AMD has been touting its low level graphics API, Mantle, as the Holy Grail for PC graphics performance optimization, but NVIDIA now claims that it has outperformed it simply by optimizing its standard DirectX 11 drivers.
AMD claims that Mantle is capable of performing nine times the number of draw calls per second than DirectX and Open GL; and those claims turned out to be more or less true for Oxide Games space demo and Battlefield 4.
To date, only three games support Mantle: Battlefield 4, Thief and the free Star Swarm demo. According to NVIDIA, the performance optimizations introduced to GeForce 337.50 beta drivers outshine Mantle's performance gains.
"Compared to our competitor’s new, much-discussed API, our testing found the combination of the new 337.50 Beta drivers, and DirectX 11, to offer a faster experience with suitably-matched hardware," asserted NVIDIA.
NVIDIA supported its claims with benchmark results, comparing the 3 games running on the same hardware with AMD Radeon R9 290X and NVIDIA's GeForce 780 Ti. NVIDIA's performance was better in all cases.
The new driver is also supposed to enhance DirectX 11 performance for other games.