EA says Frostbite 3 Optimization Not Exclusive to AMD

Despite earlier rumors EA and AMD have issued a statement clarifying that while the two companies are collaborating on day-one support for Radeon products for Battlefield 4, the partnership is non-exclusive and gamers using other components will be supported. “DICE has a partnership with AMD specifically for Battlefield 4 on PC to showcase and optimize the game for AMD hardware," an EA spokesperson said. "This does not exclude DICE from working with other partners to ensure players have a great experience across a wide set of PCs for all their titles.”

AMD's statement:

"It makes sense that game developers would focus on AMD hardware with AMD hardware being the backbone of the next console generation. At this time, though, our relationship with DICE and EA is exclusively focused on Battlefield 4 and its performance optimizations for AMD CPUs, GPUs and APUs," AMD representatives said. "Additionally, the AMD Gaming Evolved program undertakes no efforts to prevent our competition from optimizing for games before their release.”

Original Story:

Amidst the fray of E3 reveals and gameplay demos, EA announced a new partnership with AMD that could tip the scales for the chip maker's Radeon graphics cards. Starting with the release of Battlefield 4, all current and future titles using the Frostbite 3 engine — Need for Speed Rivals, Mirror's Edge 2, etc. — will ship optimized exclusively for AMD GPUs and CPUs. While Nvidia-based systems will be supported, the company won't be able to develop and distribute updated drivers until after each game is released.

With PC gamers demanding peak performance, exclusive optimization partnerships have served as a critical battleground between Nvidia and AMD. In the past, Nvidia had held a tight grip on the market, but over the past year, the company has lost several significant titles to AMD, including Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, and others. To make matters worse for Nvidia, AMD is now the sole graphics supplier for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U, guaranteeing a baseline performance edge for all titles developed with console as the lead platform.

With Nvidia passing up the opportunity to power the next-gen consoles and focusing heavily on its Tegra platform, AMD is making big moves to regain control of the desktop gaming market. Can Nvidia defend its stake as the current market leader?