Page 62 - Computer Power User - February 2017
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DirectX 12: Hype Or Hypnotic?
ack in June 2015, we took an in-depth
B look at Microsoft’s DirectX 12, the
latest gaming-focused API that’s exclusive
to Windows 10. Because that OS went
on sale a month after that article’s
publication, our coverage was necessarily
limited to an analysis of the “on-paper”
benefits of DX12. To truly experience
DX12’s streamlined graphics pipeline and
better multithreaded scaling, games that
leverage the new API need to become
available, and as we learned from DX10’s
disastrous face-plant, (which may owe
its failure more to its Windows Vista
exclusivity than to any one feature or
flaw), those games may never materialize.
Fast forward to today: We’re happy to
report that there are a decent number of
DX12-exclusive games and even more that
had optional DX12 running modes either
at launch or patched in shortly thereafter.
Perhaps most promising of all, the Will DirectX 12 herald the renaissance PC gamers have been waiting for?
DX12 games that are currently available,
including Forza Horizon 3, Gears Of is the data available to us at the time. As also something that older DX11-based
War 4, Star Wars Battlefront, Rise Of such, it is our goal with this article to graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA
The Tomb Raider, HITMAN, Deus Ex: document the impact of DX12, if any, to supported at Win10’s launch.
Mankind Divided, and Battlefield 1 rank help you make a more informed decision DX11 is good at many things, but CPU
as some of the best games of last year. The when it comes time to upgrade. utilization under this API was always seen
API also currently enjoys hearty support as unnecessarily high. One way DX12
from most modern game engines and Promises, Promises solves this problem is through the use of
numerous publishers. Although we’re still Before we dig into the numbers, let’s draw call bundles, officially introduced in
in DX12’s relative infancy, we’re confident recap some of the reasons DX12 seems Xbox One as a part of its modified DirectX
that it has a bright future. to be getting off to such a healthy start. 11.x API. These allow the rendering
From a consumer standpoint, the new hardware to bundle and cache a series of
A DirectX 12 Snapshot API is compelling because it was built operations likely to be reused. When that
DirectX 12’s utility to PC gamers is to be significantly more power-efficient, series is called for again, it executes with
a bit of a moving target at the moment. resulting in better performance for little to no overhead. Developers can also
Evolving graphics hardware, OS tweaks, gamers running even mainstream or employ descriptor heaps and tables to
driver improvements, and developer entry-level components. Features such store frequently-used resources to further
support all tend to have a huge impact as descriptor tables and concise pipeline spread the workload across the CPU and
on the performance of a given title at a state objects, for instance, enable Win10 GPU more efficiently. Command lists,
given point in its life span. Unfortunately, to better pair up the graphics hardware like draw call bundles, are yet another
anytime we set out to weigh the with the appropriate DirectX abstraction feature designed to decrease the number of
advantages and drawbacks of making a layer. This lower-level abstraction repetitive tasks that the CPU performs. In
particular upgrade, all we have to go on is a key component of DX12, but it’s short, DX12 is born to multithread.
62 February2017 / www.computerpoweruser.com