AMD have been stirring up the world of PC gaming in a massive way recently, the launch of their Mantle API is one of the biggest changes to how game engines can access the hardware of a GPU in many years. Designed to run on Radeon graphics cards, as well as their new Kaveri APUs, Mantle allows games developers to have their software/games work more closely with the graphics hardware, allowing for better performance when compared with current solutions such as DirectX.
But wait, there’s more! Microsoft were hardly about to take this one lying down and this latest development that Microsoft have their own API updates in the works is likely the reason behind them not allowing Mantle to be used on the Radeon hardware in the Xbox One.
The new API from Microsoft for the Xbox One is known as Direct3D 11.X, and at Microsoft will be speaking at the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC), where they will be discussing “DirectX: Evolving Microsoft’s Graphics Platform.” The first big hint that Microsoft are going to follow suit and give AMD a run for their money, and the real winner here of course will be the consumer, because who doesn’t love the ideal of getting more performance from their graphics hardware!
“You also asked us for better tools so that you can squeeze every last drop of performance out of your PC, tablet, phone and console. Come learn our plans to deliver,” Microsoft said.
This move from Microsoft is to help reduce the API overhead on the GPU side of things to as close to zero as possible, freeing up more power for rendering and other tasks, if you thought Mantle was hot, then you ain’t seen nothing yet, especially now that there will be some extra competition on the market.
Thank you Fudzilla for providing us with this information.
