AMD brings Mantle to Sid Meier Civilization Beyond Earth

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 10/27/2014 01:32 PM | source: | 27 comment(s)

AMD today joins Firaxis Games in celebrating the release of Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth, which features day-one support for AMD's Mantle graphics API to enable top gaming performance for AMD Radeon graphics customers.

"AMD Radeon™ GPUs with Mantle are over a year ahead of other graphics companies in delivering high-throughput, high-efficiency graphics to gamers and developers," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, Product and Platform Solutions Business Unit, AMD. "As gamers settle in for a marathon session of Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth, we're proud that the potent combination of Mantle and the award-winning Graphics Core Next architecture effortlessly enable the definitive experience."

Mantle is a "low-overhead" graphics API that can help improve performance for gamers by making better use of multi-core CPUs, streamlining game code execution, virtually eliminating software bottlenecks and utilizing GPU resources with incredible efficiency.2

In performance testing, the AMD Radeon™ R9 290X GPU with Mantle rendered Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ at higher frame rates than any other single-GPU graphics card.3 Gamers looking to secure Mantle's blistering performance for their own empires can do so today with the purchase of an AMD Radeon™ R9 or R7 Series GPU starting at just $99 USD.4

Select AMD Radeon graphic cards are based on the GCN Architecture and include its associated features (AMD PowerTune technology, AMD ZeroCore Power technology, PCI Express 3.0, etc.). Not all features are supported by all products -- check with your system manufacturer for specific model capabilities.
Mantle application support is required.
In Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ internal benchmark test at 3840x2160, the AMD Radeon™ R9 290X 8GB with Mantle outperforms the GeForce GTX 980 with DirectX® 11, NVIDIA's highest-performing single-GPU graphics card as of October 20, 2014, by 45.38 average FPS to 44.89 average FPS using the Ultra in-game preset with 8xAA. Test system: Intel Core i7-4960X, 16GB DDR3-1866, Asus SABERTOOTH X79, Windows 8.1 x64, AMD Catalyst™ 14.9.2 Beta and ForceWare 344.16 WHQL.
AMD suggest e-tail price (SEP) as of October 23, 2014.

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Cygg
Junior Member

Posts: 11
Joined: 2014-10-27

#4946203 Posted on: 10/27/2014 07:25 PM

Anyone know how to check fps using mantle?

xIcarus
Senior Member

Posts: 954
Joined: 2010-08-24

#4946206 Posted on: 10/27/2014 07:27 PM

In Sid Meier's Civilization®: Beyond Earth™ internal benchmark test at 3840x2160, the AMD Radeon™ R9 290X 8GB with Mantle outperforms the GeForce GTX 980 with DirectX® 11, NVIDIA's highest-performing single-GPU graphics card as of October 20, 2014, by 45.38 average FPS to 44.89 average FPS using the Ultra in-game preset with 8xAA. Test system: Intel Core i7-4960X, 16GB DDR3-1866, Asus SABERTOOTH X79, Windows 8.1 x64, AMD Catalyst™ 14.9.2 Beta and ForceWare 344.16 WHQL.

I'm gonna be called a fanboy, I'm certain. But because of stuff like this I'm less and less tempted to buy AMD. And I cannot find any benchmark that shows the 290x on top. Anyone care to share with me please?

Rich_Guy
Senior Member

Posts: 12787
Joined: 2003-05-11

#4946212 Posted on: 10/27/2014 07:32 PM

AMDs own benchmark, has the 290x using Mantle, absolutely destroying the 980!

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/36145-amd-brings-mantle-api-support-for-civilization-beyond-earth

Denial
Senior Member

Posts: 13756
Joined: 2004-05-16

#4946216 Posted on: 10/27/2014 07:38 PM

Does it matter? Anandtech paints the two top end chips at 3fps apart at insanely high settings yet you can get a 290x for $330 vs $550 for 980. Given the memory constraints on the 980 I don't even doubt 290x pulls ahead at 8x, but regardless who cares? It's not like I need 120fps+ for civ. Power/Noise is the only other factor.

I want to see APU benchmarks with Mantle for this game.

xIcarus
Senior Member

Posts: 954
Joined: 2010-08-24

#4946221 Posted on: 10/27/2014 07:42 PM

AMDs own benchmark, has the 290x using Mantle, absolutely destroying the 980!

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/36145-amd-brings-mantle-api-support-for-civilization-beyond-earth

I was gonna say it's perfectly possible, but I realized it doesn't even matter. It's 1 fps. The deal is that the 290x is cheaper, but is outperformed by the 980 in other games. Exclusively concerning this game, it's a fantastic deal.

EDIT:
Does it matter? Anandtech paints the two top end chips at 3fps apart at insanely high settings yet you can get a 290x for $330 vs $550 for 980. Given the memory constraints on the 980 I don't even doubt 290x pulls ahead at 8x, but regardless who cares? It's not like I need 120fps+ for civ. Power/Noise is the only other factor.

I want to see APU benchmarks with Mantle for this game.

We were replying at the same time. I agree.

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