Intel + Mantle = ?

[PathfinderNC]

It would appear Intel has an urge to jump deeper into the GPU manufacturer's market, adding another to the line-up alongside NVIDIA and AMD.

 

Intel has approached AMD about access to its game-boosting Mantle technology, an AMD executive said Friday.

 

Intel, for its part, confirmed that it has indeed asked AMD for access to the Mantle technology, for what it referred to as an "experiment". However, an Intel spokesman said that it remains committed to what it calls open standards like Microsoft's DirectX API.

 

So why Mantle? Is the "experiment" perhaps the workings of another API ... Intel's version of Mantle or Apple's Metal API?

 

So far, the fight has been between AMD and Nvidia, which combined sold about 33 percent of the GPUs sold during the second quarter, according to Jon Peddie Research. The remaining two-thirds of the market is owned by Intel, which hasn't publicly committed to an architecture-specific API.

 

"I know that Intel have approached us for access to the Mantle interfaces, et cetera," Huddy said. " 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."

 

An Intel spokesman confirmed that it had made the request, but downplayed any Intel-specific low-level API plans.

 

What do you think Intel is up to now? Would another new API be a good thing or is it better to focus on the ones we already have? Let me know what you think or if I misread anything.

 

Credit:

Article by Mark Hachman on PCMag.com

[Askew]

I think it would be funny if my integrated iGPU could use Mantle and my GTX card could not.

[beebskadoo]

This could offer a really big advantage to lower end laptops or even ultrabooks. I can't wait to see how well it performs!

[ItsLinkNotZelda]

This will be pretty cool if it comes true. If your really on a budget and you really need an Intel cpu for some reason, this could be a good option. Laptops could see a nice boost in performance too.

[Misanthrope]

I must remain skeptical: knowing intel they probably want mantle to avoid upgrading their apus

[LegendKillerRG]

This can be beneficial to Apple users, those $1000 laptop with no GPUs...

[pbenologa]

And that is how you get to be a good company. (Which is AMD for this case) Mantle will be a big help for Intel if applied perfectly and smoothly.

[flibberdipper]

Having a "Mantle" Intel iGPU would be great. Then their iGPU's would be a lot less lackluster in games/applications that actually supported the API (assuming this actually gets released).

[Kamina]

I would feel pretty intimidated if my biggest competitor asked me for some code. It wouldn't be the first for AMD though.

[Heisenbleurgh]

Intle.

[euniqe]

So far, the fight has been between AMD and Nvidia, which combined sold about 33 percent of the GPUs sold during the second quarter, according to Jon Peddie Research. The remaining two-thirds of the market is owned by Intel, which hasn't publicly committed to an architecture-specific API.

 

Am I missing something here?

 

Last time I checked, Intel didn't make GPU's. 

[beebskadoo]

Am I missing something here?

Last time I checked, Intel didn't make GPU's.

yeah they do...

Integrated ones that ate on the cpu Are the majority.

[euniqe]

Oh ok I see what they mean. 

 

Well to be pedantic, they aren't GPU's. GPU's are standalone units (graphics processing unit). On-cpu-die graphics aren't gpu's, but whatever I get what the article's about.

[beebskadoo]

Oh ok I see what they mean.

Well to be pedantic, they aren't GPU's. GPU's are standalone units (graphics processing unit). On-cpu-die graphics aren't gpu's, but whatever I get what the article's about.

no they can be stand alone or integrated, they have the same functionality either way.

[mr moose]

Oh ok I see what they mean. 

 

Well to be pedantic, they aren't GPU's. GPU's are standalone units (graphics processing unit). On-cpu-die graphics aren't gpu's, but whatever I get what the article's about.

yeah they are,  a DAC doesn't stop being a DAC just because it's integrated into a DSP and  GPU doesn't stop being a GPU just because it's integrated into a CPU.

[The_Strict_Nein]

The funny thing about the iGPU is that once Intel started making it, their market share in GPUs went from 0% to dominating the market overnight

[Plasma]

i would say this has more to do with Intel Xeon Phi then igpu but then again they could both benefit from mantle so who knows, i think intel cares more about gpu computing big business data that can be sold at a high cost then getting dota2 to run on you i5

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/xeon/xeon-phi-architecture-for-discovery-video.html

[Mo5]

AMD makes the actual API then Intel makes it famous. It's like integrated memory controllers - AMD did it first with the Phenom, Intel made it awesome.

[freexavier]

This is good so that people using Linux can run new games that support the Mantle API.

[LAwLz]

DirectX... Open Standard...

Wow, the word "open" truly have lost its meaning.

 

 

Good news though. Now AMD has the chance to show everyone just how open they are with Mantle, and it's nice to see that we now have a date for public release (late 2014) as well.

[Maudima]

Quite a lot of ultrabooks are using Intel GPU technology  (Iris atm). This could be quite a boost for mantle. I hope this will accelerate adoption. 

[fringie]

This might also mean Intel take away some market share from AMD in a worst case scenario. I don't want AMD to die .

[Kingofpants]

Holy poops! AMD quick give it to them, even if beta!

This is what will get mantle the huge amount of developer support it needs.

[theroflcopta]

An article on kitguru.net goes into detail about an interview on pcworld.com/ with AMDs gaming scientist Richard Huddy had this to say,

“I know that Intel have approached us for access to the Mantle interfaces, et cetera, 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." 

 

I wouldn't mind if intel used mantle for their integrated graphics. All it means is better performance for more people and if AMD AND Intel adopt this technology this API should be integreated in many more games meaning again more performance in more games for more people. I don't see a downside to this especially if recent news about mantle being adopted for linux is true. Looks like DirectX 12 might not be the death of mantle yet.

 

[Shd0w2]

I've always liked that picture because it shows amd with "smarter choi-" then INTEL has their chip just sitting atop amd lol.