Intel wants to play around with Mantle

Kaapstad · 24 Jun 2014 at 09:13

Just an experiment, committed to DX

AMD gaming exec Richard Huddy says the company was approached by Intel, asking for access to AMD’s Mantle technology. Speaking in an interview, Huddy said Intel was interested in ‘Mantle interfaces, et cetera’ but he pointed out that Mantle is still in beta.

Intel confirmed it was interested in Mantle, which it wanted to use for an experiment, but for its part it insists it is still committed to ‘open standards’ like DirectX. Intel downplayed the request, saying it does not have similar plans of its own – Intel won’t do a proprietary low-level API anytime soon.

Intel argues the best way forward is through open platforms that can handle multiple hardware platforms.

For the time being Mantle adoption remains limited, but AMD is courting developers and publishers. Some big names are already on board and the company is planning to bring Mantle to new platforms, including Linux and SteamOS.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/35053-intel-wants-to-play-around-with-mantle

LtMatt · 24 Jun 2014 at 09:20

Intel will benefit greatly from Mantle so i welcome them with open arms. Hopefully Nvidia will not let pride get in the way and give it a go too. Would be great to see our green friends getting similar benefits, at least until DX12 gets here.

ubersonic · 24 Jun 2014 at 09:24

It's been known for a while, Intel approached AMD months ago and got knocked back.

Basically AMD said they were "open to other companies using it" as a stunt because they knew Nvidia would be as likely to take them up on it as they are to take up Nvidia's PhysX offer, sadly they forgot about Intel who were very interested in the prospect and straight in there lol.

humbug · 24 Jun 2014 at 09:38

Kaapstad said:
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/35053-intel-wants-to-play-around-with-mantle

Intel confirmed it was interested in Mantle, which it wanted to use for an experiment

Righty'oh, like Intel have never really been salivating at AMD tech before

*Cough.... IMC's, 64Bit ....cough*

Nvidia will be at their door, "can we have a look? but don't tell anyone....."

Tiz all good.

Kaapstad · 24 Jun 2014 at 09:58

humbug said:
Righty'oh, like Intel have never really been salivating at AMD tech before

*Cough.... IMC's, 64Bit ....cough*

Nvidia will be at their door, "can we have a look? but don't tell anyone....."

Tiz all good.

I think intel may be having a little trouble with the new 8 core 5960X trying to get it to overclock and may see Mantle as a way of getting the performance up.

mmj_uk · 24 Jun 2014 at 10:11

Huddy said Intel was interested in ‘Mantle interfaces, et cetera’ but he pointed out that Mantle is still in beta.

So if I'm reading this right AMD refused? so much for open source then will it be in beta perpetually?

I really hope Intel don't go down the route of making their own Mantle-like API as they actually have the might and market share to make it work, the trouble is their GPU's are **** and it's just going to fragment the industry even worse than it is now with DirectX/Mantle.

pgi947 · 24 Jun 2014 at 10:19

Perhaps they want to see what if anything it does to igpu performance?

Eurofighter · 24 Jun 2014 at 10:19

Open standards are better but DirectX only works on Windows and OpenGL isn't good enough.

Mantle meets a need.

humbug · 24 Jun 2014 at 10:29

mmj_uk said:
So if I'm reading this right AMD refused? so much for open source then will it be in beta perpetually?

I really hope Intel don't go down the route of making their own Mantle-like API as they actually have the might and market share to make it work, the trouble is their GPU's are **** and it's just going to fragment the industry even worse than it is now with DirectX/Mantle.

They said "Yes, when its ready"

opethdisciple · 24 Jun 2014 at 10:40

They are only intersted in Mantle to see if they can improve their igpu position.

Confused Stu · 24 Jun 2014 at 11:02

Wasn't the basic aim for Mantle to reduce usage of CPU so the GPU can stretch it's legs fully? With Intel having such strong processors and (relatively) weak GPUs, wouldn't they be better off working on an anti-Mantle that actually increases the CPU requirement to lessen the reliance on the GPU?

ubersonic · 24 Jun 2014 at 11:19

Confused Stu said:
Wasn't the basic aim for Mantle to reduce usage of CPU so the GPU can stretch it's legs fully? With Intel having such strong processors and (relatively) weak GPUs, wouldn't they be better off working on an anti-Mantle that actually increases the CPU requirement to lessen the reliance on the GPU?

You mean software rendering? /shudder

That died with UT2003

humbug · 24 Jun 2014 at 11:19

Confused Stu said:
Wasn't the basic aim for Mantle to reduce usage of CPU so the GPU can stretch it's legs fully? With Intel having such strong processors and (relatively) weak GPUs, wouldn't they be better off working on an anti-Mantle that actually increases the CPU requirement to lessen the reliance on the GPU?

Yeah... i'm not convinced anything like that is Intel's aim these days, they have ARM and Qualcomm in their sights. they probably think Mantle could help them with their low power mobile chips.

bru · 24 Jun 2014 at 13:05

You have got to laugh when another company is saying to AMD, we prefer open standards, isn't that normally AMD's line.

Annihilation · 24 Jun 2014 at 13:27

. Indeed!

Orangey · 24 Jun 2014 at 13:50

It's not true though, Thunderbolt anyone?

elmuzzy66. · 24 Jun 2014 at 13:59

I can se mantle being in beta stage for ages.

eddyr · 24 Jun 2014 at 15:48

Confused Stu said:
Wasn't the basic aim for Mantle to reduce usage of CPU so the GPU can stretch it's legs fully? With Intel having such strong processors and (relatively) weak GPUs, wouldn't they be better off working on an anti-Mantle that actually increases the CPU requirement to lessen the reliance on the GPU?

The cpu and igp share bandwidth, power (sort of) and tdp, so it would be of benefit to them.

opethdisciple · 24 Jun 2014 at 15:49

Mantle to me, looks like more of a concept API than anything else.

James J · 24 Jun 2014 at 23:18

Intel wants in on mantle API, but...

Source: http://www.kitguru.net/components/g.../intel-approached-amd-about-access-to-mantle/

“At the time of the initial Mantle announcement, we were already investigating rendering overhead based on game developer feedback,” an Intel spokesman said. “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.”

So intel have approached AMD several times to get source code for mantle, probably due to its "open standard" nature, but have been declined each time. I personally think this is a bad move from AMD as getting intel behind mantle and supporting their chipsets would make it an actual serious rival to DX12 and have over a year head start too.

Anyone else feel like AMD is missing a trick here?

NOTE: Before anyone starts trying to derail the thread with "well people say that nvidia dont share tech and they get battered for it, now amd is doing the same", I've just said it. If you honestly think that a company will share everything they make without making profits from it, you are sorely mistaken.