In the words of Microsoft everything just fine. DirectX 12 gives the programmer full access to components of the computer. “Full access to the resources of iron” contributes to better optimization of games. If this is interesting to the developer, of course. And “advanced optimization” is the rational use of system requirements. The chain is clear and logical. The idea is that everyone should be in the black. Developers implement their creativity and will get the love (and money) of gamers. Players will get a quality product without serious costs to buy a very powerful computer hardware.
September 30, 2016 DirectX the 21st birthday. But only the 12th version of Microsoft decided to switch to low-level programming.
I already expressed my opinion on DirectX 12. In recent years, among of computer (and console too) games has too many low-quality product. All trash, even the so-called AAA projects and then feel the bottom. It seems that the developers never bother testing and optimization of their products. Or the frantic deadlines of marketers forcing programmers to release for sale frankly the crude product. As a result, the quality of graphics in video games over the last couple of years dramatically not increased. Can not be said about the system requirements. To buy a graphics card for 650 USD, not to get 60 frames per second in Full HD resolution — this is too much, you know! The output of the graphics Polaris Pascal and partly correct this situation, because frankly outdated 28-nanometer process technology is used for five long years. The transition to 16-nm “rails” will give a major boost in terms of performance. In the current situation to help have and DirectX 12. The conveyor has earned, in March the support of the new API has got quite a cult franchise about “Agent 47” and tomb raider Lara Croft.
Iron experiment: DirectX 12 vs. DirectX 11
Short o DirectX 12
About the main feature of DirectX 12 I wrote. Low-level API reduces the level of hardware abstraction. Details about twelfth version of the Microsoft creation we have already mentioned. I see no reason to repeat myself. DirectX 12 in a “vacuum” demonstrates a special test package 3DMark. According to the results, the effectiveness of low-level API (don’t forget about Mantle and Vulkan) above at least an order of magnitude. It’s very simple: DirectX 11 imposes restrictions on the number of teams draw of the CPU. But let’s be honest: 3DMark is only 3DMark. The figures are beautiful, but the reality does not correspond.
Performance comparison DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 in 3DMark
DirectX 12 is supported by all modern graphics cards, but there is a caveat. The API is divided into three levels: DirectX 12 API, DirectX DirectX 12_0 and 12_1. The initial version of the interface supports all graphics chips from AMD and NVIDIA, released on 28-nanometer process technology, as well as the range editrow GeForce 400/500 “Fermi” generation. But then begin the discrepancy. A list of the generations of 3D accelerators are listed in a summary table. Under the video cards Maxwell 1st generation refers to adapters GeForce GTX 750/750 Ti.
DirectX 12
DirectX 12 API
DirectX 12_0
DirectX 12_1
AMD
- Radeon Fiji R9;
- Radeon GCN 1.1/1.2;
- Radeon HD 7000.
- Radeon Fiji R9;
- Radeon GCN 1.1/1.2.
- Radeon R9 Fiji.
NVIDIA
- GeForce GTX Maxwell 2nd generation;
- GeForce GTX Maxwell 1st generation;
- GeForce Kepler;
- GeForce Fermi.
- GeForce GTX Maxwell of the 2nd generation.
- GeForce GTX Maxwell of the 2nd generation.
DirectX 12 only works with Windows 10. Marketing clean water, aims to increase the number of users of this OS. Can you resist it? You can, but only when promoting different API. For Example, Vulkan.
DirectX 12 works only in Windows 10.
The list of games that support DirectX 12, has noticeably increased. In this article we will look at HITMAN, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Ashes of the Singularity. These games support DirectX 11, and DirectX 12. Two of them came out recently. Ashes of the Singularity is still in its beta-testing stage. Exclusive for Windows 10 released a remastered version of the cult Gears of War. Very soon there will be games AAA: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Apex Forza Motorsport 6 and Quantum Break. At the recent exhibition presented the GDC CryEngine V. from Now on, all Xbox exclusives will come out including on the PC. But only at Windows 10. Thanks to Microsoft’s new strategy.
Quality
As I said, DirectX 12 is designed for better optimization for modern hardware. Technology Tiled Resources, Typed UAV and Bind, forming part of this API significantly (on paper) save video memory and resource oriented API to use more cores of the CPU. The principle of conservative rasterization speeds up the calculation of shadows and the MSAA filter. It is logical that optimization would lead to improvement in the quality of graphics, but most importantly is the increase in stability and performance.
Let’s compare the graphics of DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 in HITMAN and Rise of the Tomb Raider. Attached below are some screenshots in Ultra HD (carefully, each file weighs 8-10 MB!). Quality settings — maximum.
DirectX 12 is not about the quality.
The game “Agent 47” is immediately received support DirectX 12. The client includes a built-in benchmark. It considerably facilitates process of testing, but some colleagues say that the game has locations that are taxing the system stronger than prepared by the developer of the script. Rise of the Tomb Raider updated to support new API with the help of the patch. The game also got a built-in benchmark.
HITMAN. DirectX 11
HITMAN. DirectX 12
HITMAN. DirectX 11
HITMAN. DirectX 12
HITMAN. DirectX 11
HITMAN. DirectX 12
See the difference? I don’t. Understand that the screenshots are hard to judge the quality of the graphics, but even in the dynamics of the difference between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12, I didn’t feel. And if so, then the use of a new software interface should noticeably increase system performance. After all, even in something should be the benefit of this API?
Rise of the Tomb Raider. DirectX 11
Rise of the Tomb Raider. DirectX 12
Rise of the Tomb Raider. DirectX 11
Rise of the Tomb Raider. DirectX 12
Rise of the Tomb Raider. DirectX 11
Rise of the Tomb Raider. DirectX 12
Performance
Test stand:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @3.5 GHz
- Cooler: Corsair H110i
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-X99-UD7 WIFI
- RAM: DDR4-2133 4x 4GB
- Video card: AMD Radeon R9 Nano, AMD Radeon R9 290, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
- Hard drive: Patriot SSD 480 GB Blast
- Operating system: Windows 10 x64
- Drivers: AMD Crimson Edition 16.3 Hotfix, NVIDIA 364.51
For comparison DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 I took a two popular video cards: GeForce GTX 970 and Radeon R9 290. Games run at different graphics quality settings:
- Rise of the Tomb Raider — presets Medium, High and Very High. SMAA antialiasing is always on.
- HITMAN — presets Medium, High and Ultra. Antialiasing SMAA, 16x anisotropic filtering and SSAO is always enabled.
- Ashes of the Singularity — the presets are Standard, High and Crazy.
Tips and screenshots all graphic settings are located in the same gallery.
Before analyzing the results, say the following: DirectX 12 brings to HITMAN and RotTR a large number of bugs. During testing I faced a basic app just displays a black screen. In DirectX 11. Having studied the angry posts in the relevant topics of the Steam client, it became clear that the stability of games with the new API faced a decent amount of gamers. Well, optimization worthy of “praise”! The bugs and instability in March became the card of DirectX 12, considering that an updated version of Gears of War, too slow and buggy. Could tell about my adventures with the Denuvo protection, but to the subject DX11/12 they have nothing.
DirectX 12 raw. Dry?
Start with medium quality graphics. Here there is a most interesting picture. The GeForce GTX 970 FPS increase is observed in… yeah in any game! In RotTR, and HITMAN only the number of frames dropped. But the Radeon R9 290 showed different results. Rendered adventures of Lara Croft reacted to the new API by a decrease in FPS. But in the Saga about “Agent 47” and strategies Ashes of the Singularity is the growth rate: 5.9% and 20.7% respectively. Even stronger in HITMAN minimum FPS has increased on 36,7%.
The performance of graphics cards in games. Medium graphics quality settings
When switching to the preset graphics quality High tendency for the NVIDIA graphics card has not changed. Except that the minimum FPS at the Heathman increased by 12.8%. A trifle, but nice. Radeon R9 290 with the new API works better. Do not forget that HITMAN is a “red” game engine optimized for the Radeon. So I’m not surprised by the fact that the transition from one to another given DirectX GCN architecture easier, and Maxwell. In the end, for “two hundred and ninety” growth was 40.5% for the minimum FPS, and 8% on average.
The performance of graphics cards in games. High graphics quality settings
However, with the increase in graphics quality (read — the load on the graphics card) the effectiveness of DirectX 12 has dropped even for Radeon R9 290. In HITMAN, the minimum FPS increased by 35.3 percent, and the average number of personnel increased by 9.1%.
Make a Subtotal. First, I do not understand why DirectX 12 introduced in Rise of the Tomb Raider. The image quality has not improved, FPS is down! Judging by the reviews, I have one. HITMAN in DirectX 12 is more or less only works with a Radeon R9 290. Coincidence? I don’t think. The average FPS has increased slightly: by 8-10%. To be honest, from DirectX 12, around which there was so much noise, I expected more. However, my expectations, as one lover of chips, is my problem. In Ashes of the Singularity can be seen that with increasing load on the graphics card is the difference between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 is reduced. Again I’m talking about AMD. The GeForce GTX 970 everything is in order and in DirectX 11.
DirectX 12 is not seriously increased performance. In some cases only reducing the performance. Sailed.
Interestingly, the new API behaves extremely unstable. Judging by responses of colleagues on some systems the growth is. For example, in HITMAN Radeon R9 290. On the other stands do not. Any particular algorithm does not exist. Full random. Of course, any optimization of the question. CrossFire and SLI in DX12 mode do not work.
The performance of graphics cards in games. Very high graphics quality settings
Resource consumption
The technology used in DirectX 12 needs to optimize the performance of the CPU, as well as more rational use of resources RAM and video memory. In the case of RotTR and HITMAN nothing not observed. Start with the number of processor cores. For this test used a more powerful video card Radeon R9 Nano. Settings — maximum. Rise of the Tomb Raider in DirectX mode 12 still, many cores your CPU. And here is the gain in comparison with DirectX 11. However, few uses in the modern gaming system units 2-core processors.
DirectX 12 will use all the processing power of the CPU and consume more memory.
HITMAN with ω the situation is even more interesting. When you activate DX12 for AMD chips on the architecture GCN 1.2 VSync is not disabled. That is, the Radeon R9 Nano/Fury/Fury X and adapters-level Radeon R9 380/380X, there is a limit to 60 FPS. The Radeon R9 290/290X/390/390X this “glitch” is not observed. The game itself parallelizes the load on several CPU cores, but such multi-threaded optimization implemented in DirectX 11.
Performance in games depending on the number of cores (threads)
Now just let me cite two facts: games with DirectX 12 will consume more RAM and video memory. The power of low-level optimization in action! Judging by the “extravagance” Rise of the Tomb Raider, 16 GB RAM officially becomes a necessary minimum for a gaming computer.
The consumption of video memory
RAM consumption
In conclusion
What was it? After exploring the first games that support DirectX 12, I was left extremely dissatisfied with what he saw. It is clear that a new API is gaining momentum, but why release an obviously unfinished product? The question, however, is rhetorical. Well, in HITMAN the Radeon have any speedups. But in Rise of the Tomb Raider performance stupidly declined and the quality of the graphics, if the vision did not let me down, has not improved. Smacks of outright schlock and marketing.
Games with DirectX 12 appeared to be unstable. I can’t call them optimized, as compared to DirectX 11 HITMAN and reviewed Rise of the Tomb Raider not to use (for the good) more threads of the processor, not to consume less memory. On the contrary!
Turn off emotions. It is impossible to present serious claims to DirectX 12, considering just three games. However, I can not admit that currently the new API does not look the means that make life easier for gamers. Until DirectX 12 is marketing, forcing the user to change their old card for a new one, but at the same time to move to Windows 10. Wait for the first games developed specifically for the new API. I hope that the ideas contained in DirectX 12, will yield fruit.