DX 12 looks like the real deal, and what we've all been patiently waiting for.

[dave1029]

Check this out: http://www.legitreviews.com/looking...mance-3dmark-api-overhead-feature-test_160936

Now most of y'all understand that, that doesn't mean a 6x improvement in performance... like we saw with mantle, performance was only increased on systems with AMD CPU's. Basically you could get $300 intel level performance on a $100 AMD CPU *if* the game supported mantle. So, what does this mean for gaming?

Well in the short run, where DX 12 will be *supported* on games (and I expect DX 12 patches will start hitting existing games for the multi-gpu native support and overhead decrease... but no extra graphical features obviously), we will see more longevity for CPU life, but in the long run- say any game released mid 2016 and forward... they are about to look a lot freakin better. Not necessarily texture quality, but particles, physx, anything that makes a crap ton of draw calls to the GPU. Those things don't take extreme GPU power to render... it doesn't work right now because of the overhead and the fact the CPU- no matter how fast- just can't keep up. Think about 6x the amount of available draw calls. I'm not computer expert, but that sounds a lot to me like 6x the stuff in games without major performance sacrifices. Time will tell, but I don't think I've ever been so anxious about something before. Multi-GPU support, so much more overhead, the idea of extremely complex games compared to now... Ahhhh I can't wait.

 

[i7Baby]

I'd add a pinch of cynicism to these sorts of reports.

eg will it benefit any older cards much at all?

or will anyone rewrite some older games to take advantage of DX12?

 

[Gryz]

and I expect DX 12 patches will start hitting existing games for the multi-gpu native support and overhead decrease... but no extra graphical features obviously

I wouldn't expect those soon.
From what I understood, you need to redesign the skeleton of your renderer completely for DX12. Not easy to do. You also need to do extra work for every generation of GPUs. I don't expect to see any DX12 backported into existing games.

Not even in new games, only in new games that make use of a new version of an engine. E.g. it seems Unreal Engine 4.9 has only experimental use of DX12. I expect we'll see full DX12 support only in UE 5.0.

From what I understood, DX12 is only benefitical in current games if there is a big mismatch between CPU-speed and GPU-speed. E.g. you use a slow CPU (Amd or i3) with a very fast GPU (Fury or gtx980ti). Or you have a fast CPU, but use 2 or 3 very fast GPUs in CF/SLI.

As your article says: DX12 does allow developers to make games with a lot more drawcalls. So future games might show (relatively) more stuff on screen than current games. But I don't expect that current games will get higher fps for most gamers, because of DX12 patches.

 

[Artorias]

Will consoles get DX12? We wont see much benefit if they don't get DX12 because developers these days are not going write code for two completely different renderers, that actually means creating a PC version, which you know rarely happens because everything gets ported from consoles these days.

 

[Midwayman]

FWIW a BF4 dev had mentioned that they might inherit dx12 support through engine updates on frostbite. Not that's they are promising that update, but if there is still on going development on a game its possible to inherent support. So long as CTE is running, its a maybe.

I could see other supported games like MMOs etc to get dx12 updates.

 

[Midwayman]

Will consoles get DX12? We wont see much benefit if they don't get DX12 because developers these days are not going write code for two completely different renderers, that actually means creating a PC version, which you know rarely happens because everything gets ported from consoles these days.

Yes. The Xbox 1 uses dx12. The ps4 while it won't have dx12 specifically is using or introducing a low level instruction set. Since they are all GCN GPUs the instructions are going to end up pretty similar. Its pretty reasonable to expect AMD GCN optimizations to carry over to PC titles. Nvidia is less clear, but it a bigger piece of the PC market, so if they bother with low level dx12 support nvida will likely get it. I think the big question is if devs will do the work to use the integrated GPU on most modern CPUs? Kinda like having a free physX card or something.

 

[Red Hawk]

Will consoles get DX12? We wont see much benefit if they don't get DX12 because developers these days are not going write code for two completely different renderers, that actually means creating a PC version, which you know rarely happens because everything gets ported from consoles these days.

Well the PS4 won't get DX12 because it's not Microsoft, they have to use a proprietary API (with a similar feature set). The Xbox One is "getting" DirectX 12, but most of DirectX 12's advantages were already available on Xbox One, DirectX 12 will just enable a few more features.

Games had to use different renderers for console games and PC ports beforehand. Heck, PS4 and Xbox One multiplatform games technically have to use different renderers, even if the end results are the same, since they use different APIs.

 

[CPA]

So, you're saying it's time to upgrade to Windows X if you're a gamer?

 

[TeknoBug]

Witcher 3, Arkham Knight and Battlefront will likely be among the first games to get DX12 (and perhaps BF Hardline too but there's not enough people playing that game now), but I'd wait for real time benchmarks rather than a bunch of simulated tests and splecuations.

 

[Gryz]

So, you're saying it's time to upgrade to Windows X if you're a gamer?

No. You can wait another 6 months, maybe a year, maybe longer. Just wait till you see a game released that
1) you want to buy and play, and
2) reviews say it is using DX12, and
3) benchmarks show that DX12 will give you a significant performance improvement.

I think that might take up to a year, depending on how many games you play per year.

Or upgrade if you have other reasons, of course. In any case, I'd wait a month or 2-3 if you can. By that time all little problems and driver issues will be solved. If you upgrade today, you might run into something obscure. (Depending what software and hardware you have in your PC, of course). I'm waiting a few more months myself for sure.

 

[Midwayman]

No. You can wait another 6 months, maybe a year, maybe longer. Just wait till you see a game released that
1) you want to buy and play, and
2) reviews say it is using DX12, and
3) benchmarks show that DX12 will give you a significant performance improvement.

I think that might take up to a year, depending on how many games you play per year.

Or upgrade if you have other reasons, of course. In any case, I'd wait a month or 2-3 if you can. By that time all little problems and driver issues will be solved. If you upgrade today, you might run into something obscure. (Depending what software and hardware you have in your PC, of course). I'm waiting a few more months myself for sure.

I upgraded to win X just because 8.1 is such a pile of shit.

 

[Regs]

There would be a drastic reduction in CPU overhead in CPU intensive tasks giving developers some more head room. I like it - though it seemed like something that should of been out a long time ago.

 

[lupi]

A shame I won't be upgrading to 10 for quite some time, dx12 sounds like they finally got something right at the start (other than tying it to an OS release again).

 

[Stringjam]

I have to say my Windows 10 gaming experience has been very positive.

I gained up to 20 FPS in Crysis 3 (a certain spot I always benchmark), and the Star Citizen modules are running better than they ever did under 8.1.

Every game I have loaded is running great. Also solved SLI issues I had in FarCry4 and it's running better than it ever has (whether it was Win8.1 related or the NVidia Win10 driver release that fixed it..not sure).

It's nice to have a good experience out of the box for once with a new product.

 

[mmntech]

Will consoles get DX12?

The Xbox One will when it gets updated to Windows 10. Sometime in November IIRC. It's GPU is based on AMD's GCN 1.0 architecture, which is the earliest that supports DX12. I wouldn't expect to see dramatic improvements though as consoles don't have the same overhead as PCs do.

The PS4 is already using AMD's Mantel to achieve the same effects, alongside a custom fork of OpenGL.

 

[TechFan1]

Since the RTM, I've had all games run great on windows 10. Occassionally, I would get crashes during the technical preview, but they've gone away since the RTM.

 

[Blue_Max]

I have to say my Windows 10 gaming experience has been very positive.

I gained up to 20 FPS in Crysis 3 (a certain spot I always benchmark), and the Star Citizen modules are running better than they ever did under 8.1.

Every game I have loaded is running great. Also solved SLI issues I had in FarCry4 and it's running better than it ever has (whether it was Win8.1 related or the NVidia Win10 driver release that fixed it..not sure).

It's nice to have a good experience out of the box for once with a new product.

This post has finally pushed me over the edge. There's been the "free upgrade" icon on my screen for a while... I think I'll finally click it.

 

[futurefields]

I have to say my Windows 10 gaming experience has been very positive.

I gained up to 20 FPS in Crysis 3 (a certain spot I always benchmark), and the Star Citizen modules are running better than they ever did under 8.1.

Every game I have loaded is running great. Also solved SLI issues I had in FarCry4 and it's running better than it ever has (whether it was Win8.1 related or the NVidia Win10 driver release that fixed it..not sure).

It's nice to have a good experience out of the box for once with a new product.

did you upgrade or do a clean install?

 

[Stringjam]

did you upgrade or do a clean install?

Upgrade

 

[futurefields]

nice, sounds encouraging for sure

 

[tential]

This post has finally pushed me over the edge. There's been the "free upgrade" icon on my screen for a while... I think I'll finally click it.

You're honestly insane if you're running something other than Windows 10...
The upgrade process was so beautiful in every single aspect...
The download was my maximum internet speed capable, finished in literally minutes, install process was quick, it was easy to turn off the privacy things,

The amount of time it actually took to upgrade to Windows 10 was so tiny that the time spent thinking about it you'd already be done and with a better OS.

I upgraded day 1, I knew it was going to be good already it was painfully obvious that Windows 10 was a significant upgrade over 7/8/8.1

Edit: Right after installing Windows 10 and using it on my desktop, I immediately went to my HTPC to do the process too. I hope they continue to listen to user feedback and improve the OS.

 

[futurefields]

where would the "free upgrade" button be? i'm on Windows 7 havent seen anything pop up yet

 

[Stringjam]

where would the "free upgrade" button be? i'm on Windows 7 havent seen anything pop up yet

They're rolling it out in phases to people who reserved.

If you don't want to wait, you can just go here and download the Media Creation Tool from MS:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

You just run the tool and it immediately pops up "Upgrade Your PC" or "Create Installation Media."


Word of caution. My only hiccup was that it broke my Nvidia driver (and I had the Win10 driver) for a bit, so when it rebooted I had no video card output. I just switched the cable to the integrated video output and logged in - - couple of minutes later the Nvidia driver was working again and I switched it back over.

Also, if you're not interested in sharing a ton of information, do a customized install instead of express, and turn off all that crap.

 

[MTDEW]

where would the "free upgrade" button be? i'm on Windows 7 havent seen anything pop up yet

You can just grab the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and use that for your free upgrade.

I used it on my laptop with Win7 on it.

Just be sure to do just the UPGRADE first and once its at the Win10 desktop check to be sure its activated!...It should activate automatically after the upgrade is complete... then you're good to go.

Once you know your free win10 upgrade is activated and all is good,you can use the tool again to create a USB or DVD of Win10 for a clean install if you want and it will be activated automatically once you go online after the clean install. (you just "skip" the parts during install that ask for a key...you don't need one if your PC has had the Win10 upgrade installed and activated once before already)

EDIT: Of course someone would answer also while i was typing my reply.

 

[i7Baby]

where would the "free upgrade" button be? i'm on Windows 7 havent seen anything pop up yet

In the Task Bar at the bottom RHS

You'll also see it as a Process in Task manager - GWX.exe