Geforce and Radeon GPUs Running Low Level APIs Can Finally Combine Video Memory

Robert Hallock is a well known rep over at AMD and a recent tweet of his caught my attending. It is considered to be common knowledge amongst the initiated that ii graphic cards running in SLI or Crossfire do not experience a retention stacking effect. A dual GPU 4(viii) GB configuration does not amount to a total of 8GB vRAM, or at least it didn't till some time ago. Mr. Hallock revealed that with the appearance of Mantle API and other low level APIs such as DirectX 12, this is no longer the case and 2 GPUs finally acting equally 'i big' GPU is definitely on the cards.

AMD Nvidia Feature Not an official poster of AMD or Nvidia, naturally. @Wccftech @AMD @Nvidia

Graphic cards in SLI/Crossfire can experience video buffer stacking thanks to depression level apis like Drape

1 of the more interesting features of multiple GPU configuration is how the system itself works. The reason why there is no memory stacking consequence is because a consummate copy of the game has to be run in each GPU, and frames are alternated between whatever number of cards you have. Nevertheless, with low level APIs like Mantle having at present entered the scene, the developer is granted the coveted 'to-the-metal' access to the GPU. That ways, that with the proper optimization developers can now surpass the limitation of the old soft architecture and enable buffer stacking. Here is an excerpt of the caption from his twtter folio:

Mantle is the showtime graphics API to transcend this behavior and allow that much-needed explicit control. For example, you lot could practise split-frame rendering with each GPU ad its respective framebuffer treatment one/2 of the screen. In this way, the GPUs have extremely minimal information, allowing both GPUs to effectively behave as a single big/faster GPU with a correspondingly big pool of retentiveness.

Ultimately the point is that gamers believe that two 4GB cards tin can't possibly give you the 8GB of useful memory. That may have been true for the last 25 years of PC gaming, but thats not true with Mantle and its not true with the low overhead APIs that follow in Curtain's footsteps. - @Thracks (Robert Hallock, AMD)

I think I should make it clear hear that just considering you lot are running Windows 10 and DX12 and/or Mantle API does not mean that your multiple GPU configuration is at present stacking retentivity. The adequacy is present in these low overhead APIs but they volition non come into affect until devs specifically optimize the game as such. No optimization would yet equal the usual no-stacking scenario. Optimization has e'er been pretty poor on PC titles due to the immense corporeality of raw horsepower that the platform offers, just this new development can conductor in a sought-after era of optimization (of PC Games) and it will exist well-nigh damn fourth dimension.