He is claiming its using Gameworks. It is using PhysX so it must be using gameworks functionality, but I am kind of in agreement with you that my understanding of the tessellation is that its in the developers hands. But I also can't claim to know exactly what the API calls are and whether the tessellation call to DX is originating from the game code or gameworks. It would seem odd that it came from gameworks because PhysX is about movement not increasing detail but its possible that call is happening from PhysX. Not very plausible however, but its another one of his claims.
This entire tessellation thing is ridiculous. Nvidia and AMD create features, they do not create games. They are not responsible nor have any control of the amount of tessellation used. The unfortunate truth is that NV has had better tessellation performance than AMD for some time now. This was VERY pronounced during the Cayman era, because frankly, the Cayman absolutely sucked at tessellation. Tahiti improved it markedly as did Hawaii, but it is still not as good as the hardware tess used by NV. Aside from this: tessellation is one of the best DX11 features because it greatly increases the realism and detail of any given polygon.
So this Huddy clown is saying that, essentially, that developers should take pity on them and use less tessellation to appease their hardware. Really? REALLY? Is this guy joking or what? And then he somehow tries to make it sounds like this is Nvidia's fault. Like nvidia programs games. Yeah, let's just pretend that Nvidia programmed Watch Dogs. I guess NV programmed Watch Dogs from the ground up if we all are to believe AMD's marketing.
AMD also already addressed this issue by having per game tessellation control, with user control in their CCC application. AMD's tessellation may be slower by default, but with performance drivers they can raise it or the user can use AMD's optimized tessellation which lowers quality but improves performance. This was used very often with Cayman, although Tahiti and Hawaii are not nearly as bad as Cayman was at tessellation. Cayman was a dog at tessellation, period. And someone remind me what happened when Crysis 2 DX11 was released? Did AMD's marketing whine about Crysis 2 using too much tess? Sound familiar?
As far as Batman: AO goes, to my knowledge, AMD already released performance drivers which brings Hawaii to near parity with NV or reasonably close. But here we are again at the heart of AMD's problem. Too much money wasted on marketing and the payroll of guys like Hallock and Huddy, and not enough money where it matters: software engineering. So they take forever to release a performance driver for Batman: AO which does bring AMD hardware to near parity with NV. So while they were taking forever to release that performance driver, they play the blame game instead of doing what they SHOULD be doing: getting stuff done on the software side of things. When is AMD going to get a clue and put the money in the proper areas? Not marketing, not the blame game, but software development. That's AMD's problem. Their hardware is fantastic. Software needs more funding to make that hardware realize its potential. Marketing? Their marketing is detestable.
Any and all tessellation, and the amount used, is entirely at the discretion of the developer. Nvidia does not go in and program games, they did not program the amount of tessellation used, that is entirely up to the developer. So again this Huddy (and his sidekick Hallock) are trying to create some sort of smoke screen where they want people to think that NV are actually programming the games themselves. That is completely eyeroll worthy. The fact that Huddy even brought this up exposes him for what a schmuck he really is.