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AMD Finally Finishes Mantle Drivers, Will Be Available Soon

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And they're almost ready for download! Almost.

It took longer than expected, but AMD has finally finished tweaking its Catalyst 14.1 beta drivers. These were originally due yesterday, at the same time as the Battlefield 4 patch but were unexpectedly delayed. Considering the drivers are needed for users to see any optimizations from Mantle, a delay was pretty disappointing.

 
The good news is that the guys at AMD have finally gotten the driver finished. Last night, the company said it encountered a bug at the last minute and had to delay. AMD said it would give the press 24 hours to evaluate the drivers before pushing forward with a public release. About half an hour ago, AMD sent us the drivers for our own performance evaluations. Though the email didn’t say when we the public release would be, AMD promised to keep us posted.

If everything goes well, hopefully you’ll be able to download Catalyst 14.1 beta this weekend and get your first look at Mantle. If not… Well, we hear there’s a football game you could tune in to on Sunday. That might help pass the time.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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103 Comments Comment from the forums
  • FloKid
    Now all we need is for OpenGL and DX to go multithreaded also.
    Reply
  • Djentleman
    From what i've seen. Mantle is not what i expected it to be. For people who have already powerful cpus, mantle isn't going to benefit them. Kinda sad since i bought a 7870(and put into my steam machine) to try it out. It benefits crossfire, and anemic cpu's.
    Reply
  • Casper Larsen
    12579742 said:
    From what i've seen. Mantle is not what i expected it to be. For people who have already powerful cpus, mantle isn't going to benefit them. Kinda sad since i bought a 7870(and put into my steam machine) to try it out. It benefits crossfire, and anemic cpu's.

    And we haven't see how many developers are going to take advantage.

    We are still in wait and see mode. I said this to everybody who is always saying that people should change to either AMD or Intel based on a new soon to be released new tech, software or whatever.

    We are terrible at predicting and producers always overestimate the effects.
    Reply
  • hakesterman
    @Djentleman - Obviously you haven't seen anything or know anything so your commenting on your own hypothetical theory, Nice.
    Reply
  • chumly
    Now HERE is an article on the subject (with actual information on the subject):http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/amd-almost-rolls-out-mantle-its-high-performance-alternative-to-direct3d-and-opengl/
    Reply
  • chumly
    And here is another article with actual numbers on it: http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/news/view/bf4-mantle-live/
    Reply
  • derpderpderp
    Why the hate? Jealous that it took AMD 1-2 years to make versus 30 years from Microsoft? Ummm its FREE and the gains are amazing! As it matures it will get better!
    Reply
  • Camikazi
    Why the hate? Jealous that it took AMD 1-2 years to make versus 30 years from Microsoft? Ummm its FREE and the gains are amazing! As it matures it will get better!
    MS and the OpenGL group worked from the infancy of computer gaming to make their APIs, AMD pretty much just took their hard worked for knowledge and ran with it with some improvements. Improvements that would have probably shown up in DX and OpenGL anyway. It's the same with every startup, most of them take what others have created from the ground up and jump up from that level, once the ground work is laid it gets easier if you are creative enough. It's not wrong or bad but you make it seem as if any company could have made Mantle 30 years ago even though it was completely impossible to do.
    Reply
  • mstngs351
    Now HERE is an article on the subject (with actual information on the subject):http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/01/amd-almost-rolls-out-mantle-its-high-performance-alternative-to-direct3d-and-opengl/
    You mean actual numbers from AMD/Dice? Toms has already covered that info and considering it's from the people developing it... well it means little. "Until independent testing can take place—which won't happen until the driver is finally made available - the benefits of Mantle are uncertain..."
    Reply
  • childofthekorn
    And here is another article with actual numbers on it: http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/news/view/bf4-mantle-live/
    Thanks for the link. I'm actually surprised at how it affects the 8350 + 7970 with the given statement about how its only for entry CPU's and restricted to r7/r9 the toms posted a few days ago. I think i'm even more of a fanboy of Mantle now than just interested to see what it can bring to the table.
    Reply