Impressive DirectX 12 Tech Demo Shows Performance Gain; Microsoft Promises Large Boost in CPU Muscle

During a livestreamed presentation at Build, Direct3D Development Lead Max McMullen unveiled Direct3D 12, which is the graphical beating heart of the upcoming DirectX 12 API.

[NYC_Gamer]

I wounder what game will be the first to make use of DX12

[Abriael]

My bet is that we'll see some features already in Forza Horizon 2.

Yeah, there'll be a forza Horizon 2 (no, I don't know for sure, but there are too many elements pointing at it) :D

[Gazondaily]

Ah Forza Horizon 2. I so badly regret not playing the first one. I played the demo and fell in love but I never got the time to play it at the time because of some hectic madness at home.

I need to see some console applications on DX12 though to be convinced about it.

Chances are, we'll see any real applications next year at the earliest so I won't really get swept up in the excitement just yet. It's still intriguing though.

[GarrusVakarian]

@Septic

Damn, you missed out. Forza Horizon was great.

[ScareFactor]

Forza Horizon needs more cars this time around and more side stuff to do, other than the game was fun

[Boody-Bandit]

What I want most from Horizon 2 is ice and snow covered courses. I always hoped they would open the path to the snow covered mountain in the background of Horizon. The time is now.

Also a bigger overall area. Horizon was an excellent start but it's time to take the sequel to the next level.

On topic:
I did not see much of a difference in the actual presentation. The scaling was slightly smoother. I want to see it in action with an actual game.

[GameNameFame]

On PC

http://gamingbolt.com/dx-12...

This is MS's slide.

You are giving PC what console has. Xbox One already has console API.... So how does it benefit getting console API if it already has one and evrey other console does.

Again MS's own slide

[ZodTheRipper]

I'm still hoping that Open GL becomes the standard of the industry ...I prefer Valve's vision for PC gaming over Microsofts. Can't wait for Steam OS, hopefully that helps to finally shift the tides.

[alexkoepp]

Wow the xbox one stumbled at last years e3 but its been nothing but positive since. Every day the x1 is getting better, its crazy!

X1 is the future and the future is X1!

[fr0sty]

Just goes to show how ancient DX11 was, not designed to scale across multiple cores even though multi-core setups were well established by the time it released.

This will be hugely beneficial in the PC space. X1 will see a nice CPU boost from this, though GPU functions will still be bound by ESRAM size limitations.

[DragonKnight]

"X1 is the future and the future is X1!"

Good lord you'd better hope not.

OT: Good for MS, but let's see what happens in the real world. Controlled demos are one thing, actual games is another. Plus, I hope they're doing this for their own sake and not trying to compete with the PS4 using this. No amount of software in the world can make up for real hardware differences, and it's doubtful that Sony and PS4 developers are just going to sit on their hands and do nothing.

[Ritsujun]

Don't give up, MS!!!!!

[Lawboy2]

hopefully either quantum break or halo 5

[christocolus]

Its obvious ms 1st party teams have a version of dx12 ,so along with those youve already mentioned im guessing banjoe, crackdown and sunset overdrive will be using it too.

[Ausbo]

while i hope you are right, im pretty sure dx12 doesn't come out till holiday 2015.

[MorePowerOfGreen]

^^^

DX12 doesn't come out for the public and some devs until 2015. Some devs already have it and are working on it, devs are saying this and MSFT has said it(Hottest story on N4G right now is about a dev using it lol)

1st party devs will be using all they can now in dx12 and even some 3rd party devs. There is also a preview for DX12 this year.

I think fanboys are spinning what was actually said. DX12 can not be purchased by PC gamers and average devs until 2015. http://n4g.com/news/1487593...

[OpieWinston]

God Quantum Break is going to be awesome...I've only seen bits and fragments...But after Max Payne and Alan Wake I'm pumped to play as Jack Joyce in Quantum break.

[DragonKnight]

I doubt any of those games will implement it. They definitely began development well before DX12, so unless development was purposely halted, or changing development to use DX12 is possible, then don't count on it.

[Rocky5]

@DragonKnight

It doesn't take much time to port your current DX11 stuff over to DX12, as was shown at the MS tech event.

Took Forza devs (4) a month to port Forza 5 to PC Dx12 API. so would be faster if porting right to the console API. (In theory)

[avengers1978]

From what I understand DX12 will be out later 2015, so I can't imagine games using until late 2015 to sometime in 2016.

[AutoCad]

Early builds will be sent to developers who ask for it.
MS already is working with this.

[DeathOfTheFanBoy]

DX12 Seems very promising, Looking forward to seeing what it brings...

[solidboss07]

Does it matter? It will be like games that have already used the 'cloud'. Meh

[kewlkat007]

"I wounder what game will be the first to make use of DX12"

Gears of war 4..Baby

[MeLoveRamen]

people are just eating this stuff up right out of Microsofts hand. They play all there stuff up and don't deliver, just like E3 when they were touting revolutionary things about the cloud and were saying titanfall was only possible on the cloud, only to find out they were talking about dedicated servers.

My prediction is that by the time DX12 comes out that all next gen games will have jumped up in graphics and Microsoft will boast about it only being possible with DX12, while the PS4 will be running the same game or games that look better from their first party studios.

[frankdrebin72]

so YOUR prediction is more relevant than a demo??..thats actually showing what software engineers have done?
that in your mind you can call what the future is without showing proof??
i do wonder,..not at just you but people like you that when a demo of say driveclub,..no sorry infamous ss came out,..did you treat it with the same distaste that you show here or did you eat it right out of sonys cash strapped hands and suck their fingers clean and declared it was the truth the whole truth and nothing else??..did sony deliver having a game that has limited replay value??..did they achieve the orgasmic graphics that you like??..yet for some strange reason...perhaps its a medical problem,...who knows..certainly not us xbox one owners eh??..that makes you and others continually discredit actual tech demos,..statements from devs about dx12 ,...you guys ,and gals certainly pick and chose what proof you want to accept.
As for the cloud,.its not perfect yet,..but its a start,..like everything else it had to begin somewhere..but when it does come together,....what then for sony,..will they follow suit??....then will your comments be so crude when you get demos etc about software enhancements for the ps4 ,. will you eat out of sonys hands too.?

[IcarusOne]

We the way he describes DX12 balancing the load across multiple cores, seems that DX12 could be what jumps up the graphics.

[Ju]

I see a couple of problems with this parallel approach. Of course it utilizes the cores more efficiently - for pure drawing workload.

However uncontrolled context switches in a a closed environment have quite some impact on the overall performance. Some exclusive engines use a rather "conservative" job system instead a pure dynamic threading model where load per core can be very efficiently managed by the engine.

That is also, why consoles lock away 2 cores (for general purpose and UI tasks) and leave 100% control of the other 6 to the game. Further more, those 6 cores in consoles are within 2 clusters. Caches (and therefore thread affinity) play an important role in console gaming. It is unclear if DX 12 can be synchronized with the rest of the application or if it will simply trade CPU time in favor of raw render performance to overall processing power of a game. And lastly, even though the load is much more efficient it doesn't really result in a huge margin of performance boost. The overall saving was about 2-4ms on a 16ms frame. Can be huge, but not extremely, IMO.

All that said, I am curious to see real world impact in the XBO when games actually use this API. It will probably improve those, if carefully tuned, but it won't give you a factor 2 (or even close).

[BallsEye]

probably a bit of Halo this year, I guess not full dx12 since the game is in developemnt for a long time.

[Trekster_Gamer]

I would imagine they will be able to implement DX12

[Lawboy2]

abriael...I must say you are the man...I have no idea what any of this means a lot is going over my head but I read a lot of articles you submit and enjoy reading them...thank you sir

[Abriael]

Glad to see someone appreciates :D Thanks. It helps a lot to read that :D

[Gazondaily]

Haha we all appreciate it. Do you even get any sleep??

[MidnytRain]

Septic

Nope.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Great stuff, thanks for digging it up Abriel. Good to see some actual visualization of what DX12 can bring to the table.

[christocolus]

We all do abriael.we all do.. Quick one, was that demo done using an existing game i.e crysis or was it made specifically to show off the new api?

[rainslacker]

I must say I enjoyed the mantle ad at the beginning of it.:) For a second I thought you mis-titled the article(had the sound off and didn't realize it was an ad).:)

I know you probably had nothing to do with the ad though. So good stuff here.:)

[Abriael]

@Septic: wish that was true, but I'll take the compliment :D And sure I do, at times :P

@Christoclus: it's a slightly retooled 3D Mark, basically a commercial benchmark designed to test rigs, not an actual game.

http://www.3dmark.com/

Still, it's a pretty good testbed.

[Audiggity]

Yeah, agreed, nice find! Thanks for digging that up... really looking forward to DX12 now.

MS should cut you a check. Slicing through BS PR and getting some real data in the wild.

[PainUzumaki]

This is why Im waiting to get an Xbox....I want one with all the new stuff they might add....If they even do it at least

[Volkama]

They aren't going to release another version of the XBox One with DirectX 12 as a new feature.

There is always a chance you'll see the tech integrated into some 3rd party set top boxes or something (as we seem to speculate during every generation), but you wont get new features on the gaming side.

[VegasDawg]

Why are you spreading this ignorance? You are completely wrong.

[Volkama]

Ignorance? You have some evidence of a hardware revision for the Xbox One that will make it a better games console?

That is pretty big news, you should probably share it...

I imagine pretty much every single xbox one owner will want to sell up if they know a better xbox one is going to replace it soon.

[Kavorklestein]

Do you have proof they won't? then you are just as wrong.
Better versions of existing consoles always come out you ignoranus

[VegasDawg]

Consoles do change for one and the X1 was built with DX12 in mind, please erase your ignorant statement or our you just a fanBOY spreading lies.

[brads4]

It's a software update. All current XBOX ONE systems were designed to take advantage of DX12 when it is released.

[VegasDawg]

This is what I was trying to get across to dumb dumb but his ignorance has gotten him to far down the rabbit hole.

[sinspirit]

True for mostly every product.

You have to keep in mind though, that for this kind of thing, XBox One already has more developer control and optimization than a PC. What performance gains are on PC are going to be far less for X1. Obviously, it's better than nothing. I wonder how it will perform on my laptop, which has a CPU bottleneck. And, I would like my dual graphics to have its performance update I heard about a while ago.

[VegasDawg]

The X1 was set for this from the very beginning hence why it's having problems now, don't listen to the ignorant fanBOY's.

[Lawboy2]

I asked this in the article but maybe someone on here can help me out
this is a question regarding the writers take in the article (which I think could be right)
if you haven't read the article (or atleast the writers take u may not understand my questions)

do you think that the Ai and physics that are normally loaded on the cpu could actually work the way the ai work in titanfall and be loaded to the cloud...also how does the esram work...at the Microsoft conference the Microsoft engineers were talking about how you could load things to the esram... how could dx 12 be used alongside these things....also do you think we will see a huge change or no?

sorry for all the questions

[Volkama]

AI certainly can be offloaded onto the cloud here and now.

Physics... that's what the building demo was all about, but until we see it in the real world it is less clear. You couldn't do anything too latency sensitive on it. I would speculate that you could offload all kinds of things exploding/crumbling/falling and being all spectacular and destroyed-like, but things that directly collide with and affect the player may pose challenging.

ESRAM it's best not to ask. The answers wont mean much unless you have a really strong foundation knowledge in programming and memory management.

DirectX and ESRAM do not directly relate to cloud compute.

DirectX 12 performance increase on PC could be huge. On console we just don't have any metrics to be able to answer that. I am not expecting huge gains from DirectX 12 alone, but I am expecting huge gains from both consoles through a culmination of many areas of improvement.

[BadlyPackedKeebab]

Ai can absolutely in theory be done in the cloud. How it will play though is another matter. The big problem there is quality, different people will get different experiences based on their internet connection quality and isnt the point of consoles to give all users a consistent experience?

You have to consider if Ai was totally online would a single player game feel right if the baddies etc were chopping about a bit like the do in an online game. You expect it in a multiplayer game but would it work in a single play experience when smoothness etc is key to making you feel part of the story?

I see the cloud working where big calculations that are not so time critical can be offloaded. I am thinking complex path finding, procedural generation etc where a simple xml or json file just comes back defining the area to be constructed etc. Something like an auto generated minecraft world would work well in the cloud.

I dont see physics working too well as physics is all about real-time. The only way physics could work is if the entire level was actually simulated serverside and you were just getting back a "set ball to x, y, z rotation 50" kind of command to update your local scene. Or maybe its an isolated event just as a building exploding but if it were those movements could be just scripted anyway, there would be no need to calculate it at all. Again though its all going to come down to that lag, its just not going to work well.

Esram is quite simple really. The 8gb of ram in the xbox is good for general calculations on the CPU side but its poor throughput is not good for graphical work. MS get around this by having 32mb of super quick esram that essentially holds the backbuffer (the frame about to be shown) while it is drawn and data for render time effects etc such as AA. There is no doubt that the ES is too small. What MS need to do now is provide a nice way for devs to mitigate its size. If DX12 can help do this? maybe? but remember its not the be all and end all. If it can be done in DX12 there is no reason why a dev couldnt self implement something to make better use of the esram beforehand.

Fingers crossed but I am not super hopeful its going to be any more than a small step forward.

[kayoss]

@badlyPacketKeebab
You seem to have knowledge about these techy stuff. You're explaination is very impressive. Maybe you can answer a question that i have.
Microsoft claims that DX12 can double the performances of the xbox one. I understand that the x1 might get a small boost but doubling its performance, to me it sounds impossible.
My question to you is, If DX12 is so great and have this potential of increase a PC or consoles performances 2X. Why is there a need to even upgrade a Low end PC or even upgrade a high end PC hardware?

Thanks

[Flutterby]

@kayoss

MS didn't say it would double the performance they said a theoretical 20 percent increase and that's theoretical because they have no clue at mo cos they haven't used DX12 on xbone yet, the people saying double power are the over zealous fanboys be it "journalists" or ones on this site, one thing is for sure there is no way in thus earth going from 11.2 to 12 will double performance if past updates are anything to go by.

[incendy35]

The biggest benefit DX12 gives to the X1 is that it makes parallel operations easier. The low level stuff already exist on X1 but making code run in parallel is difficult because DX11 doesn't have that feature built in. The double performance talk is related to the CPU doubling the compute units for graphics due to operations being worked on by both the GPU and the CPU. In DX11 you had to write your own code to do parallel operations, in DX12 they are saying it is as easy as flagging your methods to be run in parallel. That is still yet to be seen, but if true this is huge. Especially on the Xbox One since the memory is unified and makes this method not only feasible but makes it ideal.

[quenomamen]

You trying to get your Live account canceled with that talk ? Didnt you here the X1 performance is doubling with DX12 ?

[bleedsoe9mm]

reminds me not to put my xbox one near anything flammable . i'm not expert but the graphics stack with bundles looks pretty damn impressive .

[Fishy Fingers]

Sure that was some attempt at either being funny or making sense. Sorely missed at both.

[bleedsoe9mm]

i was being at least a little serious , wonder how far they are going to be able to push the hardware with this technology before heat and shorten life becomes a major concern

[Fishy Fingers]

Obviously they'll test such things. But this is done through software and optimization. They don't just turn the CPU clock speed to 11.

[lemoncake]

Starting to make sense why they made the x1 its current large size.

[scotmacb]

Direct x12 makes a system run cooler if you have 4 cores sharing a task instead of one straining then less heat is made

[bleedsoe9mm]

double post

[hollabox]

Not surprising, if I'm not mistaken XB1 has 15 additional co-processors (rumored 8 PS4) they have yet to explain all of their functions. Additionally the APU in the XB1 cost more to produce and is bigger than the PS4. Besides ESRAM ( A waste in my opinion) who knows what MS has in that chip waiting to be unlocked via software. But like all the vaporware crap I've seen in the past, I need to play it before I believe it.

Updated

[Hellsvacancy]

"But like all the vaporware crap I've seen the past, I need to play it before it I believe it" good man

[rainslacker]

Not really sure if you're being sarcastic or not.

If not I believe you're mistaken. Co-processors aren't the same as CPU Cores. Size doesn't necessarily matter for chip sizes in the way you're using it. about 1/3 of the X1 APU is used up by the ESRAM.

There are x-ray images of the chips available online. There are no hidden co-processors tucked away behind lead shielding preventing them from being seen on either of them.

[hollabox]

Going off what I've read, seen the X-Rays but yet MS claims 15 co or special purpose processors which could just be simple circuit logic.

http://semiaccurate.com/201...

http://www.examiner.com/art...

http://www.techinsights.com...

Updated

[rainslacker]

My bad then. Forgot about those since I haven't heard anything about it in a while. 8 were audio co-processors according to MS, but they left the purpose of the other 7 in mystery.

I don't really care to hazard a guess as to what they might be myself. Probably general purpose stuff though which could help out the rendering, but more likely just help with the actual output of the screen(up-scalers and such).

[bienio]

I am pleased that the Pc soon will show what is really the difference between consoles and PC ... of course to not favor consoles...

[player002]

to bleddsoe9mm heat will be a concern on some rigs they will have to have good cooling im sure there will be a disclaimer for that for XB1 wont be a issue cause half the sytem is a vent it also has a huge fan and huge heatsink they planned for this..

[Agent_hitman]

The demo looks so realistic. I hope that this is not pre-rendered but real time.. It's really hard to judge by watching at this tech demo. Maybe MS might be lying with us again.

[Nekroo91]

I love how xbots think that they are going to have a huge performance boost on a low end cpu.

As for pcs next next gen starts here

[Coach_McGuirk]

i thought the new dx was specifically designed to reduce cpu overhead?

[jhoward585]

With 50% Boost in CPU power from the x1's hardware means it shouldn't have any issues reaching 1080p/60fps.

We'll have to see about that won't we MS.

EDIT:

I get the feelin MS has taken a difference direction this GEN...they know they won't beat Sony in the graphical department so they're going to focus on making more challenging games by boosting the x1's CPU power.

[cruzngta]

Cant wait to see when MS shows some real world performance gains on XB1 and posts a video for all of us to see to believe. Then there can be no disputing or arguing - until then I am skeptical but hopeful. Talk is talk - proof cannot be argued. Period. Good luck MS.

[rainslacker]

I'm waiting for that myself.:)

However, if coming here has taught me anything, proof can and will be argued to no end.

[urwifeminder]

Very cool vid explains a lot dx12 will be sweet.

[Predaking77]

I still don't understand how can an API can make hardware more powerful. As far as I understand, hardware cannot be upgraded with software. Software can improve under the current limitations of the existing hardware which mean the xbone can improve only withing current hardware limitations which means the PS4 will still be far superior.

[rainslacker]

The software can allow developers make better use of the hardware that is available to them.

Best way to think about it is if you've ever upgraded your graphics card driver in your PC. Depending on how many releases it's been since the last one, you may see quite a substantial improvement.

Basically the API allows what the programmer codes to perform more efficiently on the chips involved, thus lowering the amount of work the chips need to do, thus allowing more to be done.

The hardware itself will remain constant. The only way to change that is through firmware upgrades which may make available things that were closed off prior...such as a CPU core, or less likely increase the clock speed of the bus. Things like that.

The 2X claim is a bit extreme. MS never said that. The 2X claim was in relation to PC, where the power is coming from a different mentality is being made available to PC game devs. Before, With prior DirectX games, the dev wrote to the DirectX API, which acted as an intermediary for the code to react with the hardware. This is good for PC because of the many different GPU setups in the PC world. With DirectX 12 though, devs can write directly to the hardware. DX12(or Mantle) still act as an intermediary, but only in the most cursory of ways, thus being much more like console programming which is much more efficient. Because of this, the performance gain could quite possibly be 2X. However, real world gains are more likely around 20-40%. Not too shabby really, and much easier to swallow.

[Predaking77]

Thank you and the other guys who took the time to reply and share their point of view.

[Belasco]

For the thousandth time, it doesn't make the hardware more powerful, it just makes whatever game its running far less demanding.

[scotmacb]

Thats what normally happens but MS have the best coders in th world so its possible and even if sony done the same sort of thing microsofts directx is used by nearly everyone thats why they are making a big deal

[kewlkat007]

Compare a high powered Android phone to an Apple device and look at the specs/performance...

"Optimization" is key to better performance on whatever hardware you are working with.

[Geoff900]

You might want to look at how servers, phones, routers, switches etc rely on software rather than hardware nowadays.

Hardware isn't what drives devices anymore, far from it, software has become more and more complex, and since it controls the hardware it is far more important, more so now with multi-core CPU's.

The API itself, will have a lower overlay on the hardware, think of it as resource which has to always run when playing a game, if that shrinks it allows your hardware to do other things. Not only that but developers can code closer to the metal, without much of the resources that was used being gobbled up by the API.

What MS is doing with DX12 is cutting the reliance on the CPU and moving most of it onto the GPU, and shrinking the overall API giving developers more resources.

There are many things you can do to API's to make them much more efficient, e.g. compression, optimizing code, etc.

Like I said before, hardware now is very much software driven, you can shrink, optimize, and many other things to get more out of the hardware.

[f789790]

Hardware based processing is still a major thing with routers and switches. The more you can take off the cpu, the better.

[Geoff900]

@f789790

Switches, routers etc are more software based than actual hardware based since they use mutli-core processing, software by far is more important.

[QuickdrawMcgraw]

So what does this mean...Will the Xbox1 be able to out perform the PS4...

[Elit3Nick]

We won't know until we see proper comparisons of a multiplat game using DX12.

[scotmacb]

Ps4 won't be getting dx12

[Xavy]

PS4 have better RAM and a more powerfull GPU. SW can be upgraded twiked etc for both PS4 and X1. HW well sorry =)

[Elit3Nick]

Sony doesn't have the software wizardry that MS has, considering that MS is a software company first and foremost. Just the updates for the PS4 and Xbox One show the difference.

[Jeff257]

You are forgetting about Sony's ICE Team that has been working out of Naughty Dog since before the PS3 was released. They do nothing but work on making the software for the systems better so that developers will have an easier time building the games. They worked very closely with Mark Cerny and the others who developed the PS4. They also continue to work on improving the software for the PS4 to constantly make it better and easier to work with.

Now I'm not saying that DX12 won't help XBOX One. But you cannot just dismiss Sony either since they too have resources for making the PS4 better. Either way both systems making improvements means better games and more competition. That means the industry can stay strong and we will all benefit from having great Games to play no matter which system or systems we choose.

[marcofdeath]

Xavy

leave your talking points for your Sony fanboy forms. I will keep telling you people this time, after time. Please do some homework people, I know this tech talk is difficult for a lot of you and that is why Sony can get away with telling you just about GDDR 5. There are many disadvantages with the PS4 memory system as a whole. Nodding dog actually tells developers in its slides at GDC do not rely mostly on the main memory, but use the cache next to the GPU and CPU.

I'll do it again. so if you don't like facts please look away.

A. 176GB/s at 256bits-wide on one BUS to GPU.
B. 209GB/s at 1280bits wide on one MMU BUS to GPU.
C. 256GB/s at 128bits wide on one BUS to GPU.

if you pick A you are a idiot.
if you pick B you get it, moved to next part.
if you pick C you just fell for classic PR job.

The right answer is B. I did it in this manner to show you that bit rate makes the difference in bandwidth size. C. It's actually from the Xbox 360 EDRAM module. A.is from the PS4 copied exactly. B. the right answer is from Xbox ones ESRAM + DDR3, that the GPU can simultaneously access. that's a lot more than PS4 memory system solution. That GPU only has access to it's memory only on one bus called onion at 176GB/s at 256 bits wide. Xbox one has what is called a MMU bus that has simultaneous access to 160GB/s ESRAM x 4 8 MB banks 256 bits wide = 1024 bits wide + DDR3 4 2MB lines 64 bit wide = 256bits wide. Xbox ones is using more memory resources to its GPU.

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[player002]

now there is some video evidence of the gains from DX12 still lies though right?Armchair devs galore saying but but but.I just facepalm every time a fanboy says lies or its already close to the metal smh.Do you really think Nvidia ,Amd and Intel would say these things if not true give me a break and the argument of already close to the metal has nothing to do with Dx12 well not really yes XB1 is close to the metal but its using basically using one core the other cores barely are used the main core is doing most of the work now Dx12 brings you even closer to the metal and uses all cores @ the same level the gains are 2x the performance what's so hard to believe?Look @ the video it clearly states this and show's it.The denial is comical

[Belasco]

The argument then shifts to DX12 mainly benefitting PC and just a "few" DX12 features making it to the X1. I am tired of this argument already.

[ATi_Elite]

I remember ALL the hype for DX10 and it turned out to be CRAP.

So far DX12 looks to add performance gains to DX11 for mid and low end cards which is good.

Now what are some of the new features that I can expect to see because I'm a High end card user so I will not get any performance gains so I demand a list of features

[bornsinner]

i'm very impressed by the performance gains... shame it will take another year for it to come to xbone though when it needs it right now!

[beatled]

this will be GREAT for pc gaming

will do almost noth8ing for xbox1

as an owner of ps4 and pc, it is STAGGERING how far out and ahead of console gaming pc is this gen

sony and ms both went hardcore cheap on their consoles, my ps4 cannot even run blacklight retribution at close the graphics settings and framerate that my wifes pc can, with a mid-range, 4 year old gpu in it can

and the ps4 is, and always will be, way more powerful than the xbox1, and the ps4 is still weak as hell, less powerful than a 4 year old mid spec pc from 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

that was a cheap card that came out in 2010 and CRAPS on the ps4 and xbox1

dx12 will again shape pc gaming and leave the ps4 and xbox1 2 full generations behind pc gaming

4k and all the amazing settings are pc only

ps5 won't catch up to where pc gaming will go in the next 2 years!

[Nuk]

My wife can do 4k too!

[player002]

Your wrong XB1 will have benefits for strarters it will use all 8 cores not just one which it does mostly now and the workloads will be split evenly get ur facts straight.. Pc will see huge gains to depends on setup ..to all saying to bad its not coming to XB1 till 2015 get ur facts straight too cause Ms said early access is coming this year devs already have the sdk ..This means a few titles will use dx12 this year..E3 baby.. deny all u want but XB1 will become a beast

[windblowsagain]

I hope your kidding.

KillzoneSF destroys Blacklight by a mile and Infamous NUKES it.

Blacklight is a bland looking game. Basic port f2p.

[andrew171994]

This guys tellin the truth pc gaming will always be ahead of consoles no matter wat. N dx12 wont do much to a shity card, unless you only play offline you will never notice the difference online, people use wifi and it ruins games.

Everyone thats all buthurt about all the xbox players coming to ps4 i dont blame you microsoft is nothin but money grabbers they say one thing n every cod player bustes a load in there pants.

Dx12 wont do shit on x1 and same goes for ps4. U gotta have high end graphics cards to even install it. Cause wats the point of having good software if the hardwars is trash.

[Nuk]

Minesweeper DX12 Edition. Everything rendered at 4k @ 59.9 hz.

SAHWWEEEETTTTt

[Nuk]

I am being facetious of course. This looks pretty fantastic. I wonder how the 4+ multi core processors will handle this, not to mention hyper threading and turbo boost. From what i've seen sometimes turbo boost can sometimes cause issues with evenly distributing workload threads across cores.

[Kennytaur]

Is it wrong that I now want HD Minesweeper with real-time physics-based explosions, 3D rendered tiles with shaders, tessellation, havok-based flags and surround sound?

[Predaking77]

I think the proper way to validate this is when they implement it and some real test comparisons can be made. That would be on 2015.

Two factors to take

1) by 2015 the PS4 will obviously improve even more.
2) Not wanting to offend anyone but in the past, Microsoft has overhyped things that later has turned to be just lies. Remember when they say the power of the cloud would make the x1 4 times more powerful? Or when they say the 8% increase on the cpu will give them a noticeable increase in power?

[AutoCad]

The cloud has the potential to make it stronger by letting developers offload data to it to optimize another part of the game..As for the 8% increase,MS has not unlocked this yet,according to a developer.

DX12 Plus the Cloud is going to do so much of the work for developers that i cant even imagine how games will look and run in the future.

[DoubleM70]

1. Of course the PS4 will improve every console that has been made have improved over time.

2.They look like they on track to do just that. They gave back the power with the new SDK. We are just 4 months into this generation. They are starting to demonstrate that cloud power with Titanfall. Rome was not built in a day.

[Kennytaur]

I wish these improvements would affect all games (even those already released), not just those coming out using DX12. Imagine getting a significant improvement like this one day, on your already owned games without new hardware. Todays Nvidia driver should be good for DX11 though.

[WickedLester]

That's what I was just going to ask. Will this improve existing games or will games have to take specific advantage of it?

[Kennytaur]

Game will have to make specific advantage, so it'll only affect new games built for DX12 and the few that'll patch in support.

[killzone619]

i imagine all xbox one exclusives will be dx12 so they can get the most out of the system.

[andrew171994]

I dont get why dx12 will make the xbox 1 better the hardware still sucks.

[larrysdirtydrawss]

this will be great for pc,,, very small boost on x1,,, still not as good as ice team

[kingcmike]

If the software is going to take away 50% of the cpu then what will the cpu do when its all ready slow now...?

[jairusmonillas]

Wow so downloading DirectX 12 will make my 7 year old computer the equivalent of one built today.

Sorry but that doesn't work like that. Also, there seems to be this assumption that Sony isn't going to further optimize their own system.

[jackdaniels]

its not hard to understand, hardware needs software in order to function. If one redesigns, redevelops the software to optimize resource management, and spread the load more evenly (thread management, or as you may know it, multiple core), some bottlenecks cease to be bottlenecks, resources are freed up, and with those resources you are able to do 'more' processing (more stuff). in other words, crappy software is not as good as good software - hope that helps you understand.
Thanks

[jairusmonillas]

lol software upgrades can only do so little if you have a weak hardware.

[jackdaniels]

jairusmonillas - thanks for your insightful comments - not very well argued or thought out, but you are entitled to an opinion. However your initial comment, showed a complete lack of understanding, just trying to help you understand the article.
thanks

[Stapleface]

LMAO at all these cavemen in here. Me no understand. UGH! Me angry! *clubs Max Mcmullen in the head* Me no like you. You make things that hurt head.

[LordFluffy]

I wonder how this thing would look in an actual game

[Stenmark]

It's going to be interesting

[FreakyFox]

The hype with DX12 is so high, but with the small gains it will have, it will be classed as a let down when it is released , just like all the others, except maybe DX9 because at that time OpenGL was in a strange place until 2006 when The Khronos Group Consortium took over OpenGL and gave it a better direction.

Direct X aint even needed for Xbox, its just another reason to get people to buy into everything Microsoft, as in:

" Hey some of our tools are free and the ones that you use in conjuction with them are not, but it EASY this way, oh and guys we will be shipping DX12 with Windows 9 with its new and improved touch screen cloud touch me again Xbox One capabilities."

It would not suprise me if the next Windows is called Cloud 9 because thats where they seem to be at the moment.