There’s a rumor doing the rounds on the internet that Rockstar’s epic Grand Theft Auto V will land on PC with support for AMD’s Mantle API, among other unreleased or unannounced titles currently in development. Although this seems a bit odd to have a developer which hasn’t been PC-centric of late to adopt something as technically challenging as Mantle, some of the games listed in this rumor do make sense to see Mantle support. Get buckets of salt for this one, though, you’re going to need it after the jump.

If you’ve never heard of it before, Mantle is an API (Application Programming Interfact) designed by AMD that replaces Microsoft’s DirectX renderer. Mantle currently targets only new DirectX 11-class Graphics Core Next hardware from AMD’s stable and reduces the bottlenecks that GPUs suffer when paired with weaker or low-power processors. For AMD this means a boost in performance and a larger emphasis on multi-threaded application support, something that runs well on their Piledriver, Steamroller and Jaguar CPU architectures. For Intel hardware, it increases system responsiveness and smooths out frame time delivery, resulting in more fluid gameplay.

Mantle can be supported by Nvidia once the API is in an open beta phase (expected late 2014), it’s just a matter of building a driver to support it and to have them work with AMD to optimise Mantle to work better on Nvidia’s DirectX-compliant architectures.

Being a 3D renderer like DirectX, Mantle support typically requires that video game engines integrate parts of it to improve performance and the entire code base needs to be re-written to take advantage of Mantle. AMD, however, has claimed in the past that this doesn’t take more than 2-3 months for a dedicated team to accomplish and has noted previously that games without Mantle support currently can be modified to support it – it just depends on how far the developer wants to go with system optimisation and what kind of workload they’re willing to take on to make things run better.

The hardware-focused VideoCardz managed to get their hands on a list of current, in-development and future games that may or may not be packing Mantle support in the future. The site’s source, known as “Frank,” claims that the list of developers supporting Mantle is growing and even includes Rockstar and Activision. Check out the lists below.

Wait, what? A new Sleeping Dogs? Another Tomb Raider? Hang on, I thought Call of Duty has always been part of Nvidia’s TWIMTBP (The Way Its Meant To Be Played) campaign? Why does Sims 4 need Mantle? Some parts of this list baffle me.

According to VideoCards, their source has indicated that the “Mantle support pending” portion of the list is composed of games that are currently entered into the Mantle private beta program,. but may possibly not ship with it. In that case, it’s very likely that these games will at least be entered into AMD’s Gaming Evolved program to add in support for cool tricks like TressFX and possibly see inclusion in AMD’s Never Settle Forever giveaway.

I dunno about you guys, but I’m a bit sceptical, particularly if indeed Activision has decided to not work with Nvidia on Advanced Warfare. It just feels weird.

Source: VideoCardz