PCWorld – August 2019

70 PCWorld AUGUST 2019

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 5700 AND 5700 XT

Better yet, it does so with next to no

performance impact, AMD says.

Here’s how AMD’s reviewers guide

describes Radeon Image Sharpening:

“Because RIS is based on an algorithm

that modulates the degree of sharpening

depending on contrast, it clarifies interior

object details while leaving high-contrast

edges largely untouched. RIS sidesteps harsh

artifacts like “ringing” or halos that commonly

affect other sharpening methods. Meanwhile,

it avoids damaging smooth gradients on

high-contrast edges. As a result, RIS can be

combined with virtually any anti-aliasing

technique used in a game, and the results will

look great.

“When paired with Radeon GPU scaling,

RIS allows gamers to configure their games to

run at lower resolutions to optimize

performance while still enjoying crisp,

detailed full-screen visuals.”

Sounds nifty!

And talking to

Scott Herkelman

on The Full Nerd,

it sounds like

Radeon Image

Sharpening

could be a

cornerstone of

AMD’s future

ray-tracing

ambitions.

For now,

though, it works only with DirectX9,

DirectX12, and Vulkan games on the Radeon

RX 5700 GPUs. Yes, DX11 support appears to

be missing for now, and RIS can’t process

HDR visuals, either. To activate it, open the

Radeon Settings app and enable Radeon

Image Sharpening in the Display tab. AMD

also recommends activating the GPU Scaling

option in the Display tab if you’re using RIS to

compensate for using a lower resolution than

your display’s maximum.

Tweaks and tuning

While Radeon Image Sharpening and Radeon

Anti-Lag steal the spotlight, AMD also added

helpful tweaks to existing tools in Radeon

Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.7.1. We’ll

quickly recap the most notable.

Radeon Chill was already impressive,

intelligently ramping down frame rates during

static scenes to use less power—sometimes