Items tagged with DirectX
Since the early 2000s, the DirectX API has been the primary go-between for game engines on the Windows platform and the hardware that drives them. With a new DirectX update announced earlier today, Microsoft has seemingly outed feature-level support for the RDNA2-based line of GPUs from AMD, Xe-HPG discrete GPUs from Intel, as well as future-generation Snapdragon mobile platform GPU engines from Qualcomm. Feature level support is a bit of a confusing thing, so let's break that down before we dive in too deep here. With DirectX, there are standard feature sets and feature levels, which help streamline coding for games and provide developers with an idea of what a particular...
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If you want a trip down PC gaming memory lane, look no further than this MSDN blog post from this DirectX Developer Blog. DirectX has been around in one form or another since 1996, which is starting to really make us feel old. Over those 2+ decades, Microsoft's DirectX team has tested hundreds of graphics cards as they have honed their API with subsequent generations. So, what did these engineers do with the old hardware once they finished testing? Did they just toss them in the trash? Did they send them on a slow boat to China to sit at an e-waste facility? Nope, they've been stored in boxes "in someone else's office" over the years, separated by the year they were released (and/or tested)....
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DirectX 12 is gaining momentum with both game developers and hardware manufacturers, and as a result, gamers as well. The Windows 10 enabled, low-level API is being adopted in more and more titles, with both legacy and cutting-edge game engines now taking advantage of it. Using an ASUS STRIX Radeon R9 Fury graphics card, along with a few other more mid-range GPUs, we cooked up a performance analysis shootout of sorts. Here, we'll pit DX12 against DX11, using a variety of today's popular game titles that leverage the new API, so we can see what performance looks like and if there are significant, tangible gains. This isn't intended to show which GPU manufacturer or GPU architectures have a performance...
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Futuremark is working on an update to its popular 3DMark benchmarking suite that will test the DirectX 12 capabilities of your gaming system. Called Time Spy, the new benchmark sports a "pure DirectX 12 engine" that was built from scratch to support the new features of DX12, including asynchronous compute, explicit mulit-adapater, and of course multi-threading. In anticipation of the new benchmark, Futuremark released a teaser trailer that's just over a minute long. Futuremark says it provides a "glimpse of gaming's future while revisiting classic 3DMark scenes from the past" and challenges viewers to see how many of them they can spot. There's been a lot of hype surrounding the DX12, an...
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After last Wednesday's Windows 10 event, which we covered here and here, no one could have blamed you if you were anxious for Microsoft to release the next preview build. Fortunately, it didn't take long: it came out on Friday, and I think it's safe to say that it introduced even more than we were anticipating (but still no Spartan, doh). Thanks to some PC issues I experienced a few weeks ago, my Windows 8 installation has been a little problematic (USB-related). As such, I used that as an excuse to install Windows 10 fresh, on account of it being so stable. So far, I am really digging the OS; it's come a long way since the last preview build I used. Most of what's new with the OS, I didn't even...
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One of the hot topics in the wake of Titanfall's launch has been whether or not DirectX 12 would make a difference to the game's sometimes jerky framerate and lower-than-expected 792p resolution. According to Titanfall developer Jon Shirling, the new Microsoft API isn't needed to improve the game's performance, and updates coming down the pipe should improve Xbox One play in the near future. This confirms what we've expected since DX12 was announced -- the API may offer performance improvements in certain scenarios, but DX12 isn't a panacea for the Xbox One's lackluster performance compared to the PS4. It's an API that appears to mostly address scenarios where the CPU isn't able to keep the GPU...
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At GDC a few weeks ago, NVIDIA teased a new set of drivers that it promised would offer huge scaling benefits for both single-GPU and SLI configurations. The new driver, 337.50 Beta, drops today -- so what kind of gains can users expect? If you own a high-end NVIDIA card, apparently quite a bit, especially if you game with multiple GPUs in SLI. NVIDIA is predicting some huge jumps for its high-end range with scaling up 50-70% in some cases. These are an impressive set of gains for NVIDIA's top-end cards, particularly the GTX 770, which remains rather more affordable than the top-end GTX 780 Ti. NVIDIA's own slide deck claims "up to 64% faster single GPU performance," but none of the slides the...
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We recently had the chance to sit down with some folks at NVIDIA to discuss high performance graphics APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). With all of the noise recently surrounding AMD’s Mantle, DirectX 12, DirectX 11 and even OpenGL, NVIDIA wanted to clear the air somewhat, and explain the company’s position and plans to optimize and support current-gen and future APIs. As you’ve probably surmised in the myriad of discussions regarding Mantle and DirectX 12 recently, API efficiency is extremely important to ensure high performance in a given application. In our talk, NVIDIA explained that it is committed to improving the efficiency of current-gen, industry-standard...
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One of the most anticipated announcements of GDC this year has been Microsoft's unveiling of DirectX 12. The event today was light on some details, but didn't disappoint -- DirectX 12 looks like a huge step forward for gaming. The problem DX12 wants to solve is the same issue that drove Mantle. DirectX 11 isn't very good at allocating resources efficiently, the API's performance is often choked by single-threaded CPU performance. GPUs are already far faster than CPUs (as shown below), so limiting the graphics card's performance by choking it with a single-threaded CPU is a major problem. What's New In DX12 Microsoft and Nvidia have both posted blog posts talking about the new features of the...
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Earlier this month, Microsoft acknowledged that it would debut DirectX 12 at GDC this year, with promises that it would offer many of the same features as AMD's Mantle. Fast on the heels of that announcement came news that the API would also be deployed on the Xbox One, presumably as part of a future update. Now, a report from SemiAccurate claims that "Microsoft has adopted AMD’s Mantle but are now calling it DX12. The way they did it manages to pull stupidity from the jaws of defeat by breaking compatibility in the name of lock-in." Meanwhile, other reports across the 'Net are claiming that because the Xbox One has a real-time operating system, it won't benefit from the new API and that...
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Nvidia may have just announced GameWorks support will be baked into Unreal Engine 4, but the Red Team is firing back with its own announcement today: Upcoming versions of Cryengine will support AMD's Mantle API. Just to be clear, this announcement refers to an upcoming engine that hasn't been used for a shipping title yet -- Cryengine 3, the engine that powered Crysis 3, has been retired in favor of a new-from-the-ground-up approach. The new CryEngine will support the Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, and PC spaces and we're honestly a bit surprised to see Crytek jumping onboard with AMD. I spoke to Crytek representatives when I attended APU13, and while they were very interested to see what Sunnyvale had...
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Buzz has been building for the last week that Microsoft would soon unveil the next version of DirectX at the upcoming Games Developer Conference (GDC). Microsoft has now confirmed that its discussion forums at the show won't just be to discuss updates to DX11, but that it's putting a full court press behind the DirectX 12 brand and concept. This is something of a reversal for Microsoft, which has previously been mum on its plans for the API. It responded sharply over a year ago, when an AMD executive claimed that future versions of the API were essentially dead, but it's been over four years since DX11 debuted. Since then, we've seen point updates released and attached to Windows 8... and that's...
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The mid-range graphics card market has seen a lot of action as of late, with an infusion of new products and the discontinuation of popular previous-gen products. Last week it was AMD’s turn to announce a new card—the $150 Radeon R7 265—and with its arrival also came a price cut on the Radeon R7 260X, which can now be had for as low as $129, though the MSRP has been reduced to $119. Today is NVIDIA’s turn to introduce a new mid-range graphics card. But unlike AMD’s re-brand and soft-launch, NVIDIA is at the ready with a brand-new GPU architecture and cards should be hitting store shelves immediately. The new GeForce GTX 750 Ti and GeForce GTX 750 are the first...
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The mid-range graphics card market has seen a lot of action as of late, with an infusion of new products and the discontinuation of popular previous-gen products. Last week it was AMD’s turn to announce a new card—the $150 Radeon R7 265—and with its arrival also came a price cut on the Radeon R7 260X, which can now be had for as low as $129, though the MSRP has been reduced to $119. Today is NVIDIA’s turn to introduce a new mid-range graphics card. But unlike AMD’s re-brand and soft-launch, NVIDIA is at the ready with a brand-new GPU architecture and cards should be hitting store shelves immediately. The new GeForce GTX 750 Ti and GeForce GTX 750 are the first...
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This has been an exciting few weeks in the GPU space, to say the least. AMD has released a new line-up of cards that cover the entire spectrum, from entry-level, affordable products, to ultra-powerful, high-end solutions, targeted at hardcore gamers. We’ve also seen NVIDIA react to AMD’s recent releases with significant price cuts on the GeForce GTX 770 and GTX 780, new game bundles, and the announcement of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, which will be available very soon. In less than a month, the entire GPU landscape has changed, and the metamorphosis isn’t quite complete just yet. Today AMD is officially releasing the Radeon R9 290. This card was originally slated to do battle with...
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This has been an exciting few weeks in the GPU space, to say the least. AMD has released a new line-up of cards that cover the entire spectrum, from entry-level, affordable products, to ultra-powerful, high-end solutions, targeted at hardcore gamers. We’ve also seen NVIDIA react to AMD’s recent releases with significant price cuts on the GeForce GTX 770 and GTX 780, new game bundles, and the announcement of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti, which will be available very soon. In less than a month, the entire GPU landscape has changed, and the metamorphosis isn’t quite complete just yet. Today AMD is officially releasing the Radeon R9 290. This card was originally slated...
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AMD has launched their new top-end Radeon R9 290X graphics card today. The new flagship wasn't ready in time for AMD's recent October 8th launch of midrange product, but the new top of the line model, based on the GPU codenamed Hawaii, is ready now. The R9 290 series GPU (Hawaii) is comprised of up to 44 compute units with a total of 2,816 IEEE-2008 compliant shaders. The GPU has four geometry processors (2x the Radeon HD 7970) and can output 64 pixels per clock. The card's 4GB of GDDR5 memory is accessed by the GPU via a wide 512-bit interface and the R290X requires a pair of supplemental PCIe power connectors-one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Save for some minimum frame rate and frame latency issues,...
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AMD has been making quite a bit of news the last few weeks, thanks in part to a multi-day event the company held in Honolulu, Hawaii to announce its next-gen graphics products and a few new related technologies. Of course, the recent release of its Radeon R7 and R9 series of products on October 8 generated plenty of buzz as well. In case you missed it, the event in Hawaii was broken up into a few segments, some of which were broadcast publicly and a few that were kept under embargo until new products were ready for prime time. We covered all of the public announcements in these recent articles, should you want to a quick refresher: AMD and DICE Bring Low-Level, High-Performance Graphics API To...
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There will indeed be another version of the DirectX application programming language (API), though Windows 7 users won't be invited to the party. Neither will Windows 8 users, for the matter. Microsoft confirmed that DirectX 11.2 will be exclusive to Windows 8.1 and its Xbox One console, or at least that's the way it appears. Some sites are reporting that DX11.2 could also end up on other next generation consoles. Regardless of it ends up, the headlining feature of DX11.2 is a new Direct3D feature called Tiled Resources, which exposes a limited virtual graphics memory model to apps. This prevents loose mapping between logical resource data and physical memory, and also allows the creation of...
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One of the most persistent and frustrating rumors about the upcoming Xbox from Microsoft is that the console would require an always-on Internet connection to play games. Such a move would severely damage the used games market for the Xbox 720 / Durango, and would prevent users with spotty connections or limited service from taking full advantage of the console. According to a leaked internal email sent to Ars Technica, the official word is that Durango categorically will NOT take this route. From that email: There are a number of scenarios that our users expect to work without an Internet connection, and those should 'just work' regardless of their current connection status. Those include, but...
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After freaking out the gaming community with an email that seemed to signal the end of DirectX, Microsoft is now assuring everyone that DirectX is alive and well. The Microsoft XNA toolset is what’s being cut loose. It looks like DirectX isn't going anywhere, after all. The confusion arose from an email that was sent to DirectX/XNA MVPs by Microsoft. The email told MVPs that the MVP Award Program for DirectX/XNA would be retired by April 1 of 2014, giving many people the impression that both components were being put out to pasture. After a flurry of news reports on the topic, Mary Jo Foley got to the bottom of the issue: Microsoft goofed. The company confirmed that the email was inaccurate...
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The release of the next 3DMark is right around the corner, and to help tide us over Futuremark has released a new trailer called "Fire Strike" that shows off some pretty DirectX 11 effects - aka: effects we hope to actually see implemented in our future games. If you can believe it, this trailer is even shorter than the last one, with the demo portion itself running for just about 25 seconds. It's called "Fire Strike" but it could have easily been called "Fire vs. Ice" since that's that battle we're witnessing. What do you guys think? To quote Futuremark, this trailer features the use of "tessellation, dynamic particle illumination and shadowing, smoke simulation using grid-based fluid dynamics,...
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