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In a pretty exciting rumor today there have been claims that the new DirectX standard coming with Windows 10, could allow you to use graphics card from both AMD and NVIDIA. The so called, Explicit Asynchronous Multi-GPU capabilities could bring all of the GPU power in a system into a pool so that all GPUs can then work together on each frame.
Toms Hardware, who sourced this information say that “A source with knowledge of the matter gave us some early information about an “unspoken API,”” This is presumed to be DirectX12. They continue, “If you like Nvidia's GeForce Experience software and 3D Vision, but you want to use AMD's TrueAudio and FreeSync, chances are you'll be able to do that when DirectX 12 comes around.”
Of course if this rumor is correct, this is great news for us gamers, we would no longer have to decide between which graphics chip we want to stick with. If AMD cards are the best value for money we can buy one of them, then in a few months we can just slot in a new top of the line NVIDIA card as well.
This is something that has been tried previously to some extent on a few motherboards, for instance the MSI Fuzion Technology range has supported graphics cards from different manufacturers on the same board. The system that DirectX12 is using however, could even replace proprietary NVIDIA SLI and ATI Crossfire multi card systems, as they simply would no longer be required. It could also allow totally different generations of cards to be used together, something that SLI does not allow.
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KitGuru Says: This could be a massive deal if it is indeed true and isn't too hard for developers to implement. Having said that I can imagine that neither AMD nor NVIDIA are going to like this. The thought of their cards being used along side the competition doesn't sound like something either company would like. What do you think of this rumor?
Image Source: eteknix
Eww, I don’t want my beautiful, elegant GTX race-mixing with dirty AMD peasants.
This would be pretty awesome. Hope it’s true.
Enjoy getting ass raped by Nvidia as soon as theres a scratch on the card?
Hows the 4GB working out for you?
If this is true this would be beyond amazing. Currently I’m using a gtx 770, its not too great for 1440p gaming, but I didn’t want to upgrade to a 980 which still wouldnt get me the 144 fps cap, so I’ve been waiting for the next generation…but if this is true, and I can buy a 980, and still get the power of my 770 and combine the two…I can imagine this would make many, many people much more interested in purchasing new graphics cards
Wouldn’t matter to me if true, I’d never stink up my machine with snot green, faulty NV trash.
….The 980 and the 770 are both Nvidia cards though?….
My thoughts exactly.
But they are different generation cards so they won’t work together as of yet. DX12 will allegedly allow you to use cards from different generations thus meaning he can.
Don’t forget G-Sync. And oh boy, look at all those PhysX games! Why, in 2013 there were almost 10 of them!
This software will potentially remove the barrier between brands and generations of cards yet you still squabble over which is best as if the CEO’s of each company care about you individually and are fighting the good fight along side you. Bizzare.
Haha, And what’s worse? Nvidia didn’t even invent PhysX!? And, you can just run it on your CPU!!!
Nvidia=Apple of the GPU world.
It would be great for consumers, but I can’t imagine drivers from both working well together (hell sometime they don’t work well on their own).
Not only different generation. Different model. AMD allows CFX between, say, a 290 and a 290X or a 270 and a 265. Nvidia requires that the two cards are identical.
It’s a sad testament to the fact that the “PC MUSTARD RICE” are nothing but petulant kids. They’ll fight over anything and EVERYTHING (consoles, PC parts brand loyalty, game exclusivity, etc.). All you need is a single push.
indeed martin, I buy whats available and never got why people fight over brands. I have made so many computers and sincerely I have not developed any sort of “loyalty” to any brand.
There shouldn’t be a reason for people to try to shame others over the video card they use, sometimes you are on a budget or you get a good deal that you cannot pass.
Too good to be true 🙁
that is because 290 and 290X are based on the same chip (Hawaii) . 290 is just a nerfed version of 290X, so as 280 and 280X (not the Tonga 285)
dose that mean Nvidia Drivers could start BSOD as well? Despite the 970 and GSync issue, NV are hands down way better them AMD on the sole fact of better Drivers code. AMD devs dont have a clue how to write drivers if there company depend on it.. oh wait it dose….
I you are looking for AFR modes then you are lowering the effectiveness by making the weakest link the significant speed up factor. Otherwise if the application has means to utilize this API to specifically offload certain tasks like PhysX or True audio then the incentive is there.
I think both companies would enjoy it. There are advantages. Why stick to one camp when you can go with both.
That has nothing to do with it. The 980 and the 970 are based on the same chip, just like the 980 and the 970, but you can’t SLI them.
4GB means 4GB….lmao
“It could also allow totally different generations of cards to be used together, something that SLI does not allow”
I don’t see myself ever wanting to use AMD and nVidia together, but THIS^^…. Brings a whole new meaning to the word upgrade 😀
I’m making fun of a retarded fanboy, is there something wrong with that? Where exactly did I say I was against this tech? It’s lovable seeing dumbasses act all high and mighty and criticizing people after drawing their own shortsighted, ignorant conclusions.
Nvidia will be locking this possibility for sure. Like they do with PhysX.
Sounds more like wishful thinking than a plausible reality. “Unspoken API”? Considering none of the people working with DirectX12 so far has said a word on this let me be very skeptical about the whole thing
It could be possible that DirectX12 can run multiple different GPUs at once, but that doesn’t mean the drivers will let it do that!
I have both an NVIDIA and AMD GPUs and if I activate AMD in a display, the NVIDIA driver literally locks itself.
The blue screen issue is a user issue. People not removing old drivers before installing new ones causes blue screens. It’s not that hard to avoid.
So well AMD is taking on more loss by lowering the price of their cards.
Running on the CPU gets you limited PhysX peasant. That’s like saying iGPU’s are equal to dGPU’s.
I disagree. Having 3 AMD system and 1 Nvidia system. I constantly having Graphic drivers crashing and restarting on my AMDs…
Shotty code is shotty code no matter how you try and slice it.
And these pcs arn’t even gaming pcs…
AMD Win8.1
AMD 7 sp1 x2
My gaming PC with NV has zero driver issues…
works fine.. 4 Gig means 4 GIG… I didn’t magically see my 4gig card lose 500MB of useable memory.
I really hate AMD for that 4 gig means 4 GIG when NV 4 GIG cards have 4 GIG of memory.. it may not be optizmied 4 GIG of memory.. BUT ITS STILL 4 GIG OF MEMROY…
there more then 10 games that are powered by PhysX in 2013
Well, it does if you look at those dodgy specifications on the box 🙂
You can disagree if you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is a user-end error and the problem is something you’re doing.
as a system administrator for small offices ect as well as server IT.. I doing nothing wrong…
once again… Shotty code is Shotty code no matter how you try and slice it…
and to even further prove my point AMD recently posted up jobs for more driver engineers for there video cards & mainboard chip sets…
and to even further more prove my point There like zero support for Linux drivers coming from AMD them selfs.
AMD programmer’s just don’t really know how to code drivers.. plain and simple
It’s still on your end. You can call the code “shoddy”, at least I think that’s the word you’re looking for, and that’s your own choice, but that doesn’t make it true. Also, AMD cards work fine on Linux, lol. Obviously they don’t need to provide drivers to the 1% of their customer-base that uses Linux if their cards are already functional on Linux systems.
no its not.. clean install.. install latest driver… and still have graphic driver issues… thats not my fault.. THAT BAD CODE… and its SHOTTY code.. AKA horrible written & compiled code. Its AMD trade mark to have bad gaphic drivers for like the past 10 years+ A simple google search can prove this
and yes amd work on linux fine as for basic functions. (any card will work in vesa mode will no issues). when it comes to 3d gaming via opengl amd doesn’t give shit about supplying fully functional drivers.. and they half-ass them on windows…
and if u think AMD don’t need to provide drivers to Linux users your more crazy then I thought… I think ever linux user that has AMD cards would like to have a word with you about amd lack of driver support
you could have the most powerfull Graphic adaptor known to man.. but if the drivers are the worlds shittest code ever compiled then it dosn’t matter what the hardware has… its going to run like ass no matter what.
The fact is amd drivers are NOT STABLE… There getting better but no where near as stable as NV drivers are.. and that why hands down NV cards work better on Windows, Linux and OSX (UNIX) and is the sole choses for Linux users alone…
Also the solo reason why Apple Uses NV in all there IMacs as a dedicated solution
the only reason why Apple uses AMD cards in there MacPro is due to the fact there WorkStation cards.. Not Desktop cards… And since MacPro are overly priced as they are.. swapping them out for NV Quadros would be unbuyable for most people
(MacPro use to come with the option for NV Quadros but they broke the 10,000$ price tag so they stop offering them
The word is shoddy, that’s what my correction thing I did was hinting at there.
will the earlier generation of the cards be supported by directx 12? if so will my 660 SLI cards have a performance gain?
ah I see. I’m so used to people typing shotty on forum post ect…
Honestly, my NVida 840M-equipped laptop, the desktop I built for a friend with a 980, and my old desktop with a GT640 all crash and have driver issues way more than when I used AMD cards (older laptop, old desktop now has AMD card) . I’ve heard a lot of good things about AMDs drivers lately, CF scales better and is less stuttery than SLI, and they seem pretty stable for me.
Lol, I see this as:
*click*
AMD: Alright, let’s play some games.
NVidia: What, I’m not working with this guy! *locks up*
AMD: Uh, ok then…
Windows AMD and Nvidia I will say are fine and possibly a user error. Linux, lol AMD works, but with a major price. I run Arch and on my AMD systems I literally have to ignore Xorg server updates. AMD drivers tend to destroy your system per se if Xorg is above 1.16.1 and we have about 1.17.4 now. Which makes you have to ignore Xorg updates if you run Arch like myself. If that isn’t bad enough you have to manually patch fglrx to work with kernels 3.17 to 3.19. If you don’t same result black screen with nothing working after reboot.
Use Nvidia drivers with higher Xorg and kernels and way less problems. Not to mention way less gaming issues. For example, Sanctum 2 AMD side with the latest drivers stutter problems. The screen looks as if you were having a seizure as it jumps and clips all over the place. Open some games on AMD with multimonitors and despite the settings in Catalyst the game fills the screen like it was in Eyefinity.
Now this is not to say I have not had problems with Nvidia stuff as well, but no where as equal as the problems I have had with AMD on Linux. Windows it really does not matter which you own, but on Linux Nvidia matters if you care for gaming and/or using rolling release OS’s. If you just want to dabble around the net and watch videos AMD is great for open source drivers, but don’t expect the same gaming performance from open source you get from proprietary.