Guild Wars 2

Probably a huge longshot, especially since little is known about this API currently, but hear me out

Mantle is essentially a low-level API that is supposed to outperform both DirectX and OpenGL. It would allow for tighter-use of system resources as well (which would be very beneficial for GW2)

Mantle is also open and cross-platform. This would essentially make developing GW2 on next-gen consoles along with different operating systems across PC far easier, in-theory. Imagine a highly-optimized GW2 on Windows, OS X, and Linux, and even on a Xbox One or PlayStation 4. Imagine being able to play in large-scale WvW battles without performance issues. Also imagine how much more popular GW2 would become :p (although I don’t believe popularity is an issue)

The “only” technical downside I can think of is that it currently only supports GCN cards from AMD. But because it is open tech, it can be adapted for use on other hardware as well, specifically NVIDIA and Intel if they so choose to (and should).

What is known of Mantle currently is only from a few slides of a PowerPoint though essentially. More details of it will come in November at AMD Developer Summit.

While I think we need more serious competition to DirectX, the real performance problems with GW2 are not related to DirectX, but instead the fact it does way too much work on the CPU and way too little on the GPU. Changing the graphics API does not change that.

I’m running an Intel Core i7-3770k @ 4.4GHz and my CPU is still capped at 100% most of the time, while my GTX780 is casually idling at about 50%. This is with most setting maxed.

Espionage.3685:

What is known of Mantle currently is only from a few slides of a PowerPoint

Hmm, added support for what’s basically a drawing board idea?
Kinda jumping the gun a little, aren’t we?

So, now that more information about Mantle is out there, I still believe this would be really beneficial for GW2.

Ideally, the processor would be less strained, and the GPU would be able to process more work, leading to overall better framerates on a lot of systems, both low and high-end.