Phil Spencer: We knew about DX12 when We Built Xbox One

It has been reported in the last several days that gamers will need brand new DX12 cards to take full advantage of all the features of DirectX12. Phil Spencer when asked about the need for new hardware replied with, they were fully aware of DX12 when Microsoft built the Xbox One.

[christocolus]

"ExploderMouse ‏@ExploderMouse
@XboxP3 Hey Phil huge fan. If DX12 requires new hardware for all tweaks to be present how will the X1 have full DX12? Care to elaborate?

Phil Spencer
‏@XboxP3
@ExploderMouse We knew what DX12 was doing when we built Xbox One.he actuallThey definitely knew what they were doing when they made the xbox one."

Awesome. they definitely knew what they were doing from the start.cant wait to see scalebound, halo5 and gears4. DX12 will improve games on Xbox one period.

@yarbie

just edit the title to better reflect Phils comment.

[Bigpappy]

I think this was made clear before. Last year when they started mentioning DX12, they said that the X1 was built to support DX12. But it is still good to hear the Boss say it again. I like how he lets people ponder what this will actually do for games on Xbox.
Some
people think it will do nothing (good luck with that). Some people people thing it will do little (low expectations are a safe bet). Some people believe it will be a massive upgrade (be careful with those expectations). I think it will be a big change. Graphics will look better, and everything you got used to in current game will evolve rather quickly from what we now see.

[Andofaus]

So great to hear Microsoft built my Xbox one for the future. This will be a very good year for Xbox gamers I think.

[fr0sty]

one would hope so... i mean, you don't build a new DX version overnight, and the x1 has only been out a year.

[ChickeyCantor]

"DX12 will improve games on Xbox one period. "

Eh, DX12 is meant for PC.

[DragonbornZ]

I was surprised people thought they didn't.

[srd4484]

XB1 owners know this. It's the fanboys who want to deny it even when it's right in front of their face. It's already using some features of DX12 as Phil mentioned. Once XB1 get updated with the full DX12 and developers start using DX12, we will then see the difference.

[No_Limit]

Cool stuff, looking forward to games written with DX12 on XB1 later on this year. Halo 5 and Forza 6 should be glorious.

[hello12]

I bloody knew it and looks like x box fans were right the x box 1 was build with directx12 in mind. Finally getting some truths out about x box 1

Albert Pannello knew it and Neogaf laughed at him back then and i was one of those people who knew there was more going on with the x box 1 then was been claimed.

From Albert at launch.

Performance: I’m not dismissing raw performance. I’m stating – as I have stated from the beginning – that the performance delta between the two platforms is not as great as the raw numbers lead the average consumer to believe. There are things about our system architecture not fully understood, and there are things about theirs as well, that bring the two systems into balance.

People DO understand that Microsoft has some of the smartest graphics programmers IN THE WORLD. We CREATED DirectX, the standard API’s that everyone programs against. So while people laude Sony for their HW skills, do you really think we don’t know how to build a system optimized for maximizing graphics for programmers? Seriously? There is no way we’re giving up a 30%+ advantage to Sony.
I’m not saying they haven’t built a good system – I’m merely saying that anyone who wants to die on their sword over this 30%+ power advantage are going to be fighting an uphill battle over the next 10 years…

[Bigpappy]

That's a great find Mr. KNWS. You win my bubble vote. I rarely give them out.

[christocolus]

i actually remember those comments from Albert back then. it makes a whole lot of sense now. great find KNWS.

there was an article about MS meeting with game developers after the windows event,i guess we will get more info at the Build Conference.. E3 is definitely going to be awesome this year..

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

The only thing that will matter in the end is which company has the the most accurate, experienced, innovative, and skilled programmers. Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly on programming code and machine language, just Windows.

Reality check 101.

[MrSec84]

So true, thanks for your nice and objective comments below.
Although I would add that the performance of hardware will have a pretty big baring on what the difference in game performance ends up being, especially when you have both Sony and Microsoft making the most out of the tech they have with their own talented programmers.

These people acting like XB1 can somehow make a difference because they apparently (and based on no facts) have some coders that can push things outside of the realms of what the platform can do are just deluding themselves.

As I said in my reply to KNWS DX has never been about performance until DX12, even now it's still about functionality across multiple platforms, while XB1 will have more dedicated development for it's specs, it's not like PS4 won't have the same and ICE Team more than proved their worth last generation, they were integral in designing PS4, with Mark Cerny's direction and AMD's hardware/software development support.

Every argument that can be made for MS supposedly having great talent in designing their system can definitely be made for Sony, because they have more experience in building dedicated games machines, whether it's consoles or handhelds.
Windows hasn't always been about gaming, even now gaming is one of a number of elements MS focuses on, but primarily they're about OS, functionality for Office or APPs, gaming is only recently getting a look at on the efficiency side of things, for Sony it's gaming 1st, Apps second.

[stuna1]

Not only that, but people are cheering for a unknown! How can someone state that they're not giving up a certain percentage of power/performance to the competitor if they have no ideal what the competitor hasn't shown!? In my opinion those are empty words.

@ Raiden

This is only the first year. Believe me you will see it! For a system like the PS3 it was shown just how powerful it really was as time went on, and this generation we will see a repeat performance as time goes on.

[MrSec84]

LOL Albert Pannello doesn't know what the hell he is talking about, trying act like MS have more experience with games consoles is enough to show that this guy loves to reach, rather than actually offer up anything concrete to support his argument.

FYI Sony has the ICE Team, their API devs, that have some of the most talented software programmers in the games industry, ex NASA coders that optimized down the binary level on PS3 and they'll do the same on PS4.

DX has never been known for performance, more flexibility across multiple kinds of hardware, but it's in no way built for efficiency, not until DX12 and even now DX12 isn't aiming to be the efficiency king and has to operate within the parameters of the specs it's running on, so Pannello doesn't really offer anything but hyperbole.

Raw figures tell you the maximum capabilities of the hardware you have at hand.
Hell MS didn't even put a sufficient enough bandwidth from a decent sized memory pool, we can see this just by looking at the raw specs of a 7770 or 7790 GPU from AMD, both of those have over 70GB/s dedicated to the GPU alone, from a pool that is about 1-2GB, yet XBox One only offers up 35GB/s from it's comparable pool of main memory for graphics, because the CPU requires the other 20GB/s from the full 55GB/s of real world bandwidth that DDR3 provides on XB1. Being 40-80X smaller than the RAM in a 7770/7790 eSRAM can't hope to provide the performance needed to match what those GPUs have as standard, so really XB1 is left with a very weak level of performance that won't hope to keep the GPU properly fed.

MS should just face it that they backed the wrong horse on the RAM side of things. Their system is much weaker than PS4 and DX12 isn't going to make up for that, neither will DMAs or the Cloud, it's all smoke and mirrors.

Later this year Sony will be implementing proper use of GPGPU and unified multi-core, collaborative compute support for PS4's APU, along with full HSA, with evolving use of ACEs on PS4 and when that happens the gap is going to look even bigger than what we've already been shown.
This will show PS4 to be about 2X more capable compared to XB1, which is the reality of the situation.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

Even if you were to simplify what you said and break it down into bits and pieces that even a 10 year old could understand, there will still be people disagreeing with you. WELL SAID!

[MrSec84]

@IGiveHugs2NakedWomen: Thanks, it's clear from the disagrees there's a lot of B***Hurt because these people know I'm right.

Xbox Fans lap up the marketing BS people like Pannello spew and then add the stuff from people like MisterXMedia and his split personalities Insider and MisterCTeam to their own brand of circular reasoning.

Logical, scientific people look at the facts and form an opinion on that.

The reality is a GPU needs sufficient sized storage and capacity in one place, you can't just have a tiny cache, with a 40th to an 80th of the storage of what that GPU needs and expect it to perform the same.

The details on paper are just an accurate representation of what is physically and really inside each box, MS has confirmed their specs and so have Sony.
Details being on paper doesn't make them any less real and all of that stuff is fully verifiable by looking at AMD's own impartial specs, along with impartial developers real benchmarks of both consoles.

[Ps4andxb1]

Impressive...

That you managed to squeeze so much butthurt in one little post. Lol !

[Letthewookiewin]

I tried to agree 3 times.

[corroios]

Very good explanation, but it wont work. Some Xbox gamers want at all cost to think that some magical formula will make the Xbox One more powerfull then the PS4...

We are going to the second year, they had downgrade after downgrade. Not even an exclusive game like Sunset overdrive (cartony game) built only for the xbox One was able to run higher then 900/30 and still think that a machine that was build to be a WII full HD can be more powerfull then the PS4.

The minute that the Kinect was thrown by the window and cut from the machine, something that they told us would never happend, what was left was a machine that is weaker then the PS4.

[Torgul]

2015 is going to shut you fanboy, Mark your words

[andrarfc]

I smell shite.

[Raiden]

I have to comment on this, firstly who the hell are you people to know more about the inner working of what is possible and what is not, how can you comment on knowing more than a developer who has been taken behind closed doors and shown something that is possible. LET ME ASK YOU ALL THIS, what do prefer the tech in the machine or software.

Let the software prove what is more powerful since all you want to do...All I can say is I'm yet to see this massive power SONY PS4 has over the X1.

[DoubleM70]

You are a consumer. You can enjoy whatever DX12 has to offer to our community. Mosty these guys on here just want you guys to reconized that the Xbox did have some built in things to make it reach it capabilities. I'm sure ICE team will do the same with the PS4. The problem is people been calling the Xbox Trash for the past year.

People forget the PS3 was the most powerful also and in some games it did prove itself. It didn't mean the 360 was some kind of slouch so game on.

[MadLad]

Telling everyone else they are wrong and naming yourself right; all the while describing yourself as "logical" and "scientific" . . .

You're just a special kind of arrogant.

[TheCommentator]

You are correct on paper, but the PS3 was twice as powerful on paper as well, and Xbox kept up just fine with it. I'm sure that in the long run both new systems will look about the same since Microsoft designed XBOX One around DX12, but only time will tell. Thanks for being educated, btw.

[CernaML]

Too little too late. Its been over a year and the X1 still underperforms. The PS3 had a bad rep over it, now its the X1's turn.

[Antifan]

You seem so obsessed with this. Maybe you need to go outside for once, get a girlfriend

[srd4484]

Are we really questioning this? Of course MS had DX12 in mind as they were creating both the XB1 & DX12 at the SAME TIME. Phil confirms it and people still dont believe it.

[DoubleM70]

It's called denial. It takes a few days or months before realization sets in that X1 is just as good and someways probably even better.

[sungam3d]

My main question is what happened to all this 'the cloud' talk?
Boosting performance?

Were they talking out their ass. Or was 'the cloud' code word for dx12?

[PunisherRevenge]

That's coming too....when Crack Down drops!!!

[Muzikguy]

This story seems a bit late, like 2 years late! It's been known since before X1 was released that DirectX12 was coming. Also SHOULD have (of) been known it was going to be incorporated in the next system... Being the Xbox One

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

The damage control of lofty promises has been strong since before the One even released

[KingWookiee]

I truly believe that Microsoft was caught off guard with the PS4 announcement. It seems like the Xbox One should of been launched alongside windows 10 with full DirectX 12 support from the start.

[srd4484]

Yup. That's what many rumors have suggested. Read a quote from someone that said "E3 2015 is XB1 debut". We shall see.

[KingWookiee]

Granted, I don't think it would of changed much at the start because they would of had the DRM policies still and a year after their comp, probably better off going the way they did. XB1 relaunch this E3 XD

[Ch1d0r1]

Agree 100% or else why would they keep tweaking the damn thing. Meanwhile zero reports by Nintendo and Sony on giving more access to certain processor, or shuffling resources around, yada, yada, etc, etc.

[ainTgoTTime2bleed]

Improved cloudsszz, Dx12sszz and da Holololensszz will destroy PS4..
Phil is da messiahsszz...

[Ch1d0r1]

Lol lovely post.

[Killzoner99]

This isn't some "magic" computer chip that's going to suddenly boost the horsepower of the Xbone past the PS4 lol. Why wasn't this activated on day one then? From a business stand point that makes zero sense. Microsoft would have been touting this since the Xbone was announced , instead they promised about the power of the Cloud lol.

[PunisherRevenge]

Well sir you are correct. 'This isn't some "magic" computer chip that's going to suddenly boost the horsepower of the Xbone past the PS4 lol.' DX12 is made up of software that was designed to boost the performance of the components the X1/PC already has. If MS would have came out and said this form day one, you and most people would not have believed them anyway. hell at the time most people like you said that everything the came out of MS mouth was a lie, and took everything Sony said as truth.

[marloc_x]

You are about to get served..

[Andofaus]

Your not seeing what's right there in front of you it all makes perfect sense. X1 was released a full year ahead of it's initial planned release date. So for the whole of last year all tech info has been under nda. DX12 isn't being used and all games have been running on old engines that don't take advantage of the X1s unique hardware features. There's still so much we don't know about X1's architecture, I'm thinking we'll know alot more when AMD start talking about their "GCN 2" gpu's. It's time for everyone to accept the xbox one has the far superior hardware because it was designed for the future.

[Rhythmattic]

Ahh , the old "NDA" excuse.

[AutoCad]

Duh..Only people that seemed to think otherwise are well you know..

[DEEBO]

I got two xbox one's and one ps4 but i'm not jumping to conclusions here.

MS has broken alot of promises before.remember selling items on the 360 by j allard,never happened, milo was a lie,cloud making the xbox one three times stronger? Still waiting.the i can't flip the switch but they did.

I will get the AR technology and Windows ten but I'm not going to follow MS blindly cause they will tell you a lie in a heartbeat.

[TKCMuzzer]

Their probably not lying, there will be an improvement but there definitely seems to be a blurry line on what that will be,by saying it will improve games if devs use it properly is sort of diverting the attention away if games don't improve, technically covering his own ass. I doubt it will be significant but any improvement is always welcome.

On another note I'm not sure why people think Phil Spencer would say there would be no benefit to the Xbox One, even if it's small he's going to promote it, he's not a saviour, he's a business man and a sales man, that's his job.

we shall see, like most things, the proof is in the pudding.

[Neo_Zeed]

Still NOT secret sauce. :)

[Andofaus]

Great, but this just confirms what anyone with even a little common sense already knew. Of course Microsoft built their own console to fully utilize their own API. So good to have official confirmation though, lets hope this puts and end to the idea that X1 will only see a small benefit from DX12.

[SonyAddict]

Man does all this Phil dude do is talk!.

[Whirlwind_Fanfare_08]

Yep, too much.

OT: It sounds good and all, but we know that it won't be a huge game changer for it! it'll help in terms of making graphics better and other stuff, but its not going to get nowhere near the power where PS4 is.
Even after Phil said it won't be a huge boost, and still they won't listen! wow I tell you, just wow.

[2pacalypsenow]

No shit DX 12 was being planed right after dx 11

[mysteryraz11]

Whats ps4s equivalent to dx12?

[ipar1]

So XBO was built for DX12 and future game engines.
Like real time ray tracing,tiled resources.
So will Sony get sued again for stating that they have the most powerful console!
When infact the XBO could end up being twice as fast as the PS4.

[Torgul]

If you don t understand what does phil sentence mean I am sad for you or you are just trolling.

In other words the xbox1 arch/gpu etc is next Gen so you can t compare with something existing.

Right now the xbox is limited by SOFTWARE, not hardware.

The game is over for the fanboys but they will never accept it.

Really some of you were thinking that MS gave bilions to amd just to have the weakest gpu ever etc....

Finaly major nelson was right when he told about xbox one power, the truth will come....

Now you can refuse to see the truth but it will not change anything.

Good times ahead xbox gamers!

[ipar1]

Microsoft spent billions on AMD to develope a custom built GPU with DX12 technology built in.
You PS4 fans still believe they would spend billions on a weaker GPU!
If your answer is YES you need help.

[corroios]

Lol, keep dreaming on the clouds. Yes, the GPU on the Xbox One is a Titan. lol

[urwifeminder]

Wonder if some TV makers will use win 10 I know Samsung has their own software launching but could be a great opportunity for pc tv.

[playstation4epic]

lol no, everyone is using android tv or their own

[VP37]

Too much good Xbox news!

Get ready for the ICE TEAM to spew some BS PR statement about how they've got an API in the works that is better than DX12.

In other news...Sony is ready to release another "Stability Update".

[playstation4epic]

lol, 10-100 times more powerful is better than 50% lol
http://gamingbolt.com/ps4-i...

[Macdaddy71]

That's one big thing MS has over Sony n that is they make there own OS n software,... Sony has there fingers in to many holes, tvs, cameras, phones, movies, DVD players, bluray, on n on....where MS has software, tablets, phones, Xbox....they all tie together

[ScorpiusX]

If it improves the Xbox one in any form great for the industry & Xbox , but if it doesn't then we all move on. Not like I was going to sale or trade my console in .

[dreadz74]

After seeing Hololense I have no idea why gamers can't see that MS is cutting edge technology.Why is it so hard for those to believe that the creators of DX12 would not build their box around seriously?They said they highly customized the soc..Instead of PS fans downplaying this they need to see what Sony is going to do to combat this!!!

[WESKER2015]

Good to hear, i hope the XB1 will benefit from DX12.

[strangeaeon]

I am more interested in DX12 specific features like effects and so forth.

[Subaruwrx]

As others have pointed out, Spencer, has in the past, downplayed the benefits DX12 would have for the X1. This new twitter response of his seems to imply that there is in fact some kind of "secret sauce" built into the X1 to take full advantage of DX12. So which Spencer are we to believe: the Spencer who plays it straight or; the Spencer who is obviously trying to appease the fan boys and gain support for the X1 by making vague statements on twitter. Imo, based on his contradictory statements, Spencer is not the savor/messiah of the X1 platform rather, he is just another MS suit.

[DerrickCole]

Maybe this is why the Xbox one has esram. Maybe dx12 was partially designed to run better with xbox ones hardware? I don't know but I can't wait to see what games running dx12 will look like.

[windblowsagain]

They will look basically the same.

I'm not quite sure what you guys are expecting.

XB1 has a 13.3gigapixel GPU.

The machine has been struggling to pull 30fps @ 1600x900 in many games.

Hopefully the games will be a lot more stable.

[DerrickCole]

I'm not saying I'm expecting miracles. I am expecting an improvement over what the Xbox one can currently do Though. All I was saying is that with all this excitement and hype over dx12 I'm interested in what the final products will look like.