Microsoft’s DirectX 12 gives developers lower-level access to hardware than ever before, and is already proving to be quite impressive. According to Stardock’s Brad Wardwell writing on Neowin, DirectX 12 will make a significant difference to the Xbox One’s graphical performance.
“…Microsoft’s Xbox One has been well received but has been criticized for being measurably behind Sony’s Playstation 4 in terms of game performance,” says Wardwell. “Microsoft has responded with DirectX 12. With relatively little effort by developers, upcoming Xbox One games, PC Games and Windows Phone games will see a doubling in graphics performance.
Suddenly, that Xbox One game that struggled at 720p will be able to reach fantastic performance at 1080p.”
And it’s not just a theoretical upgrade, Wardwell insists.
“The results are spectacular. Not just in theory but in practice (full disclosure: I am involved with the Star Swarm demo which makes use of this kind of technology,) Wardell wrote. “While each generation of video card struggles to gain substantial performance over the previous generation, here, the same hardware will suddenly see a doubling of performance.”
“Xbox One is the biggest beneficiary; it effectively gives every Xbox One owner a new GPU that is twice as fast as the old one,” he added.
I honestly hope it’s true. I would love for Microsoft’s Xbox One to find itself back in the game – but there’s an old mantra that certainly bears repeating: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
For reference, 1080p is double the pixel output of 720p, so if Xbox One games hit 1080p after DirectX 12 comes in to use, then he’s not wrong.
Microsoft’s new Xbox head, Phil Spencer, has also said the differences will be beneficial.
@nickomatic20 When you think about start of gen to end of gen teams learn a lot. DX12 will help as well, think PDZ to Halo 4.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) April 7, 2014
Last Updated: April 8, 2014
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 8, 2014 at 10:05
So it gives a 100% performance increase? I’d like that to be true, but I don’t believe it.
Rince
April 8, 2014 at 10:27
My thoughts too… http://media.giphy.com/media/7fKS0By0AcF2/giphy.gif
FoxOneZA
April 8, 2014 at 10:56
Great news if you have an AMD GCN GPU 😉
Gr8_Balls_o_Fire
April 8, 2014 at 10:06
lol
Hammersteyn
April 8, 2014 at 10:07
This console seems to be full of switches that can be flipped.
ElimiNathan
April 8, 2014 at 10:15
That’s why its so big, space for all em switches inside 😛
Hammersteyn
April 8, 2014 at 10:18
hahaha
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 8, 2014 at 10:21
They should have put a turntable on top of it. That way they can spin right round like a record while having backwards compatibility & being able to play music.
blzzy_gie
April 8, 2014 at 16:11
Is there such thing as a next gen console that doesn’t allow you to play back your own music and videos then?.
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 8, 2014 at 16:16
Yes, PS4 still has multimedia playback issues, unless they updated it while I wasn’t looking.
Insidious Force
November 16, 2015 at 00:21
backward compatibility: switched on
MakeItLegal
April 8, 2014 at 10:47
Suddenly aswell …..
KingKappie
April 8, 2014 at 10:07
What PC specs do you need to run DirectX 12
Hammersteyn
April 8, 2014 at 10:08
Windows 8?
OminousRain
April 8, 2014 at 10:10
I really hope not. But I remember reading something like that somewhere.
Hammersteyn
April 8, 2014 at 10:11
Grinds my nuts really. I’ve got Win 7 pro but to use DX12 they force you to upgrade.
OminousRain
April 8, 2014 at 10:15
Same. Got Windows 7 on y gaming rig. But work laptop I got Windows 8.
I like to keep it that way.
If I every have to change my OS on my gaming rig, it will probably be Steam OS.
Hammersteyn
April 8, 2014 at 10:18
Agreed
FoxOneZA
April 8, 2014 at 10:58
Windows 8.1 and a AMD GCN GPU or any of the last 2 gen Nvidia midrange and up cards.
TBH, I’ve seen at least a 20% increase in GFX performance in Win 8.1.
Admiral Chief in Space
April 8, 2014 at 10:12
Double?
Is that what she said?
Admiral Chief in Space
April 8, 2014 at 10:13
But will it run Crysis?
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 8, 2014 at 10:24
It’ll run 2 x Crysis because it’s double the performance & it can multitask now.
Admiral Chief in Space
April 8, 2014 at 10:26
So you can play Crysis while playing Crysis?
Amazing!
Such Tech
WOW
Sir Captain Senior the First
April 8, 2014 at 10:17
I do believe Xbox may have lost their minds. No matter how low level the access to the hardware, you simply cannot make a GPU twice as fast with out overclocking it to insane proportions. I wonder how many Xbox one’s will explode using DX12 😛
Hammersteyn
April 8, 2014 at 10:21
Soon…. (refresh for image)
Sir Captain Senior the First
April 8, 2014 at 10:23
Ok, I lol’d pretty hard at that XD
blzzy_gie
April 8, 2014 at 16:13
No more than I missed the Yellow light on my PS3.
Hammersteyn
April 8, 2014 at 16:27
Suffered through that only once luckily
HvR
April 8, 2014 at 10:18
So DirectX12 is viagra for a system that is already limp and old?
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 8, 2014 at 10:26
Gives it a permanent Xboner?
HvR
April 8, 2014 at 10:26
Only for 6 hours
Black Mage [Umar]
April 8, 2014 at 10:24
A Tata will always be a Tata no matter how you paint it.
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 8, 2014 at 10:31
You seem more like a Red Mage to me. 😉
Black Mage [Umar]
April 8, 2014 at 10:33
I like dabbling in the black arts. Red is too mainstream
Ottokie
April 8, 2014 at 10:28
“Double the performance”…?
Martin du preez
April 8, 2014 at 10:29
DAT secret SAUCE! DX12 coupled with the infinite power of teh clouds and the Xbone will run 4K in no time.
fred
April 8, 2014 at 10:29
So Direct x 12 + Azure cloud = Skynet
HvR
April 8, 2014 at 10:39
With Skynet giving a Red Ring just before missile launch and T-800’s missing all the shots and running into walls due to high pings due to bad Telkom service in the battlefield.
Robert Sleepyboy Cunningham
April 8, 2014 at 10:47
Nice
MakeItLegal
April 8, 2014 at 10:45
Sounds like the typical PR bullshit that we have to deal with …. I write this off as a bad Aprils fools day joke … 100% gain ???? Waha ha ha ha , I expect at most 25 % … Not the pr ladies interpretation of 100%
Maybe I am wrong
Brenz
April 8, 2014 at 10:55
Double you say? CHOO CHOO MUTHAFUCKA!
Brady miaau
April 8, 2014 at 11:03
Brad Wardell is known for not talking kak (at least a few years ago). I used to follow his blogs and stuff, loved his writing.
As a software developer of many years exp, on far too many CPU types, I do not believe a doubling of performance will take place with just a software patch. Would love to see that.
essentially, Panado brings out the “new, improved” version. So were they, for years, selling crap, with the better stuff in wings?
Sk3tz0
April 8, 2014 at 11:07
Double the Performance still 720 resolution 😛 Faster Blurs MOTHERFUCKERS!!!
blzzy_gie
April 8, 2014 at 16:26
You need to catch up with the news, since the devs have the new SDK they are now releasing at 1080p.
Released next month…
“Wolfenstein: The New Order” will run in 1080p at 60 frames per second on Xbox One as confirmed by Bethesda.
“Murdered: Soul Suspect” Runs at 1080p/30fps on both Xbox One and PS4
as confirmed by Senior Design Producer of Square Enix’s Murdered: Soul Suspect, Eric Studer.
Sk3tz0
April 8, 2014 at 16:40
tl;dr
Bruce Thompson
April 8, 2014 at 17:37
You must have ADD sk3tz0…. that wasn’t long at all. Can’t be fun to be a mental midget.
demfax
September 13, 2014 at 02:38
Mentally diseased, evil fanboy waste spreading FUD, LIES and blind hatred..
Lardus-Resident Perve
April 8, 2014 at 11:20
We will see…hopefully by the time it arrives here.
FoxHoundR - 720p is bestest
April 8, 2014 at 11:24
Direct 12 will make xbox one run 4k resolution. Believe in the Xbox one
Sk3tz0
April 8, 2014 at 11:34
Believe in Justin Bieber aswell do u ???
Maxiviper117
April 8, 2014 at 12:41
Since when does doubling the pixel count from 720p to 1080p require a GPU twice as fast ?
Xtreme Derp
April 8, 2014 at 13:58
Console APIs like PS4s and Xbox One are already supposed to be low level. Unless MS seriously screwed up with their Xbox One API (which is called DirectX 11.x, a custom derivative of DirectX 11), the benefits are likely to be minimal. DX12 is still mainly a benefit to PCs.
These low level changes mainly benefit the CPU. Which is why Mantle helps a lot with CPU constrained PC builds, but doesn’t do a whole lot if the CPU is already bulky enough to not bottleneck the GPU. Basically the only way you’d see “twice the graphics” is if the GPU was being severely bottlenecked by the CPU.
Xbox One’s benefit depends on how low level the current API already is, and whether Xbox One games are CPU bottlenecked, as these low level changes are mainly a CPU benefit. Being able to run CPU code more efficiently will free up some CPU power, but that doesn’t have a direct relation to GPU rendering unless it was bottlenecked.
PS4 will have better performing games for the entire generation as it has more powerful hardware, you can’t overcome a hardware gap with better drivers/SDKs. Any game running on Xbox One can be run with better framerate/resolution/visual effects on PS4.
The bottom line is even if Xbox had a far more powerful CPU and 10000GB of 10000 GB/s memory, it’s ability to render graphics is STILL limited by the weaker GPU. There’s no getting around the weaker GPU, there’s no free lunch.
If they’re both running at the same resolution the Xbox version will have lower framerate and/or visual effects, or the PS4 hardware isn’t being pushed.
Wardell’s Star Swarm PC demo tends to be CPU bottlenecked on DX11, so running his demo using Mantle or the new Nvidia drivers shows a significant boost in performance. His tech demo features thousands of ships flying around the screen shooting at each other in space.
Wardell is taking the results from his tech demo and extrapolating them to every other game, which is misleading because most of them aren’t particularly CPU bottlenecked and won’t show anywhere near “double” performance gains.
Again how much DX12 benefits Xbox One depends on 1. how low level Xbox One’s API currently is and 2. whether the game in question is CPU bottlenecked.
Here are two good articles on the subject:
http://anandtech.com/show/7889/microsoft-announces-directx-12-low-level-graphics-programming-comes-to-directx
http://www.redgamingtech.com/directx-12-low-level-api-analysis-of-xbox-one-game-development/
blzzy_gie
April 8, 2014 at 16:28
That reads like something from Sony’s damage control dept.
demfax
September 13, 2014 at 02:38
Mentally diseased, evil fanboy waste spreading FUD, LIES and blind hatred.
Uberutang
April 8, 2014 at 14:03
Was kind of sceptical about this, but after seeing the difference the new Nvidia driver is making on my system… they could potentially improve a lot of stuff xbone side with a better dx implementation.
Brian Murphy
April 8, 2014 at 17:23
PR speak