Mantle (API)

Mantle

Developer(s)	AMD, DICE[1]
Operating system	Cross-platform[2]
Type	API
License	Unspecified

Mantle is a graphics API specification developed by AMD as an alternative to Direct3D and OpenGL, primarily for use on the PC platform.^[3] Currently the only implementation is for graphics processing units with AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture.^[4] The design goals of Mantle are to allow games and applications to utilize the CPU and GPU more efficiently, eliminate CPU bottlenecks by reducing API validation overhead and allowing more effective scaling on multiple cores, provide faster draw routines, and allow greater control over the graphics pipeline by eliminating certain aspects of hardware abstraction inherent to the current prevailing graphics APIs.^{[citation needed]}

AMD states that Mantle will be an open API. However, as of February, 2014, the specification has not been made public.

Claimed advantages

• AMD claims that Mantle can generate up to 9 times more draw calls per second than comparable APIs by reducing CPU overhead.^[4]
• Up to 45% faster than Direct3D in Battlefield 4^[5][6][7] and up to 319% faster in the Star Swarm demo in single GPU configuration^[8][9][10]
• More fine control over the hardware.^[4]
• All hardware capabilities are exposed through the API.^[4]
• Low-overhead validation and processing of API commands^[11]
• Reduced runtime shader compilation overhead
• Explicit command buffer control
• Reduction of command buffer submissions
• Data formats optimizations via flexible buffer/image access
• Explicit control of resource compression, expansion, and synchronization
• Asynchronous DMA queue for data uploads independent from the graphics engine
• Asynchronous compute queue for overlapping of compute and graphics workloads
• Advanced Anti-Aliasing features for MSAA/EQAA optimizations
• New rendering techniques possible.
• Direct GPU memory access.
• Close to linear performance scaling from recording command buffers onto multiple CPU cores^[12]
• Multithreaded parallel CPU rendering support for at least 8 cores.^[13]
• No game developer reliance on existing AMD driver support release schedules (potentially no or fewer bugs on release, much faster patching for GFX related errors).
• Due to bypassing of error-prone and inefficient abstraction, common technical difficulties like FPS drops, micro stuttering and texture corruption can be significantly less frequent or nonexistent.
• Performance increase over higher-level APIs such as Direct3D and OpenGL.

Usage

• During a GPU 14 Tech Days presentation, an announcement was made that Frostbite 3 would include a Mantle backend.^[4] The first game running on Frostbite 3 to use Mantle is Battlefield 4.^[3]
• Will be used in the games Star Citizen and Thief, and the upcoming game engine Nitrous.^[14][15]
• A further 15 games have been reported to support Mantle, including Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare which will use Mantle "out of the box."^[16]

See also

• OpenGL
• Direct3D
• Glide – another low-level API, by the now defunct 3dfx
• S3 MeTaL - another low-level API, by S3
• RRedline - another low-level API, by Rendition

References