A new era of graphics is quietly unfolding, powered by AMD’s “Redstone” software. This isn’t just an incremental upgrade; it’s a fundamental shift in how games render light and detail, and its first major test is within the complex world of the newly releasedCall of Duty: Black Ops 7.
At the heart of Redstone lies Machine Learning Ray Generation – a technology that allows Radeon graphics cards to *learn* how light behaves. Instead of brute-force calculations, the card identifies patterns and intelligently approximates realistic lighting in real-time, offering a significant leap in visual fidelity.
Imagine a scene riddled with shadows and reflections. ML Ray Generation doesn’t just render those effects; it refines them, smoothing out the “noise” and “grit” often associated with ray tracing by cleverly rendering at a lower resolution and then upscaling with pinpoint accuracy. The result? Stunningly realistic lighting, even on demanding hardware.
However, this advanced technology isn’t fully unleashed just yet. While ML Ray Generation is available now, other key components of the FSR Redstone suite – including enhanced frame generation, super resolution, and neural radiance caching – remain dormant withinBlack Ops 7, at least for this initial launch.
The Radeon RX 9000 series, consisting of five cards released since March – the 9060, 9060 XT, 9070, 9070 XT, and the limited 9070 GRE – is poised to benefit from Redstone’s capabilities. Despite strong performance and growing success in the CPU market with its Ryzen X3D processors, AMD still faces an uphill battle to close the gap with Nvidia in overall graphics card market share.
The limited initial rollout of Redstone’s features suggests a crucial element: training. Each game likely requires a unique “learning” period for the machine learning algorithms to optimize lighting effects. This explains the focused launch withBlack Ops 7, a high-profile title serving as a proving ground for this ambitious technology.
Redstone represents more than just a software update; it’s a glimpse into a future where machine learning actively shapes the visual experience, promising a new level of immersion and realism in gaming. The journey has begun, and the potential is immense.
