{"id":55420,"date":"2013-06-19T13:54:52","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T11:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=55420"},"modified":"2013-06-19T13:59:24","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T11:59:24","slug":"frostbite-3-gets-special-amd-treatment-nvidia-left-in-the-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/55420-frostbite-3-gets-special-amd-treatment-nvidia-left-in-the-cold","title":{"rendered":"Battlefield 4 gets AMD love, Nvidia left out"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMD and EA have announced that they are working to optmise games based on the Frostbite 3.0 engine and this may apply to other games running on Frostbite 3.0 in the future.<\/p>\n

A rumor started by IGN claimed that in addition to AMD’s current collaboration with EA and DICE on Battlefield 4, the graphics hardware company would be further working on optimising the next generation of games running on the Frostbite 3.0 engine. The link does seem to make sense, as AMD powers the entire spectrum of next-generation consoles and powers the Xenos graphics chip in the Xbox 360 as well.<\/p>\n

Battlefield 4 was initially demoed in a 17-minute gameplay trailer, which was later revealed to be running on an Intel LGA2011 rig with not one, but two AMD Radeon HD7990 graphics cards powering the game at a staggering Ultra HD 4K resolution.<\/p>\n

According to IGN, “starting with the release of Battlefield 4, all current and future titles using the Frostbite 3 engine \u2014 Need for Speed Rivals, Mirror’s Edge 2, etc. \u2014 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.”<\/p>\n

\"Need<\/a>

Need for Speed Rivals teaser<\/p><\/div>\n

AMD and EA later clarified their positions \u00a0through official statements sent to IGN. While the companies are collaborating on optimising Battlefield 4 for day-one support of AMD hardware including technologies like Crossfire, they have no plans or intentions to hamper efforts by Nvidia or Intel to work with DICE to make the game run well on their hardware.<\/p>\n

\u201cDICE has a partnership with AMD specifically for\u00a0Battlefield 4<\/em>\u00a0on 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

“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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In an interview on the matter with PC Perspective, AMD’s\u00a0Senior Director of Consumer and Graphics Alliances, Neil Robinson, stated that, “The thing that angers me the most is when I see a request to debilitate a game. I understand winning, I get that, and I understand aggressive companies, I get that. Why would you ever want to introduce a feature on purpose that would make a game not good for half the gaming audience? ”<\/p>\n

It appears that AMD is playing the “Good Guy” role here. They have learned that Nvidia’s The Way Its Meant To Be Played (TWIMTBP) campaign only hurt gamers on the other side of the fence, with Nvidia offering hardware and other incentives to developers to have their games running better on Geforce cards deliberately.<\/p>\n

AMD recently played the same card with Tomb Raider, blocking Nvidia from early access to the game in order to optimise its drivers and performance profiles, but some backlash from Geforce owners appears to have changed the company’s tune for future collaborations.<\/p>\n