OpenCL 2.0 vs CUDA 5 and Open vs Proprietary when there is feature parity

[GWestphal]

With OpenCL 2.0 it seems like OpenCL has nearly all of the same features as CUDA 5. I'm curious, is both AMD and nVidia hardware capable of taking advantage of the improvements in OpenCL 2.0 or will there need to be silicon level changes?

If OpenCL 2.0 will run on the AMD R9 hardware, AMD could make significant gains catching up to the state of CUDA in a very short period of time.

With OpenGL 4.X becoming more or less feature equivalent to DirectX, and with all the consoles usings AMD gpus, it will be interesting to see if there will be a resurgence of OpenGL support.

What is holding back OpenGL/CL from being the go to systems at this point versus the proprietary CUDA and DirectX from nVidia and Microsoft?

 

[DaveSimmons]

What is holding back OpenGL/CL from being the go to systems at this point versus the proprietary CUDA and DirectX from nVidia and Microsoft?

My guess for OpenGL: all the major engines except id tech (which ZeniMax/Bethesda does not license) use DirectX on PCs, and re-writing them to be OpenGL-based would be a waste of money.

Yes, many engines also have OpenGL code bases for non-Windows platforms, but what is the value to the company in throwing away working DX code to port over their Linux build, or PS3 code that is written close to the Cell metal?

 

[bystander36]

My guess for OpenGL: all the major engines except id tech (which ZeniMax/Bethesda does not license) use DirectX on PCs, and re-writing them to be OpenGL-based would be a waste of money.

Yes, many engines also have OpenGL code bases for non-Windows platforms, but what is the value to the company in throwing away working DX code to port over their Linux build, or PS3 code that is written close to the Cell metal?

Often times, and this may be the case here, when people talk about OpenCL, they often are talking about the abilities, and in practice are really talking about DirectCompute (edit), which is Direct3D's version of OpenCL.

 

[GWestphal]

Isn't DirectCompute the equivalent?

 

[bystander36]

Isn't DirectCompute the equivalent?

Yes, you are right. I typed the wrong API.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I was responding to this part:

With OpenGL 4.X becoming more or less feature equivalent to DirectX, and with all the consoles usings AMD gpus, it will be interesting to see if there will be a resurgence of OpenGL support.

OpenCL may take off, but OpenGL on Windows isn't likely to resurge any time soon

 

[GWestphal]

So is the only reason Microsoft doesn't want to support the OpenGL/CL bandwagons so as to keep linux and unix in the minority for gaming, since they pretty much own that sector?

 

[ShintaiDK]

So is the only reason Microsoft doesn't want to support the OpenGL/CL bandwagons so as to keep linux and unix in the minority for gaming, since they pretty much own that sector?

Because Open standards got a horrible reputation for not getting anywhere. Everyone wants a saying and it ends in bureaucracy. OpenGL for example got at least 11 companies that needs to agree.