The amount of hype behind AMD's Polaris-based line of graphics cards has been nothing short of monumental. It's not hard to see why: when you promise a VR-ready card that only costs a few hundred dollars versus the thousand-plus of the competition, people are bound to get excited.

But when you put the card through its paces, does it live up to the hype? That depends on your expectations.

Ashes of the Singularity, a new sci-fi RTS, was released last week. Long famous for being a benchmark for DX12, I've been playing the actual game for a few days now, and have thoughts.

If I said the words Ashes of the Singularity, some of you might be aware that it's an upcoming RTS from the stables of Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. Others might not know what I'm referring to at all. And some might not care just because it's a strategy.

There is a very good reason why every PC gamer should have at least one eye on Ashes. It's a game that quickly became the go-to benchmark for DirectX 12, even in primitive builds. And as of it's finally entered beta, with a string of crucial features.

One of the interesting advancements in DirectX 12 is the way it allows graphics cards from different manufacturers to be paired together. Traditionally if you wanted a multiple GPU setup, you had to get two cards from the same manufacturer and often they had to be the same model too.

But DX12 is giving developers much more control over accessing and manipulating GPUs, and one manifestation is the freedom to pair different GPUs. It will still take a few years before the real-world benefits become much more commonplace, but the first benchmarks are in and the results are highly intriguing.