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fatslob-:O on 26 September 2013
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Machiavellian said:
fatslob-:O said:
Machiavellian said:
fatslob-:O said:
Machiavellian said:
This really just sounds like a direct API to the AMD chip which would be no different if Sony did the same thing for their chips. Basically what this means is that developers have 4 APIs to choose from. This API, Direct X, OpenGl and whatever Nvidia bring to the table.

Will nvidia even bring their own api ?

I believe Nvidia already have their own APIs.  This is really sounding like we are going back to the 3dfx days where each card have their own APIs and extensions to openGL where developers had to decide which one to use and support.  DX was brought into scope to fix that problem.  Since Nvidia and AMD cards still will be sold in bunches, developers concentrating on GPU specific features that are not supported on both cards is the same as 3rd party developers doing the same thing with Sony and MS console.  

Cuda doesn't count just so you know because it is not meant to be a graphics language like directx or mantle so do you have anything else saying that nvidia has a graphics API ?

I did some checking and it appears Nvidia does not use a seperate API, instead they have a SDK for D3D.  In other words they show how to leverage Nvidia hardware using DX D3d but they do have specific API calls for their PhyX and other features.

When all is said and done, this is just a low level API to AMD hardware.  Just because AMD is making it open source does not make this an API that other vendors will use since its targeted at AMD GPU.  This has the pontential to fragment the industry again and I am not sure this is a good thing.  Its not like Nvidia is going away anytime soon and its not like Nvidia would not bring their own solution to the mix thus stirring the pot.

They have what you would call libraries and physx is one of them. I don't think mantle is completely targetting gcn architechture otherwise they wouldn't claim it "open source". Oh we all know this won't kill nvidia imediately but once it starts gaining some crazy traction this is going to be one hell of a ride for nvidia. Even if nvidia does bring their own solution it will most likely be rejected because their solution does not favour AMD designed consoles.