Delving deeper into AMD's Mantle API

AMD unveiled its Mantle graphics programming layer during a press event in Hawaii two months ago. The announcement immediately sent waves through the PC gaming community, and in its wake, we heard about a number of games adopting the API—games from Battlefield 4 to Thief to Star Citizen. However, AMD divulged comparatively little about how Mantle works or about the benefits we can expect from it. The lack of concrete information about Mantle spawned lots of speculation and debate, but most of it wasn't very enlightening.

Fortunately, we now know some specifics. At its APU13 developer conference in San Jose, California, AMD invited journalists and developers to listen to hours worth of keynotes and sessions by ...