Microsoft Claims Game-Changing Performance Boost With DirectX Raytracing 1.2
Gaming graphics have been on a constant improvement trajectory since the early days, with new technologies leveling up the experience. Ray tracing has been one such focus that brings gorgeous lighting, better shadows, and more realistic game worlds to the forefront of gaming. Not without hurdles, the primary bottleneck has been performance, since it's very taxing on GPU hardware. Microsoft's latest API aims to change help in that regard.
At the recent GDC 2025 event, Microsoft unveiled its DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2 update. This, claims Microsoft, will improve performance while keeping visual fidelity high. Notably, some titles have ray tracing as a mandatory requirement, such as Indiana Jones and The Great Circle that's on Xbox Game Pass.
One of the key improvements in the updated API is opacity micromaps, which increases render efficiency while maintaining the quality. To that end, Microsoft is claiming a 2.3x improvement in path-traced gaming.
At the recent GDC 2025 event, Microsoft unveiled its DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2 update. This, claims Microsoft, will improve performance while keeping visual fidelity high. Notably, some titles have ray tracing as a mandatory requirement, such as Indiana Jones and The Great Circle that's on Xbox Game Pass.
One of the key improvements in the updated API is opacity micromaps, which increases render efficiency while maintaining the quality. To that end, Microsoft is claiming a 2.3x improvement in path-traced gaming.
Additionally, Microsoft calls out shader execution reordering with a 2x performance uplfit "in some scenarios," which it achieves by "intelligently grouping shader execution to enhance GPU efficiency, reduce divergence, and boost frame rates." Sounds swell, eh?
Ray tracing started to become more mainstream in the consumer market with the introduction of NVIDIA's RTX 20 series GPUs. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti was powerful for its time, though still overshadowed (to some extent) by the previous GTX 1080 Ti. This was due to ray tracing being slow to develop in the early years, with very few titles available and high performance penalties.
Cyberpunk 2077 is perhaps the game that NVIDIA likes to showcase most for its improvements to both ray tracing and DLSS with frame generation. NVIDIA recently introduced DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation for its GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, upping performance even higher.
This is a crucial and often underplayed component of ray and path tracing. Due to the high performance penalties, native rendering is often poor, even on powerful hardware. Microsoft's update for better ray tracing performance is a welcome one, as the technology needs all of the help it can get.
AMD has also been improving ray tracing performance on its GPUs, notably with its newer Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT. While they've made improvements, they still trail NVIDIA, which has a lead in this segment.
Cyberpunk 2077 is perhaps the game that NVIDIA likes to showcase most for its improvements to both ray tracing and DLSS with frame generation. NVIDIA recently introduced DLSS 4 with multi-frame generation for its GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, upping performance even higher.
This is a crucial and often underplayed component of ray and path tracing. Due to the high performance penalties, native rendering is often poor, even on powerful hardware. Microsoft's update for better ray tracing performance is a welcome one, as the technology needs all of the help it can get.
AMD has also been improving ray tracing performance on its GPUs, notably with its newer Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT. While they've made improvements, they still trail NVIDIA, which has a lead in this segment.
With path tracing and neural rendering becoming more prevalent, performance aspects—be them on the GPU hardware side or in software with the likes of Microsott's DirectX Raytracing 2.1 update—will be just as important as the visual fidelity itself.
