All Frostbite 3 Titles to Ship Optimized Exclusively for AMD GPUs and CPUs

[Mechromancer]

From IGN

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/...sively-for-amd

Amidst the fray of E3 reveals and gameplay demos, EA announced a new partnership with AMD that could tip the scales for the chip maker's Radeon graphics cards. Starting with the release of Battlefield 4, all current and future titles using the Frostbite 3 engine ? Need for Speed Rivals, Mirror's Edge 2, etc. ? will ship optimized exclusively for AMD GPUs and CPUs. While Nvidia-based systems will be supported, the company won't be able to develop and distribute updated drivers until after each game is released.

Interesting news...

[Lanek]

I think IGN is a little bit exagerate things, i really doubt Nvidia will not been able to get an hand on the game before the release, but at contrario, its clear in the case of thoses games, they will not been able to put time with developpers and ask them some change or optimisation on the code, or tell them: " dont do this like that, if you do it this way, performance are better ( on our own hardware ).." Nothing different of what we see usually.

[paulbagz]

lol just don't bench on EA based games

-PB

[Mechromancer]

I'm far more fascinated by the CPU optimizations than the GPU. Game devs develop for one or the other GPU a lot of the time anyway. Paulbagz, it will be interesting to see if Intel still manages to be fast in the CPU benchmarks.

[El Mano]

Some of us have been saying for ages that this might happen. It was an obvious move. With AMD powering the next gen, it makes little sense for devs to optimize games for any other platform. Games will me made for consoles and then ported to PC, and AMD hardware will be favored.

[paulbagz]

Some of us have been saying for ages that this might happen. It was an obvious move. With AMD powering the next gen, it makes little sense for devs to optimize games for any other platform. Games will me made for consoles and then ported to PC, and AMD hardware will be favored.

This in every way.

Not surprising at all.

-PB

[Rollo]

Some of us have been saying for ages that this might happen. It was an obvious move. With AMD powering the next gen, it makes little sense for devs to optimize games for any other platform. Games will me made for consoles and then ported to PC, and AMD hardware will be favored.

Yes, developers will forget about the companies that have 90% of the gaming CPU market, and 65% of the gaming GPU market altogether now.

Pretty soon those numbers will be reversed, because AMD has all the consoles.

Could happen I guess, but somehow I doubt it. (I don't doubt that AMD will get more play than they have with game devs though)

[kuroikenshi]

Yes, developers will forget about the companies that have 90% of the gaming CPU market, and 65% of the gaming GPU market altogether now.

Pretty soon those numbers will be reversed, because AMD has all the consoles.

Could happen I guess, but somehow I doubt it. (I don't doubt that AMD will get more play than they have with game devs though)

well, its all about best optimization and cost savings,

if I build a game focused around a specific architecture then it will not only become cheaper, but the devs can be more productive and thus spend less on the project itself.

AMD has the next standard and therefore will be the preferred architecture to optimise code for.

[HelixPC]

This is terrible, AMD cant make solid drivers, its been years and their drivers still suck.

[Lanek]

This is terrible, AMD cant make solid drivers, its been years and their drivers still suck.

Look like Nvidia have recruit some guys of the AMD driver team for the 320.18 it seems, and the early one was allready a nice piece of art in his own style ...

[Ace123]

Looks like 5 years of lobbying and work are starting to pay off
remember this

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphic...dize-PC-Gaming

[dasa]

ea doesnt care much for pc optimization of any brand they are just talking about optimizing for there most profitable platform the console at least now they should work better on intel\nvidia hardware than a port from the old consoles did

[Tha Last Meal]

Update: EA says Frostbite 3 Optimization Not Exclusive to AMD

UPDATE: EA and AMD have issued a statement clarifying that while the two companies are collaborating on day-one support for Radeon products for Battlefield 4, the partnership is non-exclusive and gamers using other components will be supported.

?DICE has a partnership with AMD specifically for Battlefield 4 on PC to showcase and optimize the game for AMD hardware," an EA spokesperson said. "This does not exclude DICE from working with other partners to ensure players have a great experience across a wide set of PCs for all their titles.?
AMD's statement:

"It makes sense that game developers would focus on AMD hardware with AMD hardware being the backbone of the next console generation. At this time, though, our relationship with DICE and EA is exclusively focused on Battlefield 4 and its performance optimizations for AMD CPUs, GPUs and APUs," AMD representatives said. "Additionally, the AMD Gaming Evolved program undertakes no efforts to prevent our competition from optimizing for games before their release.?

[El Mano]

Yes, developers will forget about the companies that have 90% of the gaming CPU market, and 65% of the gaming GPU market altogether now.

Pretty soon those numbers will be reversed, because AMD has all the consoles.

Could happen I guess, but somehow I doubt it. (I don't doubt that AMD will get more play than they have with game devs though)

Hello Rollo,
No, I don't think they will forget who has 90% of the gaming GPU market... right now. Therefore, their games will be compatible and will run on Nvidia hardware too.
Remember though that even if devs didn't want to optimize for a certain hardware, both console versions are going to be created to run on a certain hardware that is, want it or not, very similar to the APU concept AMD is selling right now.

Things change and so do market shares. Are games optimized for Nvidia GPU's because there are more Nvidia cards out there or are there more Nvidia cards out there because games are optimized for Nvidia hardware? Time will tell.

Don't forget that

AMD has the next standard and therefore will be the preferred architecture to optimise code for.

in fact, AMD has the two next standards: both console systems and their APU's which are the best you can buy right now. We hardware enthusiasts are rara avis, and devs, as you know, want their games to run on as many computers as possible.

[Hornet331]

I'm far more fascinated by the CPU optimizations than the GPU. Game devs develop for one or the other GPU a lot of the time anyway. Paulbagz, it will be interesting to see if Intel still manages to be fast in the CPU benchmarks.

Wont matter for any relevant desktop, or mobile cpus anyway... we are talking jaguar (aka slightly better bobcat) here, its a weak core to begin with so they need all the optimization they can get. Piledriver, ivybridge or the new haswell/steamroller will run circles around jaguar.

Also I doubt there "optimizations" will be more then enabling certain compiler flags, only for first party studios you might see some more in depth optimization and then I think its more for the gpu rather then the cpu.

[Greg83]

what i was thinking about this before was.
AMD is a module right, with currently 2 intiger processors and a single floating point, per 2 cores. kinda like Hyperthreading without logical processors
giving +1 interger processor per module then the intel.
If the code path optimiziations sse, etc have been optimimzed for a single units of each per module. this would explain optimizations for amd's, to make use of the whole processor instead of cross platform optimizations based on the current code path optimizations for ease of programming.

just what i was thinking about after reading this title.

[Aberration]

From IGN

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/...sively-for-amd



Interesting news...

Consoles.

I'm far more fascinated by the CPU optimizations than the GPU. Game devs develop for one or the other GPU a lot of the time anyway. Paulbagz, it will be interesting to see if Intel still manages to be fast in the CPU benchmarks.

I don't think code optimizations can make up for the difference.

[Final8ty]

AMD's statement:

"It makes sense that game developers would focus on AMD hardware with AMD hardware being the backbone of the next console generation. At this time, though, our relationship with DICE and EA is exclusively focused on Battlefield 4 and its performance optimizations for AMD CPUs, GPUs and APUs," AMD representatives said. "Additionally, the AMD Gaming Evolved program undertakes no efforts to prevent our competition from optimizing for games before their release.”

So its not AMD saying that NV can not have the code before release its EA saying it.

Amidst the fray of E3 reveals and gameplay demos, EA announced a new partnership with AMD that could tip the scales for the chip maker's Radeon graphics cards. Starting with the release of Battlefield 4, all current and future titles using the Frostbite 3 engine — Need for Speed Rivals, Mirror's Edge 2, etc. — will ship optimized exclusively for AMD GPUs and CPUs. While Nvidia-based systems will be supported, the company won't be able to develop and distribute updated drivers until after each game is released.

And the updates say there is nothing to worry about.

UPDATE: EA and AMD have issued a statement clarifying that while the two companies are collaborating on day-one support for Radeon products for Battlefield 4, the partnership is non-exclusive and gamers using other components will be supported.

“DICE has a partnership with AMD specifically for Battlefield 4 on PC to showcase and optimize the game for AMD hardware," an EA spokesperson said. "This does not exclude DICE from working with other partners to ensure players have a great experience across a wide set of PCs for all their titles.”

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/06/1...sively-for-amd

[MaddMuppet]

I wouldn't worry as it will run just fine on Intel and NVidia tech. No issues there.

[kromosto]

we will see if again this will be a optimization on words or a real one.

[kl0012]

Wasn't it always that way - some games were sponsored by AMD, others - by Nvidia. For example Epic just launched Unreal 4 partners program... And guess what - Intel, Nvidia inside, AMD - outside:
http://www.unrealengine.com/en/news/...tners_program/
Not to mention that there are only two main physics engines - one owned by Nvidia (PhysX), another one - by Intel (Havok).

[Tomasis]

some said that they dont worry for optimization.

I dont worry neither when Radeon cards is 2 fps slower though loads of Joes will buy competitior's product based on 1-2 fps difference.

WIN-WIN, amd

[Iconyu]

AMD won't block nvidia involvement, but early on in development it would make more sense to be AMD focused if console is your lead platform. Also when AMD do create something they try not to make it proprietary TressFX might be flaky but their texture compression technique worked on everything, it makes more sense for everyone to support the good stuff.

[screwtech02]

Pffffft, DICE/EA couldnt "optimize" a bowel movment...... All this talk about consoles.... Meh....

[Scubar]

Optimizations or not, You can bet the games on PC will still run faster on Intel/Nvidia combinations than AMD/AMD