AMD Offers Mantle For OpenGL-Next, Pushes Mantle To Workstations

[brad0]

Bonus multiplier x100: NVIDIA's drivers actually work.

AMD 5, NVIDIA 100.

But they're binary blob drivers so negative multiplier x100.

AMD 5, NVIDIA 0.

[brad0]

NVidia drivers actually work. Now thats a strange concept for AMD I know, but they need to get that going first before making all kinds of APIs.

If I give you a chocolate bar you'll give me your soul, right? LOL. You NVidia fan boys are pathetic.

[Sdar]

Well, first, AMD released their specs, NVIDIA didn't. +1 AMD
Then, AMD is helping and even working on the open source drivers, NVIDIA doesn't (or is beginning to see if it might be interesting for them...) Nvidia helps a little from time to time, but +1 AMD anyway
AMD shared their Mantle specs (supposed to be cross platform and open but it's not, at least not yet) with OpenGL workgroup, NVIDIA didn't share anything, but they support Opengl and has proposed and added a lot of interesting extensions for it +1 AMD +1 Nvidia
AMD proposed an open graphical synchronization (a.k.a. FreeSync), while NVIDIA have their proprietary G-Sync. G-Sync works with older cards (Kepler and newer) Free sync works only with rx series or newer, but +1 AMD
AMD open drivers are better than NVIDIA's +1 AMD
Down side: AMD proprietary drivers are worst than NVIDIA's +1 Nvidia
AMD Opencl is broken and they've been saying that they'll fix it during the last 3 years -1 AMD (I'm tempted to give em a -3 one for year)
Nvidia is porting all Gameworks to linux +1 Nvidia
Games on linux recommends Nvidia cause bad AMD drivers -1 AMD

Conclusion: AMD 3, NVIDIA 3.

And let me tell you that this kind of comparisons don't have any sense, it's too difficult not to let something out of it that could change the results and are easy to manipulate.

If you want a more open source friendly vendor go AMD, If you want linux treated as first class citizen go Nvidia.

AMD has potential to be great... I hope that someday the FOSS driver will get Opengl 4.x support and a fully working Opencl surpassing Catalyst performance on windows, but from now the Foss driver lacks some features and performance and the proprietary one lacks reliability and a fully working Opencl.

[zanny]

Free sync works only with rx series or newer, but +1 AMD

Displayport variable refresh rates are supportable in any driver that wants to implement them. If AMD does not support it in their Catalyst driver, nobody gives a shit, because it will be in the Mesa driver, if from nobody else than from Intel. All it does it show again why closed drivers rob you of your freedoms.

I'm over here gaming just fine playing Metro, Civ 5, etc on a 7870 at fine fps for my needs on radeonSI. They give me my free driver, I give them my money. On dozens of computers I've built myself and for others.

It is kind of ridiculous that the Mantle API is still not public. If it becomes OpenGL-Next, then whatever, but seriously.

[schmidtbag]

Y'know what amazes me? How everywhere you go, people think it's actually possible for one brand to be better than the other. At the moment, nvidia has a better experience as a whole, however, AMD has been immensely helpful to the open source community. If they worked on the open source drivers 2 years sooner, they'd be in much better shape than they are now and they're already in relatively good shape (depending on what model you have). Drivers aside, each brand still has it's own advantages. Certain games perform better on one brand more than another. Some workstation software works the same way. Generally speaking, nvidia performs better overall, but at a higher price.

Half the interest of using linux is to collaborate and work as a community. Shunning each other over who has a superior product is hardly helping. How about contributing instead?


Anyway, I feel like AMD was very well aware Mantle wasn't going to last very long. I'm not sure how their API works but it wouldn't surprise me if it's very similar to DirectX and uses a lot of copy+paste from OpenGL. I don't get the impression it was under development very long either. It served 3 purposes and was successful in all 3:
1. It reduced CPU load (which is good for AMD's CPUs since they're a bit on the weak side)
2. It showed that there needs to be a serious change in how APIs work in order to make hardware more efficient. Sometimes, it isn't about just buying the next upgrade; sometimes it's about optimizing and making the most of what you have.
3. Because it proved to have increased efficiency but was strictly only usable to their API, people bought their products to get the extra FPS in the few games that actually supported it.

Considering MS, Intel, Nvidia, Apple, and Khronos all acknowledge and are willing to pursue AMD's "proof-of-concept", I'd say AMD reached their goals. I think what annoys me is how they're going to have to maintain mantle for however many years when they've now got 3 other new/improved APIs to worry about.

[grndzro]

Nvidia is going to be all over this like stink on shit.

Nvidia gets the multithreading benefit of Mantle.
The Benefit of not openly supporting an AMD standard.
And a cross platform non windows locked API.

AMD gets wider adoption of Mantle.
It's Win/Win for AMD on this one. If the standard takes off it will be cakewalk ported to Mantle.

[rikkinho]

i can't understand

i can't undertand why ppl supports so much amd, i really can't, having a amd card in linux is the worst nightmare, but ok continue supporting them, better decision in my life:

last year sell all amd cpu and gpu ,buy intel and nvidia

[xeekei]

i can't undertand why ppl supports so much amd, i really can't, having a amd card in linux is the worst nightmare, but ok continue supporting them, better decision in my life:

last year sell all amd cpu and gpu ,buy intel and nvidia

People have explained why they support AMD more times than one, so maybe it's your obviously very poor English skills that are the problem?

[OneTimeShot]

i can't undertand why ppl supports so much amd

Yawn... This old flame-fest. Am I allowed to post my stupid, irrelevant, one-off experience too? Once I think that maybe the NVidia BLOB corrupted my harddisk. I have switched that computer to Nouveau since then (less than perfect, but usually works without HD problems).

In any case, I support AMD/Intel over Nvidia for the same reason I support Linux over Windows/Mac. It's high-powered Open Source, and I like it that way. FWIW, I also have an iPad that is definitely locked down, and I like that too.

The IT world is going to split into OpenSource and consumer segments. You will never see a commandline on consumer stuff. The "Year of the Linux Desktop" will never happen for the same reason that I don't use a chain-saw to cut a block of cheese, even though it technically has had all the features that I would need for the task...

[blackout23]

Yawn... This old flame-fest. Am I allowed to post my stupid, irrelevant, one-off experience too? Once I think that maybe the NVidia BLOB corrupted my harddisk. I have switched that computer to Nouveau since then (less than perfect, but usually works without HD problems).

In any case, I support AMD/Intel over Nvidia for the same reason I support Linux over Windows/Mac. It's high-powered Open Source, and I like it that way. FWIW, I also have an iPad that is definitely locked down, and I like that too.

The IT world is going to split into OpenSource and consumer segments. You will never see a commandline on consumer stuff. The "Year of the Linux Desktop" will never happen for the same reason that I don't use a chain-saw to cut a block of cheese, even though it technically has had all the features that I would need for the task...

AMDs open source drivers still require closed source microcode and firmware...If you want to be truly open you have to use an older NVIDIA card with nouveau.