector in DirectX Raytracing 1.2.
Does that sound like a load of techie nonsense? Nicely, sure, and for those who dare to have a look at the in-depth rationalization of what is afoot right here, you will doubtless be very a lot misplaced in a land of confusion – see the put up on X beneath from Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein (who examined the characteristic with a prerelease graphics driver).
First have a look at NVIDA’s Neural Texture Compression with DXR1.2 Cooperative Vector!First , this wants a preview driver (590.26), I put in that so you do not have too-and it corrupted the display screen, solely after a number of hard-resets it determined to work.😅🧵 https://t.co/szgX1jVtcYJuly 15, 2025
So, briefly, Nvidia’s texture compression trickery, which permits textures to be made smaller, that means extra can slot in a modest serving to of VRAM, now works far more effectively because of the Cooperative Vector.
As Doederlein observes, within the demo he ran as a take a look at, NTC provided a saving of virtually 90% by way of lowering VRAM footprint, which is an enormous deal. If, and it is a key caveat, the sport helps NTC (so builders should code it in, as is the case with Nvidia DLSS, in fact).
Provided that textures usually occupy half the VRAM in any given sport session (or a great deal extra), the advantages ought to translate to a large win for video games the place grabbing textures from outdoors the video reminiscence turns into a chore that slows down every part.
Evaluation: the broader image
NTC makes use of AI (neural networks, therefore the title: Neural Texture Compression) to intelligently compress graphics textures – in idea with out a lot of a noticeable distinction from native textures, after they’re decompressed for displaying to the gamer – and as talked about, Microsoft’s Cooperative Vectors in DXR 1.2 guarantee this course of is extra environment friendly.
Fairly much more environment friendly, the truth is, and I am pondering that Nvidia had a watch on how this type of expertise would progress down the road when Group Inexperienced was making choices about deploying some current-gen Blackwell graphics playing cards and sticking with 8GB of video RAM.
That has been a really unpopular choice in some quarters, so maybe Nvidia is counting – and counting closely – on NTC to show a significant distinction in future-proofing a few of these GPUs. (Such because the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, and the vanilla RTX 5060 – the RTX 5050 has 8GB, too, however this reminiscence configuration is extra comprehensible on a price range graphics card).
That mentioned, we have to be fairly cautious by way of trusting some early ends in a single demo as a cause to have a good time – as promising as they could appear. The determine of a (near) 90% discount will not be the case in each state of affairs, you possibly can financial institution on that, however much more modest boosts (to the tune of, say, 50%) are nonetheless going to be nice information.
The opposite level to remember is that NTC may have a facet impact of some efficiency loss within the body fee – not less than in sure eventualities. Hopefully, any such body fee drops – or results on picture high quality for that matter – could be delicate, and presumably definitely worth the trade-off by way of making life simpler for the VRAM (in any other case, what could be the purpose?).
Additionally, whereas I am making extra cautious noises right here, as already famous, textures aren’t every part by way of what’s packed onto VRAM in a sport session, and so broader issues stay round the way forward for 8GB graphics playing cards in that mild.
Nonetheless, NTC might be a key piece of the puzzle for Nvidia, and it is trying extra so given these take a look at outcomes. As you may guess, this tech is for Group Inexperienced’s graphics playing cards, and solely the extra fashionable choices at that. (Whereas in idea NTC can be utilized by rival GPUs, equivalent to AMD’s Radeon boards, realistically Nvidia recommends that solely its RTX 4000 or 5000 graphics playing cards have the mandatory oomph and {hardware} to run it).
So, the place does that depart AMD and Intel’s merchandise? These GPU makers have their very own neural compression tech on the boil, and the nice factor is, they’re going to additionally profit from DirectX Cooperative Vectors (everybody will). Though proper now, Nvidia has the lead on this division – however we’re nonetheless a good manner from seeing this tech realized. As famous, sport builders must help the tech of their titles – this is not a driver-level characteristic that may be utilized throughout all video games. (Nicely, not until Nvidia is planning a watered-down model at a later date – a type of equal of what Clean Movement is to DLSS).
Briefly, Nvidia has some persuading to do, once more a lot alongside the identical traces as DLSS, as a result of if builders do not undertake this, it is a non-starter. The promoting factors, nevertheless, look to be critically compelling.
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