Testing AMD’s Mantle

Thief

“Garrett, the Master Thief, steps out of the shadows into the City. In this treacherous place, where the Baron’s Watch spreads a rising tide of fear and oppression, his skills are the only things he can trust. Even the most cautious citizens and their best-guarded possessions are not safe from his reach….As an uprising emerges, Garrett finds himself entangled in growing layers of conflict. Lead by Orion, the voice of the people, the tyrannized citizens will do everything they can to claim back the City from the Baron’s grasp. The revolution is inevitable. If Garrett doesn’t get involved, the streets will run red with blood and the City will tear itself apart.” From ThiefGame.com

To test Thief we simply used the game’s built-in benchmark. We ran the game in Mantle and DX11 mode, restarting each time the API is changed (something that had to be done for all the games). We used the Very High preset and the 1920 x 1080 resolution to test.

Thief showed some incredibly gains yet again: 13 FPS on both the FX 4100 and FX 8350 from switching the API. For the FX 8350 the frame-rate was also so much more consistent meaning not only was there a higher average frame-rate but a more fluid gameplay experience: no juddering from low minimum frame-rates.