Does Directx12 really warrant a whole new card?

[blake0812]

I mean with my GTX 760, i'm gonna get some DX12 features, right?

 

[Flapdrol1337]

You'll get the api, which could be a big upgrade if your cpu isn't the fastest. Anyway, I'd expect actual good games that make good use of the new features to be at least a year away.

 

[Shehriazad]

As long as you have any DX11 GPU you will be fine for now.


A "full" DX12 upgrade should be really unnecssary even for core gamers until at least 2016.

And by then we will already have Nvidias Pascal..and AMDs...well...whatever is out then.

The first DX12 games are mostly going to be "level 1", anyway since they want a broad customer base.
So don't bother with it until actual fully fledged DX12 cards are out. Sure, you could pick up an AMD card NOW and have full "level 3" support...but their performance isn't exactly the most awesome (yes yes, price/performance is great) and new cards are also coming.


Either way...I'm not buying another card until 1st/2nd gen HBM cards have been pushed out...and unless you have to have an upgrade right now..I suggest everyone to do the same, there's a reason both AMD and Nvidia are going toward it.


P.S. If you have tons of cash to throw around...sure...upgrade every week, I don't care XD!

 

[DearLord]

A "full" DX12 upgrade should be really unnecessary even for core gamers until at least 2016.

Pretty much this. I would actually be pleasantly surprised if the majority of aaa titles implemented dx12 by the close of next year.

 

[NTMBK]

760 will be fine for a while longer. Biggest upgrade in DX12 is the thinner driver, and the 760 will support that (same way Mantle could be supported on HD7000 series cards).

 

[Spjut]

Just wait until there's a game out that you personally think warrants getting a DX12 card that supports all new features.

If one gets a DX12 card this year and it ages well, it's a good bonus. But if you want to "future proof" for a future DX12 game, just withhold upgrading until that game actually is out.

 

[destrekor]

While some developers like DICE may have an early grasp of DirectX 12 thanks to already having worked with Mantle, I don't expect to see games utilizing hardware-level GPU features of DX12 for some time, at least until the next generation of GPUs (2016 on 14/16nm nodes). You may see some software DX12 support for better CPU utilization, but features like Conservative Rasterization and Rasterizer Ordered Views will likely go unused for a bit of time. Those features at the DX12 level will require levels of coding expertise beyond what is required now, so it will take some time for engines to be brought into line with the DX12 feature sets.

Now, I had heard there would be a D3D FL 11_3, which brought the advanced GPU features of D3D FL 12 or FL 12_1 to the D3D 11 API. However, does anyone know if features like CR and ROV will be part of 11_3? And, will it be easier for programmers to utilize those features or will they still be difficult to code for? I've heard the whole reason for 11_3 is to bring the visual benefits of 12 without the coding complexity, and without the reduced CPU overhead. I don't know if that means the visual features of 12_1 will be brought to 11_3 whereas the more efficiency-based features of 12_0 won't be brought over.

 

[biostud]

Why don't wait until win10 and DX12 games are actually on the shelves, before you decide whether it is worth to invest in a new video card.

 

[selni]

APIs by themselves don't really matter, actual software does - wait until there's something that actually uses said API before asking whether it's worth updating hardware to support.