NVIDIA Coming Around to Vulkan Support

[btarunr]

NVIDIA is preparing to add support for Vulkan, the upcoming 3D graphics API by Khronos, and successor to OpenGL, to its feature-set. The company's upcoming GeForce 358.66 series driver will introduce support for Vulkan. What makes matters particularly interesting is the API itself. Vulkan is heavily based on AMD's Mantle API, which the company gracefully retired in favor of DirectX 12, and committed its code to Khronos. The 358 series drivers also reportedly feature function declarations in their CUDA code for upcoming NVIDIA GPU architectures, such as Pascal and Volta.



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[RejZoR]

I'm looking for the day we'll be able to pick between Vulkan and DirectX. Just like in the old days of OpenGL and DirectX

 

[Ubersonic]

How are they "coming around to it"? Nvidia are one of the companies that supported Vulkan development since back when it was called OpenGL Next. Plus they have always had above average OpenGL support.

 

[Fiery]

So, Vulkan is basically Mantle with the API call names updated. And now nVIDIA will be the first company to implement Vulkan? Beating AMD? Or maybe I missed the first Catalyst with Vulkan support? *confused*

 

[dorsetknob]

So, Vulkan is basically Mantle with the API call names updated. And now nVIDIA will be the first company to implement Vulkan? Beating AMD? Or maybe I missed the first Catalyst with Vulkan support?

Missed it well here is a Reddit post from 16 Jun 2015
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/3a28au/amd_is_advertising_opengl_45_and_vulkan_support/
and here at https://www.gamingonlinux.com/artic...ics-cards-will-support-vulkan-opengl-45.5560/ 25 June 2015

And Finaly the AMD SITE
http://www.amd.com/en-gb/products/graphics/desktop/r9#
excerpt

• Command the competition at 4K resolution and beyond, fueled by a 4096-bit high-bandwidth memory interface for extreme performance and power efficiency.3

• Take advantage of full support for DirectX® 12, Vulkan™, OpenGL® 4.5 and Mantle.6,7,8

So yes @Ubersonic They ARE just coming around to it

 

[Dave65]

Spock would love thisP

 

[Fiery]

Missed it well here is a Reddit post from 16 Jun 2015
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/3a28au/amd_is_advertising_opengl_45_and_vulkan_support/
and here at https://www.gamingonlinux.com/artic...ics-cards-will-support-vulkan-opengl-45.5560/ 25 June 2015

And Finaly the AMD SITE
http://www.amd.com/en-gb/products/graphics/desktop/r9#
excerpt

• Command the competition at 4K resolution and beyond, fueled by a 4096-bit high-bandwidth memory interface for extreme performance and power efficiency.3

• Take advantage of full support for DirectX® 12, Vulkan™, OpenGL® 4.5 and Mantle.6,7,8

So yes @Ubersonic They ARE just coming around to it

Thank you, but I didn't mean promises and slideware, but an actually working hardware _plus_ a WHQL Catalyst driver. It's obvious that both Fury and the preceding few GCN generation of cards (or even more likely, all GCN based Radeons) on the hardware level do support Vulkan, just as they support Mantle. But I haven't yet seen a Catalyst with that feature enabled. Sure, there's no rush, since Vulkan is not implemented in games yet, but still, I would be surprised if ForceWare beats Catalyst in this particular race.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Pretty sure Vulkan spec isn't finalized yet. Catalyst probably had preliminary support for Vulkan since at least the 2014 Omega driver.

I'm looking for the day we'll be able to pick between Vulkan and DirectX. Just like in the old days of OpenGL and DirectX

Never going to happen simply because Q&A on AAA titles costs too much.

 

[dorsetknob]

but an actually working hardware _plus_ a WHQL Catalyst driver

You Missed reading

Take advantage of full support for DirectX® 12, Vulkan™, OpenGL® 4.5 and Mantle.6,7,8

In case you are unaware you can now buy AMD R9 Cards

Don't Have a R9 or any program or game that requires any of the above but i'm sure other members can chime in and confirm this is So

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Likely only developers and graphics manufacturers have access to Vulkan right now. It's still very beta software.

I'm sure AMD will release drivers for Vulkan to run on all cards that support Mantle when it is closer to finalized. Vulkan is supposedly going to run on cards all the way back to OpenGL 3.# but I doubt it will have the Mantle-esque performance boost on non-Mantle cards.

 

[Fiery]

You Missed reading


In case you are unaware you can now buy AMD R9 Cards

Don't Have a R9 or any program or game that requires any of the above but i'm sure other members can chime in and confirm this is So

I missed reading? I'm sorry, but I'm not debating the existence of Vulkan-ready AMD hardware here. I'm only questioning the existence of a WHQL Catalyst release that implements Vulkan support, that's all. But, if you say the latest WHQL Catalyst (was it 15.7.1?) includes Vulkan support, then it's all cool. Although, I can't seem to find that mentioned in the changelog:

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDCatalyst15-7-1WINReleaseNotes.aspx

And why am I harping about a Vulkan-ready WHQL Catalyst? Simply because without a driver you cannot do anything with a hardware capability like Vulkan. Of course even if you have a capable hardware + a capable driver, you will still need some games, so ......

 

[dorsetknob]

So the AMD web site is full of lies Ah Well Life goes on

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Pretty sure Vulkan spec isn't finalized yet. Catalyst probably had preliminary support for Vulkan since at least the 2014 Omega driver.


Never going to happen simply because Q&A on AAA titles costs too much.

I read somewhere vulkan is surprisingly to be supported within dx12 eventually , anyone remember reading that?.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

So the AMD web site is full of lies Ah Well Life goes on

No, no, the hardware does support Vulkan but the drivers don't yet because it isn't finalized. When the drivers actually need to support Vulkan (because there is software that uses it available), drivers will be released that do support it. The same thing happened to Direct3D 12.

I read somewhere vulkan is surprisingly to be supported within dx12 eventually , anyone remember reading that?.

Khronos has piggybacked on Microsoft's hardware requirements for over a decade. I don't see how Vulkan would be any different. This is likely why NVIDIA can also enable Vulkan support via driver update.

 

[jigar2speed]

Thank you, but I didn't mean promises and slideware, but an actually working hardware _plus_ a WHQL Catalyst driver. It's obvious that both Fury and the preceding few GCN generation of cards (or even more likely, all GCN based Radeons) on the hardware level do support Vulkan, just as they support Mantle. But I haven't yet seen a Catalyst with that feature enabled. Sure, there's no rush, since Vulkan is not implemented in games yet, but still, I would be surprised if ForceWare beats Catalyst in this particular race.

Bawahahaha, we are still using WHQL as valid argument ?

 

[hellrazor]

I read somewhere vulkan is surprisingly to be supported within dx12 eventually , anyone remember reading that?.

Hahaha

 

[Fiery]

Bawahahaha, we are still using WHQL as valid argument ?

Alright, then let's talk about a public beta of Catalyst with Vulkan support.

 

[jigar2speed]

Alright, then let's talk about a public beta of Catalyst with Vulkan support.

Let me put it this way, - This was Nvidia's way of taking shot at AMD's attention parade of New driver launch aka Crimson.

Vulcan support driver has been available only in Closed beta for linux OS - but than again, as you said there is no application that supports Vulkan api right now, hence there is no need of rush. Plus since there is no application, whats with the race anyway ? I would rather have them concentrate on performance increase and bug fix for games that are available.

Btw - the first crimson based driver will be WHQL.

 

[Fiery]

Let me put it this way, - This was Nvidia's way to take a shot at AMD's parade of New driver launch aka Crimson.

Vulcan support driver has been available only in Closed beta for linux - but than again, as you said there is no application that supports Vulkan api right now, hence there is no need of rush. Plus since there is no application, whats with the race anyway ? I would rather have them concentrate on performance increase and bug fix for games that are available.

Btw - the first crimson based driver will be WHQL.

The race in my book is about the fact that Vulkan is basically Mantle. So if any company should be able to roll out a proper Vulkan support in its video drivers, it's the company behind Mantle. If nVIDIA beats AMD on this, it would be indicative of major issues inside AMD. Wild guess: maybe they simply fired too many engineers from the driver/sw team. Of course Crimson could well also introduce Vulkan support, so let's wait until it gets rolled out.

 

[Dethroy]

So much fuss about this.
I hate these sort of green vs red battles and the whole drama surrounding it gets boring very quickly.

Looking forward to Arctic Island and Pascal reviews. Only then I will judge what side to take (for the duration of that gpu generation).

 

[bug]

Let me put it this way, - This was Nvidia's way of taking shot at AMD's attention parade of New driver launch aka Crimson.

Let me put it this way: Crimson is not a driver, is just a new Control Panel. It will not improve the driver in any way.

 

[jigar2speed]

So much fuss about this.
I hate these sort of green vs red battles and the whole drama surrounding it gets boring very quickly.

Exactly, Since Vulkan is currently not used by any app, i am not even sure whats with the race. AMD is introducing Crimson - they are currently focused on introducing better UI along with some performance improvement. I am not sure whats with all this Wild guesses. Tomorrow even i can have a wild guess that If Nvidia doesn't update their UI there might be some problem within their team - but you know what - No one care what my wild guesses are, everyone wants facts.

Let me put it this way: Crimson is not a driver, is just a new Control Panel. It will not improve the driver in any way.

Come on even my 5 year old knows that... - it was heavy advertise as
"AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Driver "

 

[bug]

Come on even my 5 year old knows that... - it was heavy advertise as
"AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition Driver "

...

It may have been advertised as the second coming, but I have not seen anything related to changes in the driver. Just a new control center and some rebranding. You think they'd come up with a new driver and not rave about it?

 

[Steevo]

The race in my book is about the fact that Vulkan is basically Mantle. So if any company should be able to roll out a proper Vulkan support in its video drivers, it's the company behind Mantle. If nVIDIA beats AMD on this, it would be indicative of major issues inside AMD. Wild guess: maybe they simply fired too many engineers from the driver/sw team. Of course Crimson could well also introduce Vulkan support, so let's wait until it gets rolled out.

Please enlighten me as to your logic on this?

Simple yes/no, if, and, or logic dictates.

Is application available to test support with? (NO) Logic end..... no further discussion necessary.

So really, its like a car company saying their car supports Road 2.0, but there are no 2.0 roads, so they can talk out their ass all they want for PR.

Much like Nvidia tooted their horn about supporting a higher standard of DX12 features, yet http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...ly-win-for-amd-and-disappointment-for-nvidia/ oops, one of the larger improvements for DX12 and they have to simulate hardware in software.... their supposed WHQL support means jack shit until we have applications to use with it. Don't get me wrong, AMD is in a world of hurt and has a track record still on the edge of unbelievable for their vaporware or payware third party shit. But this whole thing is nothing more than the standard PR spin that advertising assholes get paid to come up with at either camp.

 

[Fiery]

Please enlighten me as to your logic on this?

Simple yes/no, if, and, or logic dictates.

Is application available to test support with? (NO) Logic end..... no further discussion necessary.

So really, its like a car company saying their car supports Road 2.0, but there are no 2.0 roads, so they can talk out their ass all they want for PR.

Much like Nvidia tooted their horn about supporting a higher standard of DX12 features, yet http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...ly-win-for-amd-and-disappointment-for-nvidia/ oops, one of the larger improvements for DX12 and they have to simulate hardware in software.... their supposed WHQL support means jack shit until we have applications to use with it. Don't get me wrong, AMD is in a world of hurt and has a track record still on the edge of unbelievable for their vaporware or payware third party shit. But this whole thing is nothing more than the standard PR spin that advertising assholes get paid to come up with at either camp.

Let me ask back: if I want to develop a Vulkan application, can I develop it using a reliable Catalyst (of ForceWare for that matter) driver today? I'd say no. It's Catalyst and ForceWare and Intel video drivers that should come first. They should make Vulkan applications/games work, or else developers cannot use a reliable development environment. From an end-user perspective, you're right of course. But end-users use such software that are developed by someone. And that someone has to work with something. And as a software developer I would find it insulting if properly supporting developers would have to be labelled as a PR stunt All 3 PC GPU manufacturers should get their act together and roll out Vulkan-ready drivers yesterday. But, as I've stated above, I'd expect AMD to be first, since no matter how you put it, Vulkan (= Mantle) is their child, their development, they should know best how to implement support for their hardware in their drivers. Unless of course they have no resources anymore to be on the cutting-edge of PC gfx tech.