DirectX 12 to support multiple GPUs of different brands?

For as long as we can remember PC gamers have been faced with a choice of what graphics processor to use for their gaming rigs. One of the PC gamer's chief questions is thus: Nvidia or AMD?

As for multiple cards, more than one in the same system is not a problem, but they have to match via something akin to a SLI or Crossfire configuration! Once DirectX 12 is upon us, however, these limitations might become a thing of the past.

According to a report over on Tom's Hardware this is due to an entirely new approach to multi-GPU usage, where all available resources are pooled together and distributed by the DirectX 12 API.

This way the current solution where multiple GPUs take turns in rendering each frame will no longer be required, and thus the cooperation between the cards can be more lenient. Instead developers can build systems where each card is given a set of tasks to focus on in their entirety, meaning the cards share the load in and a very different way; instead of taking turns, the workload is simply divided into two parts.

It's all quite technical, but the end result is that the mixing and matching of Nvida and AMD cards might become a possibility. That might be good news as in recent years many games have been optimised for one particular set of cards or the other, and maybe we'll start getting the best of both worlds. At the same time it could lead to all sorts of new compatibility issues. Time will tell, but we look forward to hearing more about this in the future.