SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
SemiAccurate pitted AMD's Mantle 3D rendering API against Microsoft DirectX 11, by comparing the frame rate performance achieved by five video games that ship with support with both rendering engines, on various hardware configurations outfitted with AMD GPUs or APUs (integrated CPU/GPU). Thomas Ryan wrote up the results in a five-part series. The short answer is that while Mantle produced superior frame rates for practically every game and every hardware configuration, in many cases the difference was small, 10 percent or less. The performance advantage for Mantle is more telling on systems with a dedicated GPU as opposed to an APU, and was most consistently realized for "Civilization Beyond Earth", ironically a strategy game rather than a shooter. In those scenarios, one could indeed say that "Mantle knocked it out of the park."
AMD claims that Mantle provides game developers more opportunities to directly invoke functionality on the GPU, removing the CPU bottleneck. It is supported by the Graphics Core Next generation of AMD CPUs and APUs, although it is not currently supported by either the Playstation 4 or Xbox One. More details are provided in AMD's white paper.
The order of test result articles is from semiaccurate.com: note that it isn't arranged from least to most capable hardware, or vice versa:
- Intel Core-i7 5960X CPU, AMD R9 290 GPU @1080P (high end): 68 percent frame rate advantage for Mantle on "Civilization Beyond Earth"; 6-14 percent advantage for the other four games
- AMD A10-7850K APU (entry level): 30 percent better frame rate for Mantle on "Plants vs. Zombies"; less than 10 percent advantage for the other four games
- Radeon R9 270X GPU (midrange): frame rate advantages of 72 and 53 percent for Mantle in "Thief" and "Civilization Beyond Earth"; 7-15 percent advantage for the other three games (it's not clear what CPU was used).
- AMD Athlon 5350 APU (budget): Slight edge to Mantle on "Plants vs. Zombie: Garden Warfare" and "Civilization Beyond Earth"; push for the other three games
- Conclusion, statistical summary
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 24 2014, @02:52PM
If you think 10 percent is small, donate 10 percent of your income. Hell, donate 10 of your wealth!
Yeah, didn't think you would.
(Score: 2) by kaganar on Monday November 24 2014, @04:40PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 24 2014, @08:39PM
Comparing two fairly rigidly fixed quantities is less applicable than comparing a fixed quantity and a fluid quantity?
(Score: 1) by monster on Tuesday November 25 2014, @04:32PM
Even 1% can be a deal breaker: It's the difference between 99 (two digits) and 100 (omg three digits! expensive!).
Lately, I've even seen a 0.01 difference in prices (like $999.99).