AMD's Mantle API

Graphics and GPU Programming Programming OpenGL

Started by Aqua Costa September 26, 2013 09:37 AM

145 comments, last by TheChubu 9 years, 12 months ago

Aqua Costa

3,705

Author

September 26, 2013 09:37 AM

AMD just announced a new low-level graphics API called "Mantle" that allows a more direct access to it's GPUs.

What are your thoughts?

Direct3D in high-end PC gaming shouldn't die any time soon because NVidia GPUs won't support Mantle, But if the performance improvements on AMD side are significant (eg: 9x more draw calls), consumers will shift towards AMD products so NVidia will be "forced" to release a Mantle alternative.

Only developers that really want to push the visuals forward are likely to use it though, small indie teams/studios will probably stick with DirectX (/OpenGL) because it's fast enough and easier (?!) to code.

jcabeleira

726

September 26, 2013 10:23 AM

Well, dispite what the article says, Mantle is not really revolutionary. It's simply taking a step backward trading portability by performance. I'm not saying it is bad, I'm just saying that it's a classic tradeoff choice.

I'm not even sure it will bring that much performance benefits because it may speed up draw calls but it won't speed up graphics that are bound by fill rate. Once again, it's a tradeoff that may prove useful for some developers but it sure isn't a one-size-fits-all option.

Voltaico Engine

Erik Rufelt

5,903

September 26, 2013 10:25 AM

Sounds cool, wonder what exactly they mean by "direct access to graphics RAM".

Ingenu

1,631

September 26, 2013 10:38 AM

I'd say: "Hell, it's about time !"

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Migi0027

4,632

September 26, 2013 11:27 AM

NVIDIA better start doing something .

One ring to rule them all!

But this (In my opinion) is a Win Win:

DX dies, we switch to Mandle API (Faster)
DX sees the competition, and they go with full force. (Who knows, they might even have their own weapon?)

But let us wait for the benchmarks, to see the true comparison.

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Hodgman

52,717

September 26, 2013 12:33 PM

From the sounds of it: Console-style graphics API for PC
The APIs on the PS3/360 are very different to equivalent PC's D3D9/GL2, or even the modern D3D11/GL4.

There's Some good reasons why A GeForce7900GT can run fairly modern console games (in a console), but is obsolete in PC-land.

I'm intrigued :D

Sounds cool, wonder what exactly they mean by "direct access to graphics RAM".

We have "direct access to (system) RAM" via pointers in our C/C++ code. In theory, pointers can be used to access memory-mapped registers, hardware, GPU-RAM or anything else that he OS wants to map into the address space.
However, PC's currently don't allow GPU ram to be addressed by user-mode pointers...
On a console, you can use pointers to read/write GPU-RAM, just like you can with system-RAM. This makes some techniques simple on consoles, but impossible on PC's.
It also let's console games perform their own simple resource management, while PC games have to use a bloated, general-purpose, opaque driver-implemented resource manager.

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Corefanatic

176

September 26, 2013 12:49 PM

Interesting situation would be if Nvidia came out with similar low level API.

Also, I am wondering if this will let developers have control over CPU-GPU synchronization. If it did and developers could tightly control when and how data is transferred to and from the GPU, this would be a real winner.

TheChubu

9,484

September 26, 2013 12:51 PM

It's the first time I've heard about what API the PS4 is going to use, "GNM".

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ongamex92

3,287

September 26, 2013 12:59 PM

Only developers that really want to push the visuals forward are likely to use it though, small indie teams/studios will probably stick with DirectX (/OpenGL) because it's fast enough and easier (?!) to code.

I think that this will push indies. Because you will get PS/XBOX and probably PC(with both Nvidia and Ati ????) support with the same graphics code! I'm sick of wrappers. For me there are 3 options available :

1. Someone, somewere, somehow must develop cross platform DX API (probability - never)

2. OpenGL must change. Ogl has no documentation(lets face it!), and the API style is outdated. (probability - almost never)

3. Something like Mantle will kill OpenGL and D3D and developers (both hardware and software) will respect and support it. (probility - when AMD buys nVidia ( or vice versa),

TheChubu

9,484

September 26, 2013 01:24 PM

2. OpenGL must change. Ogl has no documentation(lets face it!)

Huh?

http://www.opengl.org/registry/

Click an extension, see what it does. Or read the specs. Works like any normal documentation you'd get with any API (probably OGL registry's is better since it also has comments on design considerations, possible issues, comments from the authors, etc).

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