Rumor: Mantle for Battlefield 4 isn’t coming until February

The update for Battlefield 4 that adds support for AMD’s Mantle API has probably been delayed. The patch was originally supposed to be released in November, but is now expected to be released in February.

A Twitter user came behind this after chatting with EA Customer Service. That confirms that developer Dice will not make it this month to release the update. It is impossible to verify whether the information is correct; Dice and EA have not yet made an official announcement about a possible postponement.

The update was originally supposed to come out in November, but that date was later changed to December. An AMD spokesperson told game site Polygon that that month would also not be met and that the patch would appear in January. So January does not seem to be achieved either. AMD and Dice are now three months later than expected with the update. In December, AMD and Dice gave the reason for the repeated delays that they prioritized fixing bugs rather than building on the existing game.

AMD’s Mantle API can deliver up to 45 percent performance gains, AMD reported earlier this year. Mantle would allow developers to address the GPU more efficiently, which in turn simplifies the development of games and puts less strain on the CPU. Battlefield 4 would be the first game to support Mantle, but if the patch doesn’t come out before February 25, that title will go to the new Thief game. It supports Mantle by default from release. Thief will be released on February 25 in the US and February 28 in Europe.