DirectX 12 will allow users to use AMD and NVIDIA GPUs in tandem in the same
system, according to
Tom's Hardware (thanks
PCGamesN). This is unconfirmed. as they say this comes by way of "a source
with knowledge of the matter," a source so circumspect it would not even invoke
the term "DirectX," saying this info is about an "unspoken API." Here's what
their tight-lipped source tells them:
We were also told that DirectX 12
will support all of this across multiple GPU architectures, simultaneously. What
this means is that Nvidia GeForce GPUs will be able to work in tandem with AMD
Radeon GPUs to render the same game – the same frame, even.
This is especially interesting as it allows you to leverage the technology
benefits of both of these hardware platforms if you wish to do so. If you like
Nvidia's GeForce Experience software and 3D Vision, but you want to use AMD's
TrueAudio and FreeSync, chances are you'll be able to do that when DirectX 12
comes around. What will likely happen is that one card will operate as the
master card, while the other will be used for additional power.
What we're seeing here is that DirectX 12 is capable of aggregating graphics
resources, be that compute or memory, in the most efficient way possible. Don't
forget, however, that this isn't only beneficial for systems with multiple
discrete desktop GPUs. Laptops with dual-graphics solutions, or systems running
an APU and a GPU will be able to benefit too. DirectX 12's aggregation will
allow GPUs to work together that today would be completely mismatched, possibly
making technologies like SLI and CrossFire obsolete in the future.
There is a catch, however. Lots of the optimization work for the spreading of
workloads is left to the developers – the game studios. The same went for older
APIs, though, and DirectX 12 is intended to be much friendlier. For advanced
uses it may be a bit tricky, but according to the source, implementing the SFR
should be a relatively simple and painless process for most developers.