Recently, a debate has sparked in the gaming community questioning whether AMD graphics cards are “cheating” in Call of Duty benchmarks to showcase better performance than their Nvidia counterparts. These suspicions arose from noticeable visual differences in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, where AMD GPUs seem to render fewer shadows and ray-traced reflections compared to Nvidia GPUs, despite using identical high graphical settings. This article delves into these claims, explores the nuances of the issue, and clarifies what the differences mean for gamers and benchmark validity.
Visual Quality Differences in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Investigations reveal that when running Black Ops 7 on extreme presets at 4K resolution, AMD Radeon cards occasionally omit certain translucent shadows and ray-traced reflections that Nvidia GeForce GPUs do render. For example, shadows from glass panels and smoke, which contribute to the game’s environmental realism, are missing on Radeon GPUs. Additionally, some ray-traced light reflections appear absent on AMD hardware.
Interestingly, the same visual discrepancies also appear in the official in-game benchmark and actual gameplay, indicating the issue isn’t confined to just testing scenarios. Tests using Intel Arc GPUs suggest that Nvidia’s image rendering aligns with developer-intended visuals, implying AMD’s rendering differences are likely a glitch or technical limitation rather than intentional cheating.
Are These Differences Intentional or Bugs?
The image quality variances do not appear to be deliberate attempts by AMD to gain a performance edge. Evidence suggests these are tied to driver or game engine issues affecting how AMD GPUs render certain shadows and ray-traced elements. Notably, the problem persists even with older AMD drivers released before the game’s launch, indicating it is unlikely to be a new optimization trick designed for benchmark manipulation.
Settings such as shadow quality and ray tracing contribute to these differences. Lowering shadow quality to “low” equalizes the visuals across AMD and Nvidia cards but diminishes the richness of environmental effects. Thus, for truly equivalent visual comparison, players must tune these settings carefully.
Consistency in Older Call of Duty Titles
Crucially, prior Call of Duty entries like Black Ops 6 and Modern Warfare 3 show no signs of AMD GPUs rendering with lower visual quality than Nvidia at comparable settings. This consistency suggests that AMD’s competitive performance in those earlier titles is legitimate and not the result of any graphical compromises.
This reinforces the view that image quality concerns are specific to Black Ops 7 and do not invalidate AMD’s overall performance credibility in Call of Duty series benchmarks.
Implications for Benchmarking and Gaming
While the visual differences in Black Ops 7 could theoretically impact benchmark fairness, analysis shows the performance gains from these omitted effects are minor and unlikely to account for the significant performance margin AMD enjoys in some tests. Moreover, when using settings that produce visually identical output, AMD’s performance advantage remains similar, confirming that this is not a case of blatant cheating.
These findings suggest that gamers and reviewers should approach benchmarks cautiously, ensuring image quality parity to make fair comparisons, especially when testing newer titles with advanced rendering techniques like ray tracing.
Looking Ahead: AMD’s FSR and Ray Regeneration
AMD has been actively developing technologies like FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) and the upcoming Redstone Ray Regeneration feature, aimed at enhancing performance without sacrificing visual fidelity. Some of these features are already integrated into Black Ops 7, but the tech is constantly evolving, and official updates are forthcoming.
As these tools mature, AMD’s performance and visual quality metrics in games utilizing ray tracing and advanced rendering will likely become clearer and more balanced, potentially resolving current discrepancies.
In summary, the current image quality differences seen between AMD and Nvidia GPUs in Call of Duty Black Ops 7 stem from technical rendering issues rather than intentional benchmark cheating by AMD. Previous Call of Duty titles demonstrate AMD’s credible performance, and careful setting adjustments can ensure fair visual comparisons. As drivers and game support evolve, these issues should improve, allowing gamers to enjoy both impressive visuals and competitive performance.
