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Microsoft and Intel are both at SIGGRAPH 2014 talking about the benefits of DirectX 12. SIGGRAPH is a conference dedicated to desktop graphics, so it makes sense for Microsoft and Intel to be involved showing off their new tech. This year DirectX 12 is a hot topic in a lot of different categories.
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Announced earlier this year, DirectX 12 bring efficiencies to how a computer renders graphics. These efficiencies can be utilized in a couple of different ways. The obvious use of a more efficient platform is more performance, so more frames per second. Another way to take advantage of a more efficient system is to use less power. Less power means longer battery life and less heat.
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Intel demonstrated this gain in efficiency by running a simulation of 50,000 unique asteroids, and plotted power consumption. When switching from DX11 to DX12, the power being consumed by the CPU and GPU dropped by approximately 50%! When Intel unlocked the frame rate and allowed constant power consumption, the frame rate increased by 50%. This means when DX12 is released, supported hardware will get a bump in graphics capability with a simple software update.
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Neither Microsoft nor Intel gave an explanation on how these efficiencies were achieved with DX12. The only explanation given by Microsoft is that DX12 enables lower level access to the hardware. Hopefully these results are the same when DX12 hits consumers later this year. These improvements could mean big savings for companies who work with high polygon count models, such as MRIs, large simulations, etc.
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“DirectX 12 can save more than 50% of CPU power compared to DirectX 11. When allowed to use equivalent power to DirectX 11, DirectX 12 can also yield 50% better FPS performance. DirectX 12 can run and show these improvements on a wide variety of devices including Microsoft’s flagship device the Surface Pro 3,” Microsoft explained.
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Are you excited for DirectX 12? Do you game on a laptop or tablet? Would you go for less power consumption or higher FPS? Let us know in the comments below!