Demystifying DirectX 12 <{ExtremeTech}>

[Alessio1989]

The feature level could have been named better or just not named at all (DX12 has still very few caps-bits compared to DX9 and the extension hell of OGL), but yes D3D12 will bring benefits to all DX12 capable systems, a lot of people still do not understand this.

I'm more interested to see the mixing of GPUs.

Is it just the horsepower or is it everything?

Can I finally use physx with an AMD in my system?

Maintain such limitation would be an "own goal" for NVIDIA. Note today such limitation is imposed only by NVIDIA drivers, not by Microsoft, nor by DirectX 11 nor by current hardware.

 

[jkauff]

I hope that multi-GPU support means that the iGPU and dGPU will finally work together, in parallel. If this is the case, I would be on board with Win 10 much faster than I would normally.

 

[Phynaz]

Dx12 is going to change the gaming industry.

What's old is new again. We started out with low level API's, moved to highly abstracted API's, and now we are going back to low level..

Please don't screw this up Microsoft.

 

[RussianSensation]

I just hate having to re download everything, reinstall everything, re setup everything...... It is enough to make me want to hold off for a little while. Unless there are dx12 games coming real soon, not sure there is any other major reason to rush into windows 10.

You don't need to do any of that. W10 allows the option to install on top of W8.1 leaving everything intact, and even after that point it gives the options of a full reinstall.

 

[BD231]

I don't see the big deal really, any performance improvements gained will be eatin up immediately by higher detail and more effects.

 

[Phynaz]

And that's a bad thing?

 

[TheELF]

I don't see the big deal really, any performance improvements gained will be eatin up immediately by higher detail and more effects.

Sure cause every developer is gonna say lets make less money by spending more on details and effects...

 

[Alessio1989]

I hope that multi-GPU support means that the iGPU and dGPU will finally work together, in parallel. If this is the case, I would be on board with Win 10 much faster than I would normally.

They will be able to work together, in concurrency. Parallelism is particular case of concurrency and it generally more difficult do achieve. On different hardware, parallelism could become a restriction compared to its general form (concurrency).

You can find some early informations with some early performance test-case here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/directx/archive/2015/05/01/directx-12-multiadapter-lighting-up-dormant-silicon-and-making-it-work-for-you.aspx

 

[frozentundra123456]

The difference with DX12 is they can still add in those new features, and you'll still need to buy a new card to use them, but if you do not upgrade for new features, you will still use DX12, just without the new features.

It makes things easier on the dev's. They no longer have to build a DX9 and DX11 version. Everyone uses DX12, but some will have certain features disabled.

I am not so sure. This assumes everyone will upgrade to Win 10. Will they? I guess the devs can write games using DX12 only and *force* you to upgrade to Win 10, but I am not sure I like the idea of being forced to upgrade. Yes, I know DX12 is supposed to be great and wonderful but I am not sure it is worth a whole new OS install, when I play mostly older games. Win 7 is fine for me.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

And after you update to MS10 better make a system image, there is a 1 year step up that many will stumble into. I think after the year, you'll be SOL if you need to re install unless you have a system image to use.

 

[frozentundra123456]

You don't need to do any of that. W10 allows the option to install on top of W8.1 leaving everything intact, and even after that point it gives the options of a full reinstall.

Do you have a link to verify that? I hope that is correct, but in the past, it was usually best to do a clean install for a new OS. This is critical for adoption of Win 10 I think. The only reason I would upgrade from Win 7 is for DX12. Right now, I cant think of any games that are coming out that I would want to play badly enough to do a clean install just for DX12.

And actually I have a pretty good cpu and a lower end video card, so I am not convinced DX12 will bring me a lot of benefits anyway, at least until it has had a couple of years of refinement and adding new features.

 

[ShintaiDK]

And after you update to MS10 better make a system image, there is a 1 year step up that many will stumble into. I think after the year, you'll be SOL if you need to re install unless you have a system image to use.

You have a full Windows 10 forever, but its locked to the hardware like an OEM version. You can do clean installs etc whenever you want.

 

[biostud]

You have a full Windows 10 forever, but its locked to the hardware like an OEM version. You can do clean installs etc whenever you want.

And even then you can always activate over the telephone.

 

[BD231]

Sure cause every developer is gonna say lets make less money by spending more on details and effects...

lol this isn't hollywood.

 

[guskline]

Definitely moving both of my rigs to Win 10.

 

[TheELF]

lol this isn't hollywood.

So making objects with more detail doesn't take longer, and neither do effects take time to implement?

And if they don't make them they buy them and it still costs more.

 

[ShintaiDK]

It depends if you have to spend work optimizing currently into a limited detail budget.