Microsoft Details Windows 8 Graphics, Showcases Power Gains

With Windows 8 coming on October 26th, Microsoft has been publishing a number of insightful looks at some of the system's underpinnings. It's been pretty fascinating to watch. With prior Windows releases, there really hasn't been too much pre-release outreach with the public. But in a word where social media rules and communication is expected, these "Building Windows 8" columns act to give users of both avid and casual backgrounds an ability to see what's going on behind the scenes.

The latest post involves a dear subject: graphics. It reminds us that Windows 7 added two new components to DirectX: Direct2D for two-dimensional graphics (shapes, bitmaps, etc.) and DirectWrite for handling text, but things are evolving even further in Win8 / WinRT. DirectX became a hardware-accelerated graphics platform for all types of applications, and even Windows RT will be able to take advantage.


The company lists out four primary graphical goals with regard to Windows 8:

1.     Ensure that all Metro style experiences are rendered smoothly and quickly.
2.     Provide a hardware-accelerated platform for all Metro style apps.
3.     Add new capabilities to DirectX to enable stunning visual experiences.
4.     Support the widest diversity of graphics hardware ever.

None of these are very surprising, but it may interest you as to how the company sought to achieve the goals. The actual in-depth look is quite long, and those who care to view can hit the Via link below. Needless to say, Microsoft is seeing notable gains in overall graphics performance with Windows 8, and we're certainly looking forward to the benchmarking that sits ahead.