^^ There is nothing in those links to disprove my point that AMD is not working with game developers as close as nVidia does. In fact those links highlight the fact that AMD is not able to provide and sell competing similar solutions to the game developers. Show me proof where a game with gameworks features switched off still has nVidia libraries actively detecting that its an AMD GPU and then deliberately compromise the rendering flow in some manner.
There's no direct proof, you'll have to look at the evidence objectively and arrive at your own conclusion. Most of the gimping is evident from the benchmarks where even with Gameworks features disabled the gap in performance is always lesser than what it'd be for a title of a similar nature/based on the same engine.
The most glaring examples of which is Watch dogs where a 290x which usually thrashed a 770 by at least 25% in any other title was neck to neck that too with the Gameworks features off.
Or in the case of ProjectCARS where the 200 series is completely overshadowed by gpu's from both 700 as well as 900 series. One funny thing about the PC fiasco was that the GTX960 strangely outperformed both the 780Ti and the first Titan.
Then there was the curious case of wasteful tesselation in Crysis2 which again was done to lower performance on AMD cards when they weren't so great at it.
It was only after the backlash and outcry from certain developers last year that Nvidia even changed their policy of not allowing access to the Gameworks code even to the developers who were integrating it into their game!
It's not like such practices are unheard of either and definitely not the first time AMD could be on the receiving end, remember the "Cripple AMD" compiler fiasco from the early 00's that completely tilted the landscape in Intel's favour ? The truth eventually comes out, just give it some time.
AMD is not working with game developers as close as nVidia does.
sell competing similar solutions to the game developers.
If by working closely you mean paying millions to integrate proprietary code that adversely affects PC gamers that have competing hardware, you're spot on.
No developer in his right mind would knowingly integrate something like this into his product unless he's well compensated for the loss in business doing so will entail.
Gameworks is a library that is optimized to run on nVidia cards. There is absolutely no reason for nVidia to spend time optimizing it for GPU's other than nVidia.
And no one is asking them to spend their time/money either, all they've been asked is to make their libraries open so that manufacturers can do the optimization themselves.
Do you remember how some gaming evolved titles ran better on AMD gpu's at launch or how the framerate tanked when TressFx was enabled in Tomb Raider on Nvidia gpu's ?
Both those problems were rectified because the code was open for optimization which helped Nvidia address those issues in a short span of time and therein lies the fundamental difference. No matter how much time and money AMD spends, it cannot optimize code it has no access to.
It is perfectly logical to assume that the alternative path when nVidia GPU is not detected will be to assume that none of high end features are available and work for the least hardware denomination. i.e. it will run it as its its on integrated GPU with bare features.
It is mind-boggling to think how someone can find this acceptable and this is the main reason why I think Gameworks is indeed like cancer for PC gaming.
People fail to understand the benefits and application of universal standards in things such as device interfaces, plugs and code. Imagine if your router, bluetooth, devices, etc only worked with specific devices of a single given brand. Every device manufacturer and potentially between every device model there would be a separate set of plugs and adapters that would need to get used to make stuff work. Screw this analogy let's take the PS4-XB1 into the equation there's surely a difference in capability but can you imagine the outcry if they pull this nonsense with locked features.
When a person spends 30k+ on a GPU why should he be subject to an inferior experience and have to turn off any feature at all when his gpu is more than capable of handling whatever he throws at it especially when he has paid the same price for the game as anyone else.
AMD was always free to provide similar solutions of their own hardware and work with game developers for giving cutting edge features.
Yea but they were more focused on doing actual work with what little resources they had that could benefit/motivate/nudge the entire industry ahead as a whole i.e., Mantle instead of focusing on gimmicky features clearly aimed at fragmenting and monopolizing the market. Who gives a sh*t how Batman's ghagra looks when there was a possibility of getting performance gains for people with mainstream and low-end cards as well.
There are games that took advantage of various AMD only technology in the past like AMD 3DNow! and nobody cried foul over it being compared to Intel CPU's. More recently, its Mantle and no reviewer was expected to not compare games optimized for Mantle against nvdia GPUs.
But they weren't forced to sign NDA's prohibiting them from working closely on optimization with competitors either, heck AMD made it pretty clear that Mantle will work just as well on Nvidia cards.
If AMD can work with game developers to support Mantle, they can definitely work with developers for the other game works like features too.
It's unfair to compare Gimmickworks with Mantle, one is designed to build a walled garden while the other single-handedly woke Microsoft up from its slumber to fast-forward Dx12 development.
If nVidia had been absuing their deals with game developers, there would be games that are built completely around proprietary nVidia technology or technology that they own currently like Physx for example. Why is physix still treated as an optional extra. Show me one major game where gameplay is centered around Physics implemented through Physx in such a critical manner that it breaks the game without it.
lolwut ? PhysX depends on CUDA cores (works off cpu as well but that is a last resort and inefficient option) that are non-existent on consoles where the bulk of the revenue lies. Those potatoes already have a tough time running 30fps on 1080p and they'd be further reduced to being glorified powerpoint presentation machines if entire games were to be built around proprietary tech.
Not to forget there are better alternatives to run off cpu's/apu's like Havok which also comes with AI and Animation modules that help further in lowering development costs.
So stop with the overarching pity just because they happen to be an underdog. As I said in another thread, AMD's situation is not a result of some big bad wolves trying to bully them. They had the people, the funds a reputation in the industry to succeed. Its its own bad business decisions, incompetency and wastage of resources that thought them here.
There's something wrong if you aren't rooting for an open source, anti-drm kinda stance that in the end favours consumers. It's not like I've never used an Nvidia gpu, heck I was extremely fond of my 6600GT, 8800GT and GTX260 out of the bunch and they served me for years w/o any problems whatsoever, you could even say I was a fan but Nvidia has been slowly turning into the Apple of the components industry with its scummy practices in recent years.
This is a market in which AMD still exists and they are still selling upper-midrangers as high-end cards, milking gullible gamers with deep pockets and no brains with cards like Titan, creating closed ecosystems instead of adapting open standards (g-sync), witholding information until it becomes widely known (970 fiasco, DX12 fiasco).
It's not like they're technologically incompetent either, they have the expertise and the products to back it up and don't really have to resort to such practises to build a reputation or faithful fanbase.
I agree I do have a soft corner for AMD because their moral compass isn't so broken but I'd have still been here with a pitchfork if it was them that was pulling this kinda sh*t off. You can say no one is bound to follow ethics and everything is fair in business but you'd definitely change your tune when they shaft you from behind after becoming a monopoly.