AMD's Answer to GameWorks: Open Source Tools, Graphics FX, Libraries and SDKs

Thats exactly why i buy AMD cards over Nvidia again and again. Who cares about super fancy graphics and yet another, 2% faster shader. Want i want is properly supported Hardware with working Open Source drivers from a company that has interest in its users hacking their own solutions, even when they get better than their properitary ones.

Sometimes, the free market does something that really impresses me. This is one of those times. Here we have AMD releasing open source tools in an attempt to beat a competitor whose hardware is technically superior. Sure, this seems like a desparate measure from a company that's lost its way and will try anything to make a buck. And it's probably motivated by a desire to generate lock-in for their hardware. But that's capitalism!

AMD also released FreeSync, an open alternative to Gsync, a dynamic refresh-rate interface for monitors. The Nvidia version requires nvidia hardware and licensing and adds significant cost to the monitor, whereas freesync can be implemented in the control boards that already exist for the monitors, and without cost.<p>I think they&#x27;re both great graphics cards, but NVidia tries its best to stifle competition.

AMD is very badly mismanaged. Ever since K8 engineering is again perceived as a source of cost. They lost $400mil on failed ARM servers idea without blinking an eye, but plain refuse to fund proper software support for their products because that would cost like 30-40 engineer salaries! :(.<p>AMD is Commodore of this decade.

I&#x27;m all for AMD going open source with these tools (I love the fact they&#x27;re doing this) but the reason that developers go with GameWorks in the first place is because Nvidia is able to allocate staff&#x2F;resources to the game studios to assist in implementing.

Last time I checked AMD was losing something like $200MM a quarter with around $750MM cash on hand. So they could be out of money in a year.<p>NVIDIA isn&#x27;t exactly losing this race ... why not just lock yourself in to GameWorks?

AMD has consistently impressed me with stuff like this, definitely going AMD this time when it&#x27;s time to upgrade the ol&#x27; GPU. Nvidia be damned.

They better get into deep learning territory quicker!

Looks like another attempt at grabbing a share from NVidia&#x27;s CUDA ecosystem... Not gonna happen.