AMD: PC ports of next-gen titles "likely to struggle to perform" on PC with Intel

Troubling remarks or PR guff? AMD says the "semi-custom APU" that's present in the next generation consoles will throw a spanner in the works for PC ports, as the developers are operating in a "completely different class".

The current "Intel integrated graphics solutions", which usually force a choice between 'quality or performance', are "likely to struggle to perform acceptably well" if porting over next-gen to PC, says AMD.

Of course AMD GPUs and APUs sharing "same or similar architecture" will perform much better, in contrast. They add Intel needs to provide "strong motivation" to studios.

"When it comes to high-end gaming, current Intel integrated graphics solutions usually force users to compromise between quality or performance, which is a tough choice to impose on gamers," AMD's Nicholas Thiebierroz told PC Gamer, a senior manager of their Gaming Engineering division.

"The semi-custom APU AMD designed for the PlayStation 4 is built on AMD’s 28nm “Jaguar” CPU cores and Radeon graphics which enables 1.84 TFLOPS of performance for leading performance, image quality, tessellation, and efficiency."

"In essence, this means the graphics chip that developers are programming for is in a completely different class than what Intel is currently providing on the PC platform, and PC ports of next-generation console titles are likely to struggle to perform acceptably well on Intel-integrated solutions."

"In contrast, AMD GPUs and APUs sharing the same or similar architecture will have a much easier time coping with the extra graphics workloads required by this next-generation of titles," he continued.

"Because of this we do not expect game developers to spend resources on implementing Intel-specific extensions unless they’re given strong motivation to do so by Intel.”

The inclusion of this AMD chipset in PlayStation 4 will see "a major improvement in console and PC game graphics quality as a result. As long as game studios keep pushing the boundaries of realism in real-time 3D graphics, there will always be a market for performance and discrete GPUs." Many studios laud Microsoft and Sony's approach to their next-gen platforms as being a lot more akin to a traditional PC environment, especially the PS4.

The battle between Intel and AMD rages on.