DX11 is AMD's weapon

AMD draws up its battle lines against Nvidia.

DX11 will be the biggest step of the decade for graphics, AMD's Rick Bergman told us recently.

Bergman, AMD's SVP for platforms told us one would have to go back to DX9 to see a comparable jump in terms of wow-factor for engineers and game developers, which is part of the reason the firm is pushing so hard to be first to market with DX11-ready hardware.

Bergman rejected the INQ's claim that only a minimal amount of game titles this year would take advantage of DX11, saying he knew of four to five ISVs working "eagerly" to churn out games and remarking he'd seen "great progress."

"We want to supply hardware to Microsoft and software developers so they can make DX11 games on our hardware first," Bergman told us, adding that it would put his firm in a good position for the future.

Being first would also put AMD ahead of Nvidia, something the c0mpany has wanted ever since the green GPU maker pipped it to the post with the DX10 API. "We were kind of fighting from behind, but with DX11 it feels like we're ahead this round," Bergman told us.

It certainly is interesting to see AMD putting most of its energy into DX11 leadership while Nvidia focuses maniacally on GP-GPU with its C for Cuda and Open CL. So even though NV will likely be behind ATI in DX11, ATI lags behind NV in the GP-GPU battle, which is not insignificant in the slightest.

The lines have been drawn and now it is left to the customer to ultimately decide who's approach is right.

Game on then!