DirectX 12 rumoured to bring cross-vendor multi-GPU support
22 replies, posted
[url]http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2015/02/25/dx12-cross-vendor-multi-gpu/1[/url]
[QUOTE][B]An anonymous source has claimed that Microsoft's upcoming DirectX 12 API will allow gamers to combine the power of multiple graphics cards even between manufacturers, bringing the possibility of combining AMD and Nvidia discrete graphics in a single gaming system for the first time.[/B]
Both Nvidia and AMD offer technologies - SLI in the former's case, CrossFire in the latter's case - which allow multiple GPUs to be used simultaneously in a single system. While the performance doesn't scale linearly with the number of GPUs, it offers a significant boost over a single GPU when properly supported in a game or engine and is used to power the companies' top-end dual-GPU graphics cards. For AMD, the technology is also used to allow owners of its accelerated processing units (APUs) to combine the integrated graphics hardware with selected discrete GPU models to create something more powerful than the sum of its parts.
SLI is SLI, and CrossFire is CrossFire, and before now never the twain have met. An anonymous source speaking to [URL="http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-directx12-amd-nvidia,28606.html"]Tom's Hardware[/URL] suggests that DirectX 12, the latest application programming interface (API) from Microsoft, will change all that and allow GPUs from multiple vendors to be combined in a single system. The secret: Explicit Asynchronous Multi-GPU.
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Microsoft did say it wanted to go all in on gaming with Windows 10 and if this is true, it'll be the first real evidence that they aren't mucking around.
SLIFIRE
[sp]Brought to you by Microsoft[/sp]
[QUOTE=Smallheart;47211184]SLIFIRE
[sp]Brought to you by Microsoft[/sp][/QUOTE]
Cross-I
To be fair, this wouldn't be done all that well. There's a reason SLI/Crossfire bridges exist after all, the cards need a high performance communication line between them and the PCI-e bus is not perfect for that.
I'd love to see the possibility of running two cards though, so that you could have more screens on separate cards. And if DX12 allows to use part of the other card to boost graphics - maybe run shaders on it as more stream processors? - that would be really good too.
I highly doubt it, you would need third party drivers that would need to be constantly maintained just to get the cards to play nice with each other. And theirs probably tons of hardware issues too
This could also be the next generation opengl, not Direct X.
Getting them to work together with future on board graphics seems to be more plausible.
It is nice that it could be possible, but for some reason I don't see any sort of co-operation between the companies. But anyway, if DirectX 12 has support for multi-gpu configurations by default this will allow the per card scaling to increase which would be nice and not rely on the developers to optimize just for multi-gpu.
This has bullshit and incompatibility written all over it.
I see this possible if nvidia and amd work together a bit
Which I doubt will happen
I remember a company trying this in the past. Didn't work out well.
Now the nVidia users can have the pleasure of running AMD quality drivers in tandem with our cards. Ha!
Sounds complicated as fuck. I don't know who the hell would ever expect their Nvidia and ATI to work together worth a damn.
Just imagine, the possibility running TressFX that doesn't eat -20 FPS, and having PhysX, DSR and shadowplay all on one system. Best of both worlds would be a dream come true.
OpenGL better step it up
[QUOTE=TheRealRudy;47212610]I'm fine with them making Windows 10 much more specialized in gaming, AS LONG they don't revive GFWL or anything. Seriously, uPlay is already enough a pain in the ass.[/QUOTE]
A GFWL revival wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing as long as they [i]severely[/i] re-tool it. With Microsoft's "unification" strategy, I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like a single client that could work across multiple services like Steam and Origin - sort of like a Trillian for gaming storefronts.
... That said, considering that same "unification" thing, they'd be much more likely to just do that under the XBL banner rather than try to make it its own thing again. After all, they're already going to push some sort of Xbox app for Win10, so it's probable they're going to gradually position the Xbox brand as a general Microsoft gaming division rather than just the brand of their console.
How would an AMD+Nvidia set up even work out?
[QUOTE=J!NX;47213398]How would an AMD+Nvidia set up even work out?[/QUOTE]
I'm going to assume it's just gonna split the workload over the cards, like physics on one card, rendering on the other, number crunching on one, x y z on the other. Without a bridge the cards can't exactly work together but I guess if they use DX12 to send the requests between two PCI-E slots to talk to the cards it might work?
Or maybe MS is gonna release some butchered as fuck bridge to link crossfire and sli. :v:
[QUOTE=Reagy;47217682]I'm going to assume it's just gonna split the workload over the cards, like physics on one card, rendering on the other, number crunching on one, x y z on the other. Without a bridge the cards can't exactly work together but I guess if they use DX12 to send the requests between two PCI-E slots to talk to the cards it might work?
Or maybe MS is gonna release some butchered as fuck bridge to link crossfire and sli. :v:[/QUOTE]
I hope it works flawlessly, but that isn't going to happen.
[QUOTE=Sally;47212987]OpenGL better step it up[/QUOTE]
glNext*
[QUOTE=Reagy;47217682]I'm going to assume it's just gonna split the workload over the cards, like physics on one card, rendering on the other, number crunching on one, x y z on the other. Without a bridge the cards can't exactly work together but I guess if they use DX12 to send the requests between two PCI-E slots to talk to the cards it might work?
Or maybe MS is gonna release some butchered as fuck bridge to link crossfire and sli. :v:[/QUOTE]
Bridges aren't required anymore anyways.
[QUOTE=Reagy;47217682]I'm going to assume it's just gonna split the workload over the cards, like physics on one card, rendering on the other, number crunching on one, x y z on the other. Without a bridge the cards can't exactly work together but I guess if they use DX12 to send the requests between two PCI-E slots to talk to the cards it might work?
Or maybe MS is gonna release some butchered as fuck bridge to link crossfire and sli. :v:[/QUOTE]
The SLI bridge has a bandwidth of ~1GB/s, a PCI-3.0 x16 slot has ~16GB/s.
So its not exactly doing the heavy lifting here, although latency should be lower. There have been some rumors that Nvidia (who still recomend using the bridge) just move most of their data over the PCI-E bus.
When you consider that a 4k Framebuffer is ~100mb. You'll need 3 times the bandwidth to move that over the SLI bridge at 60 FPS
Well if there is one company that has the resources to accomplish this, it's Microsoft.
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