Microsoft has clarified some of the details regarding Direct X 12, the next version of its graphics software that’s set to be included with the upcoming Windows 10 operating system.
In a statement released yesterday the software giant reassured PC gamers that they won’t need to splash out on an expensive new card to reap the majority of the benefits from DirectX 12, though some special features will be reserved for upcoming GPUs.
”Microsoft’s recent demonstration of a few new Windows 10 game experiences powered by DirectX12 has led some people to ask what specific hardware will be supported by the DirectX12 API,” reads the statement. ”While we are not yet ready to detail everything related to DirectX12, we can share that we are working closely with all of our hardware partners to help ensure that most modern PC gaming hardware will work well with DirectX12, including; NVIDIA’s Maxwell, Kepler and Fermi-based GPUs, Intel’s 4th generation (and newer) Core processors and AMD’s Graphics Core Next (GCN) based GPUs. We’ll have more to share about DirectX12 at GDC in March.”
That’s going to go some way towards reassuring PC owners worried by comments from Microsoft’s Mike Ybarra after the press event, in which he suggested they would be forced into buying completely new hardware to get ”the full benefits of DX12”. Essentially, the general complexity and various different graphical features of both DirectX and modern GPUs make issuing definitive statements regarding what will work and what won’t a bit tricky.
Here’s some good news though; the DirectX 12 demo shown off at the event was produced using DirectX 11 graphics cards. ”The power and frame rate wins we demonstrated come from improvements in CPU usage in the OS runtime and device drivers. And this was on DX11 devices,” a Microsft spokesman told Polygon. We’ll find out more at GDC 2015.
