(AT) Apple's new 3D rendering API "Metal"

[Kadarin]

Apple is so metal.

 

[TreVader]

I am kind of shocked by how Nvidia, considered the market leader and pioneer of the "GPU" (aside from 3dfx being the granddaddy), is being handily out-maneuvered with moves like this. AMD snags all the set-top consoles, brings out Mantle to leverage their position, and now Apple moves in.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think Nvidia would truly benefit from a merger with Intel. They couldn't keep up with Qualcomm in phones, they're getting pushed out of tablets by Qualcomm, Mediatek, and Rockchip. Not having x86 keeps them out of Windows (aside from the miniscule RT slice). Putting Nvidia Maxwell, or heck even old and broken Kepler, on an Intel CPU would have geeks around the world frothing with delight. Instead, we're stuck with 7 games a year with physx, SHIELD, and Audi car infotainment systems. Hell, even nearly a year after announcing they will license their architecture IP to anyone, not a single customer has been named. It really is a shame.

JHH may be a great CEO in many regards, but I feel like he's become too closed minded to potential opportunities over the years.

I think the question is would intel gain anything from such a merger.

 

[TreVader]

Very impressive but not really surprising. Apple is really the only mobile vendor capable of implementing something such as this.


Really putting android in a tough spot. I hope Google starts to police the distribution of it's OS and stop it from being so fragmented. Eventually I see Google and Android converging on iOS in most ways, at least if android doesn't want to continue to be mostly ignored by corporate america.

 

[SPBHM]

can it play unreal tournament using S3 MeTal?

it certainly makes sense for Apple to have their own low level API, considering how much control they have over the devices they sell and support...

 

[sontin]

I am kind of shocked by how Nvidia, considered the market leader and pioneer of the "GPU" (aside from 3dfx being the granddaddy), is being handily out-maneuvered with moves like this. AMD snags all the set-top consoles, brings out Mantle to leverage their position, and now Apple moves in.

Every proprietary API for an open system is DoA.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think Nvidia would truly benefit from a merger with Intel. They couldn't keep up with Qualcomm in phones, they're getting pushed out of tablets by Qualcomm, Mediatek, and Rockchip. Not having x86 keeps them out of Windows (aside from the miniscule RT slice). Putting Nvidia Maxwell, or heck even old and broken Kepler, on an Intel CPU would have geeks around the world frothing with delight. Instead, we're stuck with 7 games a year with physx, SHIELD, and Audi car infotainment systems. Hell, even nearly a year after announcing they will license their architecture IP to anyone, not a single customer has been named. It really is a shame.

And Intel is buying all the designs with money. Yeah, a very good partner.:|

 

[Oyeve]

Eventually I see Google and Android converging on iOS in most ways, at least if android doesn't want to continue to be mostly ignored by corporate america.

Ignored by corporate america HOW exactly?

 

[Subyman]

Ignored by corporate america HOW exactly?

Most enterprise mobile systems use Apple devices. 93% enterprise marketshare.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14...rprise-apps-ipad-takes-92-of-business-tablets

 

[Printer Bandit]

is that "M" slanted the wrong way, or is that just my OCD?

 

[Rakehellion]

Is Metal available for Mac OS X at all?

 

[Rakehellion]

I am kind of shocked by how Nvidia, considered the market leader and pioneer of the "GPU" (aside from 3dfx being the granddaddy), is being handily out-maneuvered with moves like this. AMD snags all the set-top consoles, brings out Mantle to leverage their position, and now Apple moves in.

And 3dfx is doing so well now.

 

[Jodell88]

Is Metal available for Mac OS X at all?

No.

 

[TreVader]

I really believe apple is continuing to set itself apart and I'm very impressed with their consistent innovation.

I think the 5.5 and 4.7" iPhones are going to bring back a lot of the people who skipped the 5 and 5s and went to android for big screens and widgets

 

[Silverforce11]

Indeed, many people I know who were avid Apple users have grown increasingly jealous of the bigger Android screens on their phones for a long time and most have switched. ~5 inch just feels so right given how much media consumption is done on the phone, rather than actually making phone calls. It is a portable PC in every way and needs a nice big screen to go with it.

Apple GPUs are superior but their dual core CPU is lacklustre, and Metal is going to help with that tremendously. Android is going to be in trouble when multi-platform devs make their iOS versions look heaps better, surely all the Apple fans would rub salt into the wound, same big screen, better looking games!

 

[TreVader]

Glad I have an A7.

+1

 

[joshhedge]

Apple GPUs are superior but their dual core CPU is lacklustre

What are you smoking? I'd like some of it! Apples dual core Cyclone is vastly better than anything on the market right now in single threaded performance and can keep up with, whilst in some cases beat other SoCs in multithreaded scenarios.

 

[Subyman]

What are you smoking? I'd like some of it! Apples dual core Cyclone is vastly better than anything on the market right now in single threaded performance and can keep up with, whilst in some cases beat other SoCs in multithreaded scenarios.

I agree, there is never a moment where my 5S doesn't have enough computing power. Everything happens instantly. For the purpose of iOS7/8, the hardware matches perfectly.

 

[smackababy]

Yup. Now all we need is nVidia and Intel to develop their own APIs to fragment everything even further.

Imagine a world where you need a different graphics cards or phone depending on what game you play. That's great for consumers because you're getting metal performance!

</sarcasm>

Imagine? Didn't we already live that. Remember having to make sure all your components worked with a game before you installed it?

 

[TuxDave]

Glad I have an A7.

Makes me wish I had an A7...


(.... but my iPhone 4S is still running smoothly!!! >_< )

 

[sm625]

A good API wont stop shoddy devs from putting out shoddy products. For example, I have several games that are similar to chess in terms of what happens on the screen. Even though there is little action most of the time, I can still feel the phone get warm like the gpu is running full blast. You should be able to play a game like that for as many hours as you can spend surfing the web, but that's not how they work. They drain the battery almost as fast as a game like infinity blade. It's just too retarded...

 

[TreVader]

A good API wont stop shoddy devs from putting out shoddy products. For example, I have several games that are similar to chess in terms of what happens on the screen. Even though there is little action most of the time, I can still feel the phone get warm like the gpu is running full blast. You should be able to play a game like that for as many hours as you can spend surfing the web, but that's not how they work. They drain the battery almost as fast as a game like infinity blade. It's just too retarded...

True but in this specific type of scenario Apple is so much better than android it's absurd. There are only a few select apps that I have to watch my battery life on on iOS and they all involve GPS. On android, I'd play poker and the phone would hit 140F and lose 50% battery in an hour. This is on a SGS4.


Apple control over the app store tends to keep malware out but it's impossible to keep shoddy programming out of a store holding hundreds of thousands of apps. Frankly I'm amazed they've done as good of a job as they have keeping crap out of the app store.

 

[bearxor]

Apple GPUs are superior but their dual core CPU is lacklustre,

What?

If anything, the crop of quad-core CPU's that were competing with the A7 were lackluster.

 

[Kadarin]

Apple GPUs are superior but their dual core CPU is lacklustre

By what metric?

 

[Rakehellion]

A good API wont stop shoddy devs from putting out shoddy products. For example, I have several games that are similar to chess in terms of what happens on the screen. Even though there is little action most of the time, I can still feel the phone get warm like the gpu is running full blast. You should be able to play a game like that for as many hours as you can spend surfing the web, but that's not how they work. They drain the battery almost as fast as a game like infinity blade. It's just too retarded...

Are they 3D games? It doesn't matter how much action there is on the screen.

 

[TuxDave]

Are they 3D games? It doesn't matter how much action there is on the screen.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that awful Candy Crush game. Why is my battery getting destroyed from playing THAT game? Is there 3D? Not that I can tell unless they're doing some "let's use 3D in a 2D interface" thing.

 

[Zink]

This seems like a no brainier if the big 3D game engine makers pick up on it and push graphics efficiency with every hardware generation. Because Apple always uses the same GPU vendor with only a single hardware configuration per year across all iOS devices they have a gaming platform that is half way to being a console in terms of potential for low level graphics optimization. For developers using the 3D engines it wouldn't be that different from now other than better performance.

With a bigger screen iPhones coming, wireless controllers, and airplay, iOS could be easily crushing the last gen console AAA title gaming experience within 2 years. One key step to that would be making sure everyone already has iOS hooked up to their TV so they aren't even tempted to get a console. Most iOS users don't have an Apple TV today so there is an extra purchase to get iOS on the big screen but with a next gen Apple TV maybe Apple will be able to increase that group of users.