Submitted by Cobain19 573d ago | news

AMD and DICE reveal Mantle, low-level graphics API for Radeon cards, offering 9X better performance

DSOGaming: "DICE's Johan Andersson revealed today that AMD and DICE are working on a low-level high-performance graphics API for Radeon cards, called Mantle. According to AMD, Mantle offers up to 9X more draw calls per second than other APIs by reducing CPU overhead." (Battlefield 4, PC, Tech)

Pandamobile  +   573d ago
"offering 9X better draw call performance"


But this is pretty awesome.
#1 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(22) | Disagree(5) | Report | Reply
Prcko  +   573d ago
no real video, no real comparison...
cool -.-
#1.1 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(14) | Disagree(2) | Report | Reply
NewMonday  +   573d ago
this is exactly what nVidia were afraid of, more developers focusing on AMD because of consoles drivers will improve, taking away a big traditional nVidia advantage.
#1.1.1 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(30) | Disagree(16) | Report
memots  +   573d ago
At newmonday .

Nvidia just need to step up the driver instead of releasing new gpu all the time.
wishingW3L  +   573d ago
Nvidia is not afraid of anything. For this thing to work it'll need to offer support to Nvidia cards.
#1.1.3 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(12) | Disagree(16) | Report
thechosenone  +   573d ago
AMD and Valve just saved PC gaming.
#1.1.4 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(9) | Disagree(24) | Report
papashango  +   573d ago
Valve made pc gaming relevant a long long time ago
on their own.
Feralkitsune  +   572d ago
This is open source guys. If Nvidia wants to use adapt their cards for this new API, nothing is there to stop them. Doesn't mean they will, but they will be able to.
NewMonday  +   572d ago
this is hardware specific people, it is "open source" for other game developers.

I have nVidia myself but I can't see how this would work for me
#1.1.7 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(0) | Disagree(5) | Report
NewMonday  +   572d ago
just coming to understand this is an alternative to directX and OpenGL, could it be used for consoles?

can't wait to see the benchmarks
#1.1.8 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(0) | Disagree(1) | Report
Pandamobile  +   572d ago
Yes, this is an alternative to DX and OpenGL.

"Can it be used on consoles?"

Technically, it already is. What AMD have done is packaged up the light-weight and low level console GPU APIs and created a version for use in Windows.

Now PC developers can "code to the metal" of the GPU, which before was nearly impossible due to the layers of abstraction and inefficiencies that OpenGL and DX implicitly apply. All those fancy optimizations that console devs apply to their games to get the most out of console hardware will now be easily applicable to PCs with compatible hardware.

Theoretically, a laptop with the same amount of processing power as a PS4 will produce similar results if developers leverage Mantle. Battlefield 4 will be an interesting case. If they can prove that relatively low-powered PCs are capable of producing PS4-level graphics with a little bit of extra work, that's going to open a whole world of possibilities.
mewhy32  +   572d ago
Man 9X boost! This is great news. My HD7750 1gig GDDR5 already does great but with this it'll be freakin' awesome.
#1.1.10 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(2) | Disagree(0) | Report
loulou  +   572d ago
off-topic i know.

but here is some terrible telephone footage of a very smooth looking bf4 on xbox one from the eurogamer expo

starchild  +   572d ago
Between SteamOS, this Mantle API, and the consoles having fairly standard PC parts and X86 instruction set architecture PC gaming is about to get a lot more efficient and powerful. Exciting times.
SlapHappyJesus  +   572d ago
If all goes well, we may actually be seeing lower-end rigs giving comparable performance to anything that console is managing.
It's going to be interesting to see how things go. I am really excited to be a PC gamer at the moment.
NewMonday  +   572d ago

Only works on GCN AMD cards, if this works and other developers use it AMD will leapfrog nVidia, and it will be a very big leap.

My next card will most certainly be an AMD
WarThunder  +   572d ago
Well when it comes to delivering price/performance quality products! nothing can beat AMD.

I'm all for this. I would like to see developers step away from directX and windows...
#1.3 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(1) | Disagree(2) | Report | Reply
P0werVR  +   572d ago
...get a clue!

You have no idea what your on about, and you look ridiculous!

If anything this is a low level API. Which will more likely be used through higher level API (DirectX, OpenGl.. ) to use ONLY AMD graphics capabilities. It's not a general use API for other GPUs.
#1.3.1 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(0) | Disagree(1) | Report
cococabana  +   572d ago
Fluff words. Dont mean what you think they mean. :P
assdan  +   572d ago
Anyone that thinks this means 9x performance is stupid. If it did, literally everyone would be buying AMD cards now.
ChickeyCantor  +   573d ago
Let's see how people will catch on to this.
People are already rooted in DX or OpenGL.
JackStraw  +   573d ago
well, it's called progression. programmers can be as rooted as they want to be, but if they see an alternative that offers much better performance, they will support that.
ChickeyCantor  +   572d ago
Progression? Developers have a foundation on what they continue to work on. If it's too much work ( aka money) they won't bother to swap.

OpenGL already provided many DX11 like features before MS hyped the crap out of them ( tessellation for example ) but no one flocked to OpenGL. So your point is rather moot.

AMD and Dice better show what it's worth before anyone would dare touch it.
#2.1.1 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(3) | Disagree(2) | Report
JackStraw  +   572d ago
not true at all.
sourav93  +   573d ago
If you watched the conference, it was that it is somehow compatible with the DX API. That confused me, but maybe there's something to it...?

Edit: Here's the quote "Mantle is compatible with DirextX HLSL for simplified porting, will works with all GCN GPUs, and Battlefield 4 will be the first game supporting it."
#2.2 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(3) | Disagree(1) | Report | Reply
ChickeyCantor  +   573d ago
HLSL is de shader language for DirectX. Like OpenGL has its own shader language (GLSL).

Since Gaming is most popular on windows most games just make use of DirectX. And because of this most shader code is written for DirectXs shader language. It's therefor easier for DirectX developers to bring their existing shaders over to mantle.
The mantle api probably converts the HLSL to their own shading facility( unless they just adapted HLSL ).

But it's by no means DirectX api compatible( cept for the shaders apparently).
#2.2.1 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(3) | Disagree(1) | Report
Ju  +   573d ago
It's either AMDs own HLSL compiler or a "intermediate language" wrapper. Not really surprised there. Is similar what Sony has in the PS4 SDK.
#2.2.2 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(3) | Disagree(2) | Report
DeadlyFire  +   572d ago
You know consoles have this thing called GPGPU compute in them right. This reduces CPU overhead on the PC by pushing the stuff onto the GPGPU of the PC cards right? Case solved. Its pretty simple really. More CPU compute moves onto the GPU with Mantle API. Likely NVIDIA has a similar plan for themselves to launch a low level API tieing into HLSL, and GLSL.

Its just AMD's version of GPGPU compute highly likely they will expand it past just DirectX/HLSL if they are supporting Valve hardware in the future on Linux. I expect a version compatible with GLSL to be in the works as well.

Both graphics developers want to tie as much as they can directly onto the hardware to squeeze out more power out of every system.
#2.2.3 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(3) | Disagree(2) | Report
joeorc  +   572d ago


Yupper's 100%, its mainly becoming one big unified Gaming platform...this bodes very well for the industry.

Example with the PS4

Low-level access and the "wrapper" graphics API

In terms of rendering, there was some interesting news. Norden pointed out one of the principal weaknesses of DirectX 11 and OpenGL - they need to service a vast array of different hardware. The advantage of PlayStation 4 is that it's a fixed hardware platform, meaning that the specifics of the tech can be addressed directly. (It's worth pointing out at this point that the next-gen Xbox has hardware-specific extensions on top of the standard DX11 API.)

"We can significantly enhance performance by bypassing a lot of the artificial DirectX limitations and bottlenecks that are imposed so DirectX can work across a wide range of hardware," he revealed.

The development environment is designed to be flexible enough to get code up and running quickly, but offering the option for the more adventurous developers to get more out of the platform. To that end, PlayStation 4 has two rendering APIs.

"One of them is the absolute low-level API, you're talking directly to the hardware. It's used to draw the static RAM buffers and feed them directly to the GPU," Norden shared. "It's much, much lower level than you're used to with DirectX or OpenGL but it's not quite at the driver level. It's very similar if you've programmed PS3 or PS Vita, very similar to those graphics libraries."

But on top of that Sony is also providing what it terms a "wrapper API" that more closely resembles the standard PC rendering APIs.

Online gaming - with real names

Sony is set to include support for a player's "true name" into online gaming on PlayStation 4. Every player has dual identities - their real name and profile picture, and a second online ID with PSN avatar.

"It's kind of up to you how you want people to have access to your true name. You're going to have to explicitly enable that. Not everyone is going to see your true name by default," Norden said during his GDC talk.
True names are automatically enabled and visible to any friends you import from social networks where you have already shared this information - for example, Facebook. Real identities are also shared through a process described as

"true name search" which we assume to be akin to finding friends on Facebook. Outside of these two paths, these details are only shared when players explicitly agree to share them with one another.
Sony also confirmed that the friends list max limit on PlayStation 3 has been increased for the new console.

"The key is that it doesn't sacrifice the efficiency of the low-level API. It's actually a wrapper on top of the low-level API that does a lot of the mundane tasks that you don't want to have to do over and over."

The cool thing about the wrapper API is that while its task is to simplify development, Sony actually provides the source code for it so if there's anything that developers don't get on with, they can adapt it themselves to better suit their project.

Ju  +   573d ago
Coincidently, I just said in (another) SteamOS thread, that OpenGL won't cut it.

This is exactly why. If SteamOS can leverage this (or it's own interface) this will be huge for Valve. We need a new API, and a new box which actually is built on that. Preferably this should also support NVidia (or any other card).

I'm curious how this will fit into Windows. It needs to bypass DirectX (and Windows drivers) to make this work. I can't believe it won't have "side effects". AMD seems it's in the right position to push this on their own. We'll see. But it must be an open API eventually.

And, yes, this is plenty of incentive for (engine) developers. Drawcall optimization is a pain with current APIs.
Kayant  +   573d ago
This needs to not be proprietary to just GCN to really take off but it sounds like that's not the case but am looking forward to seeing what devs can do with low level access on something like the 290X considering the amazing things we have seen on consoles near the end of the console cycle.
DxTrixterz  +   573d ago
You aren't talking about GTA5 by any chances are you???
wishingW3L  +   573d ago
there is still the fact that consoles have standard hardware while devs would be wasting their time by coding to the metal on certain PC hardware when there are a gazillion of different set-ups out there. DirectX already provides some low level extensions but nobody gives a fk.

At the end of the day most games on PC are nothing but console ports, so we all are essentially playing the same game even if you have 20GB of super fast ram and a $1000 card. All you get for burning that kind of cash is slightly higher res and frame-rate.
#4 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(7) | Disagree(15) | Report | Reply
RegorL  +   573d ago
The thing with Frostbite is that they will have to do this engine optimization once.

All their games will benefit.
- BF4
- NFS Rivals
- DragonsAge: Inquisition
- Command&Conquer
- StarWars Battlefront
- MirrorsEdge2
- ...
wishingW3L  +   573d ago
Modern day GPUs are so powerful and they become cheap so fast that low level programming is useless, a wasted effort for an ever changing environment. This is only necessary for consoles because console hardware stays the same for years, so this is the only way to squeeze more out of them.

If this API were widely available for any GPU then it would sense. But an API that will require more effort only to benefit a few? Most devs will ignore it, except for those within AMD's paycheck or advertising deals of-course.
#4.1.1 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(2) | Disagree(7) | Report
Pandamobile  +   573d ago
It's not USELESS, but it's less important than on consoles.

However, this will be awesome for lower specced chips such as laptop GPUs and lower-mid-range desktop GPUs. This will get games with better graphics running on cheaper PC hardware. Developers can continue to rely on the raw power of PC hardware if they choose to or see little value in the extra effort.
Ju  +   573d ago
Well...I'm just taking a wild guess here - but this will sure run on consoles, too.

Can you imagine you can simply recompile a console game on a PC with this and would get all the optimizations you have on the consoles for PCs as well?

This is massive. You can actually develop on both, console and PC with one (!) API. And what's wrong with efficient code even if you have a monster graphics card?
#4.1.3 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(3) | Disagree(0) | Report
Sevir  +   573d ago
Seven PC elitists disagreed with what you said when it's true... PC games based on 360 and PS3 multiplatform ports are the same game with higher resolution, framerates and smoother textures... And they claim that to be the reason for spending thousands of dollars for new graphics cards every six to eight months...
FlyingFoxy  +   573d ago
Hardly anyone buys a new graphics card every 6 months, graphics cards get on average 20-30% better per release of a series.

The only time worth upgrading is every 1-2 years or even 3.

Sorry but you're wrong.

Here's an example: http://www.hwcompare.com/11...

Scroll down just over half way down the page to Specifications, look at the year of manufacture between the 2 cards and then look at the performance difference.
#4.2.1 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(7) | Disagree(1) | Report
Pandamobile  +   573d ago
I usually upgrade every 3 or so years.

I don't get where this yearly upgrade craze came from. It's certainly not necessary in this day and age.
thehitman  +   573d ago
@flying if you ever upgraded your card after 1-2 years either A you bought a shitty card or B wasting money because you dont get any significant gains on cards per value until on average 4 years. A 250-300 dollar card can last 3-4 years easily 350-400 card 5-6 years easily anything higher than that you probably shouldn't be buying anyway. Good gfx cards are quite expensive especially when you put it in retrospect that they cost more than consoles alone most of the time. I bought my gfx card 4 years ago and its still kicking strong being able to play games on ultra @ 30 fps at 1080p and better optimized games at 45-60 fps.

With that said I think the hardware in consoles or at least the ps4 is on par if not better than my PC currently but coming in a box at 1/3 the cost. Will know for sure when mine arrives on the 15th for comparisons but consoles are definitely a better investment. Glad to see more AMD optimization since I use amd cards as well, will benefit me on both platforms.
FlyingFoxy  +   573d ago

Nope, I actually still have my 5870 that cost me about £300 at launch in 2009.

I never buy cheapy graphics cards, I was simply stating that it's only worth upgrading every 1-2 years or 3+. I did NOT say that i do that. I myself usually give it at least 3 years.

if you read what i said again, in a way i am saying that upgrading every 6 months is a waste, which it is..

I haven't upgraded since then because it runs all the games that i play fine 60+fps, until a game comes out i want to play at 1080p & 60+fps i will not upgrade it.
#4.2.4 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(3) | Disagree(0) | Report
Mini0510  +   572d ago
LOL kid. spending thousands of dollars for new graphics cards every six to eight months.

This is jokes. What are we? made of money?
webeblazing  +   572d ago
a lot of mp have better post pros fx dx11 support fov and I lot of things besides res and frame rate oh don't forget aa and textures
Dante81  +   572d ago
You be trollin' boy
RegorL  +   573d ago
This might provide to be a very good fit for SteamOS
Axonometri  +   573d ago
SteamOS in intended as an "open" system. How can a closed API be a good fit for a Linux based Steam?
RegorL  +   573d ago
Because games (applications) will not be open!
Mantle will be a part of the game not the OS, will reduce the possibility to add library/driver hacks.

"Library" being cross platform and highly optimized.
Kayant  +   573d ago
Apparently it's actually open which is great :) ---> http://www.neogaf.com/forum...
Feralkitsune  +   572d ago
ITS NOT CLOSED, It's open source. Hell, AMD's current drivers on Linux are already open source.
Axonometri  +   573d ago
WOW.. it is open? Strange and good?! This changes my thought all together as it would be possible at some level to also be applied to the consoles. Am I correct in this?
joeorc  +   572d ago


you are correct, yupper's 100%


"Oh god, this reeks of 3Dfx, DX API put an end to that. So we're going back to the days of certain games requiring specific cards. It'll be a pissing contest between AMD/Nvidia on who can score the best games for their cards."

No , its not read it again. that is far from the case. when they are talking about unified it is about really making it true.

its an opensource Api!
#5.2.1 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(0) | Disagree(0) | Report
Axonometri  +   573d ago
Who here remembers the day when you saw the word "Unified" as an important tag when looking at a new PC video card?
Letros  +   573d ago
memots  +   573d ago
lol thats funny, I also tough of my good old pair of 3dfx card.

3dfx2 ect ... lol good old days.
Axonometri  +   573d ago
Good OLD days. Lets leave it in the past and bring architecture together so consoles and PC games aren't on different planets for developers.
viveks86  +   573d ago
Exactly my thoughts as well. Sounds regressive. It will just fragment game development even further. I guess we need to wait and see how many developers would bother to adopt it
RegorL  +   573d ago
Very few contenders remains: AMD, Nvidia, Intel
hollabox  +   573d ago
3DFX Glide was pretty slick, good enough to have my old Voodoo 4 go toe to toe with the Geforce 256 in certain games. Glide produced the same 32 bit color or colour (Brits) using 3DFX 20 bit dithering technique improving performance by 25 percent depending on the game. DX API got the upper hand with S3 textures and T&L back in the late 90s/early 2000s.
#7.4 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(2) | Disagree(0) | Report | Reply
Perjoss  +   572d ago
"or colour (Brits)"

thank you
ChickeyCantor  +   573d ago
Engines facilitate for different graphics library. It won't matter to the consumer.
#7.5 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(4) | Disagree(1) | Report | Reply
jamz4  +   573d ago
AMD has previous for not making such advances proprietary, lets hope its not. I certainly hope so since I have a 670
hollabox  +   573d ago
Finally console level optimization for my PC hardware. Maybe now my I7 970 (4.16 GHZ) can flex its muscles, my Nvidia GTX 670 will not be in case for too much longer, waiting for awhile for AMD next gen video cards.
Kayant  +   573d ago
Don't worry guys apparently it's an open api :) ---> http://www.neogaf.com/forum...
SwiftArsonist  +   573d ago
so in order to take advantage of that direct x 11 feature you need to upgrade to win 8?
memots  +   573d ago
i sure fn hope not.

I have jump from Win xp to Win7 m avoided Vista like the plague and i plan on doing the same with Windows 8. My buddy is sold on Windows 8 but with heavy modification to it. I am not ready for the headache
Are_The_MaDNess  +   573d ago
DX11.1 is Windows 8 only.
tho this new API is something new entirely.
DX gets thrown out the window on this one (almost)

at the hate on Windows 8, i really dont get it. i have it myself.
just install Start8 from Stardock and you are good to go. while you are at it you can try Fences aswell (if you use your Desktop alot)

windows 8 works like windows 7 really, there is no real problems with it for the normal user.
#11.2 (Edited 573d ago ) | Agree(5) | Disagree(0) | Report | Reply
Feralkitsune  +   572d ago
Or stick with the OS you already have and fuck upgrading when there aren't any benefits to upgrading.
Pwnmachine  +   572d ago
Windows 8 and Windows is garbage period. No one with any computer knowledge whatsoever is upgrading to it for a reason. Microsoft needs to be removed from the gaming and PC-user communities period. It will be gone, all in due time. It's always "Just enough", or BROKEN with Microsoft, never any leaps and bounds, I think I can speak for 95% of the population when I say: We are literally tired of it.
#11.2.2 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(1) | Disagree(1) | Report
Dante81  +   572d ago
I don't get the hate either, especially now with Windows 8.1 coming up(I've been using it and it's great).
BeathuberCH   573d ago | Spam
solar  +   573d ago
Maxwell. that is all
Orpheus  +   572d ago
Yeah this new radeon is roughly equal to Titan in performance, though it is cheap we must admit it came 8 months after Titan, we gotta see what nVIDIA has to offer with Maxwell .....
#13.1 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(0) | Disagree(0) | Report | Reply
palaeomerus  +   573d ago
Will it work on a HD 7850?
starchild  +   572d ago
Yep, they said that it works with all Graphics Core Next GPUs.

I have an HD 7950 and it looks like both of us will get to reap the benefits of this new API. I can't wait to try it out in Battlefield 4.
windblowsagain  +   572d ago
Out of all the things to buy for a PC, don't go cheap on a GPU. It is the most important thing in a PC for gaming.
deecee33  +   572d ago
Totally. My gaming rig cost about what an Xbox One will cost after tax, and I spent almost half the cost of the machine on the GPU. It's proving capable of next-gen graphics and didn't cost a ton like everyone says a capable gaming PC should cost.
Dante81  +   572d ago
190 bucks for a 7950 is pretty damn cheap, no need for a titan.
deecee33  +   572d ago
This is awesome news both from a BF4 and an ATI gpu standpoint because cheaper cards can be more efficient going forward. Would not at all be surprised if we saw a similar announcement from Nvidia soon.
Pwnmachine  +   572d ago
As a Network Administrator; Anything that replaces an Architecture that MICROSOFT designed is a huge leap forward in my book, DirextX or not.. it's inevitable in the future if we want to move forward, to remove Microsoft from our lives. Here's the start; Now, whoever is doing it, please hurry up with that Linux-Based Operating System that will inevitably replace the burden that is known to ALL of us as Windows. If you disagree, then you know quite literally.. absolutely nothing about Computers. Thanks
#17 (Edited 572d ago ) | Agree(2) | Disagree(1) | Report | Reply
kingduqc  +   572d ago
I don't get it, the whole point of an API is to make the task of dev easier to work with multiple configuration while developing a game.

also if this new api is not on nvidia card I can garenteed it will become more of a hasle for dev cause they will have to do it for dx + opengl + mantle. Kinda like physx.

wish both green and red team would team up to ditch dx, that would make linux viable and we wont be forced to buy new windows OS to get newer feature (like they did with xp forcing gamer to switch)
RegorL  +   571d ago
Suppose you have 15 games in development, all using one game engine.

How much additional work would it be to port and optimize that game engine to one additional API Mantle when you are already doing PC-DX, XB360-DX, XBone-DX, PS3, PS4 compared to all work needed to create contents for the 15 games? Especially considering that you port to low level on four of the five architectures?

What if the port to low level APIs will make all your games crush* any competitors resembling game? More polygons, better physics, nicer effects, 4k resolution on reasonably priced cards...

* this would not be done if actual performance is at least two (read three) times on PC. It just wouldn't be worth it from a developers perspective. [Edit: but it might be from the card manufacturers... 10% might be more than enough for them. But once their competitor does the gain would vanish...]

This work will not cause DX11, XboxOne, or PS4 ports to suffer. But it might be the reason we are not seeing a Win U port - no idling game engine developer at the moment... EA/DICE judge this to give better return of investment than doing a Wii U port...
Nintendo you should have used a GCN GPU! Nvidia will get a low level port before Nintendo Wii U will get any love...
#18.1 (Edited 571d ago ) | Agree(0) | Disagree(0) | Report | Reply

Add comment

New stories

Korea's internet addiction crisis is getting worse, as teens spend up to 88 hours a week gaming

48m ago - In a country where esports constitutes a national pasttime, the South Korean government is cracki... | PC

Zelda's Majora's Mask 3D review | Trojan News

50m ago - The story and visuals are absolutely stunning, and Nintendo truly knows what it's doing. | 3DS

Help Myriad get through Steam Greenlight!


Review of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D | GMP

50m ago - If you are a fan of The Legend of Zelda, this is a game you may want to play. If you are looking... | 3DS

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D Review | The Knightly Scroll

51m ago - Ultimately, Majora’s Mask 3D is one of the best games for the 3DS and you should play it. | 3DS

Mortal Kombat X Review: it has begun | SlashGear

1h ago - Mortal Kombat X is a masterpiece of shattered bones and fun-filled mayhem. This is the first grea... | PC