Report: Intel Looking for Access to Mantle API
PC-World claims that Intel has approached AMD asking for access to the Mantle API.
According to a report in PC World, Intel has asked AMD for access to the Mantle API. Both companies have also confirmed this, according to the report.
"I know that Intel [has] approached us for access to the Mantle interfaces, et cetera. And right now, we've said, give us a month or two, this is a closed beta. And we'll go into the 1.0 [public release] phase sometime this year, which is less than five months if you count forward from June. They have asked for access, and we will give it to them when we open this up, and we'll give it to anyone who wants to participate in this," said Richard Huddy from AMD.
The exact motives behind Intel wanting access to the Mantle API are unclear, but given that the Mantle API allows developers to code games to run a lot more efficiently, along with the fact that Intel's GPUs aren't very powerful, it would benefit Intel to have Mantle support on its GPUs. This is because it will give the Intel GPUs a bit more gaming power, and while it won't make the GPUs perform on par with high-end GPUs, it will certainly make a number of previously unplayable games playable on the iGPUs. According to Intel, this is for an experiment, and DirectX12 remains its primary focus.
"At the time of the initial Mantle announcement, we were already investigating rendering overhead based on game developer feedback. Our hope was to build consensus on potential approaches to reduce overhead with additional data. We have publicly asked them to share the spec with us several times as part of examination of potential ways to improve APIs and increase efficiencies. At this point though we believe that DirectX 12 and ongoing work with other industry bodies and OS vendors will address the issues that game developers have noted," an Intel Spokesperson told PC World.
Mind you though, this should be treated as a rumor for the time being, as only PC World has verified the information. Despite that, it's nice to see things the other way around for a change: AMD having something that Intel wants.
Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
This could be game changing!
Only if your playing games on your work computer or a computer that was never intended for gaming.
When most graphics accelerators were mostly fixed function processors, using unified APIs to address them (DirectX, OpenGL) made a lot of sense. Now that they have all turned into dedicated computing units, something looking more like a computing language+compiler (Mantle) than a simple API is becoming quite tempting.
The reduced overhead can be used for more draw calls, but it can also reduce the drag on the CPU. This frees up more CPU cycles for the game to use elsewhere. When you've got a slower/older system that is CPU-bound, switching to a Mantle rendering path (if the developers take advantage of it) typically gives a larger boost.
The systems that will probably benefit the most from this? Laptop APUs with GCN.
That said, I Intel chips don't really bottleneck in gaming unlike Amd chips which are much weaker. Mantles appeal is that you could run a high end gpu like the 290x or 295 with a weak cpu like the Athlon fm2 chip without bottle nicking.
Intel has the opposite problem with their chips. Strong cpu and weak gpu
and about Nvidia he said (their pride prevents them from using mantle)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZGV5z8YFM8
If Intel had access to Mantle, the true benefit would be reduced CPU overhead which would allow more power for the GPU portion of the chip in thermally limited scenarios like notebooks, tablets, and mobile.
This could be game changing!
actually this is not new. i heard about intel has been asking mantle spec in forum discussion before but note in article above that intel says they have been asking for several times. why they repeatedly asking AMD for it? because AMD has denied intel request. AMD so eager for game developer to take mantle but when hardware vendor ask for the spec (well AMD has been touting mantle to be Open since day one) their response was "we cannot give you the spec yet since it is still beta" and at the same time they have no problem inviting game developer to have an early look at mantle. even better they already have two commercial games running mantle right now. did you still call it beta when there are already commercial games running your tech? if AMD accept intel request since day one maybe intel can help them refining Mantle 1.0 spec. even better Mantle might work on intel igpu by the time they release the spec to the public. why AMD cannot give other hardware vendor the spec now? why need to wait for a year to release it? what did they afraid of? did they afraid they lose the advantage being the sole company capable of running mantle for a period of time? what about future version of mantle? will other hardware vendor have their hands on deciding the spec like OpenGL or will AMD will be the only company controlling Mantle direction?
competing...
It does not do much for weak graphics units and less for strong processors.
I can see where this may help in low power uses but no game changer.
Once the idea to allow more direct access to the gpu was out of the bag everybody will take it up in one form or another (Nvidia already started).
Yes, it is most likely DX 12 will be re worked to incorporate something similar as it is most likely it will require more cpu power.
AMD isn't sharing it yet because its in beta. If they did and it failed that could hurt it's adoption. They are getting it right first