Microsoft demoed its DirectX 12 graphics API during its Windows 10 press event today. The company also announced that the Unity game engine will support DirectX 12 on Windows 10.
Microsoft's Xbox leader Phil Spencer showed off a Futuremark game demo running on both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12. The demo showed that the DirectX 11 version could not handle the graphics and simply stopped but the DirectX 12 version kept going.
Spencer said DirectX 12 increases graphics performance by up to 50% on same hardware while also cutting power consumption by half for better battery life.
Stay tuned as we will continue to post information from the Windows 10 press event. To see it all roll in live be sure to join us in the liveblog!
Reader comments
DirectX 12 will be supported by Unity Engine for better graphics
Wooo
Big woooooooo.....
Look at the FPS rate flying in Dx 12. Awesome :D
I'm so excited to have these things on my devices. Can't wait!
Is DirectX 12 also available in WP???? For better performance it should be also integrate with WP.
Yes =D
It does.
Take that, Playstation! ^^
Superb
Oh shiet :o
Fucking game changer. When Epic releases their Xbox One exclusive jaws will drop. Spencer basically confirmed they are using it, which means W10 and Xbox at least.
50% improvement is huge...that also means the old design was crappy.
DirectX 11 was still miles ahead of its only true competitor, OpenGL, so no, DirectX 11 was great
Up to 50% on CPU-heavy games. The point of DX12 (and Mantle for that matter) is to reduce to burden on the CPU, but if that is already not taxed, then it won't make much of a difference. Still, good stuff.
edit: should also mention, that devs experienced on modern OpenGL are already able to reduce CPU -overhead a lot over D3D11. No idea how it compares, or how OGL ES 3.0 compares to D3D12.
If "existing hardware" includes Xbox One then this is amazing news. It's software so Sony can always make their own moves, but still.
Will X12 finally prove that Xbox is the best? FYI it is!
Wohooooo...
Will DirectX 12 beneficts affect exsisting PCs/CPUs/GPUs, or will it need new supported hardware?
No new hardware is needed!
That's great, thank you!
even if I use the 4-year-old PC? I'm using the first-gen Core i3 processors with integrated GPU.
This is great news. Microsoft is definitey getting it right.