AMD has wanted to highlight two of the main novelties that Microsoft will include in the new version of its graphical API, the expected one DirectX 12. Technically known as multi-threaded command buffer recording y async shaders with which AMD hopes to be able to offer a significant improvement in the titles that use the system through its graphics cards.
async shaders
async shaders is a feature that allows the GPU (to calculate or memorize activities in the "gaps" between the graphic load presented by a game. manages to overcome a limitation that was present in previous versions of DirectX, which essentially worked sequentially using a render queue for all kinds of operations. This implied major bottlenecks for hardware, which could be pending to receive tasks and not allow to take advantage of its full performance.
DirectX 12, on the other hand, allows you to use these spaces to perform other tasks and reduce the overall rendering time, which implies a lower latency throughout the graphic section, thus obtaining a higher performance which results in higher frame rate.
AMD also highlights that its current generation of processors with architecture Graphics Core Next is specifically equipped to take advantage of this DirectX 12 feature through a specific feature of its hardware design, the Asynchronous Compute Engine (ACE). This technology is already integrated into current systems such as Radeon R9 290X cards. In addition, since 2011 when this technology emerged, all graphics cards somehow incorporate different degrees of ACE.
Multi-threaded command buffer recording
The function commandbuffer It is applied in games as a simple way to list all the tasks that need to be processed by the CPU. As indicated by AMD, it is a simple way to define the tasks to be processed by the CPU and that it must be reorganized to give it to the graphics processor (GPU) and to be able to produce the visual load. The task can include items where lighting functions, character placement, texture loading, etc. are calculated.
Currently, the vast majority of PC games take advantage of the multiple cores that the processors incorporate. But the API of DirectX 11 may not take advantage of the full potential they offer and wasting the performance potential they provide by not properly fragmenting the command list, thus satisfying the parallel computing needs necessary in the game between the different cores.
By contrast, DirectX 12 uses this new technology that substantially improves work developed on multicore systems by means of the following techniques: the ability to place tasks driver and API code on any available CPU core; reduction of CPU time to calculate complex tasks; the distribution of gaming tasks intelligently among more than 4 CPU cores; and the ability to communicate between all CPU cores simultaneously with the GPU unit.
In the words of AMD itself, the improvements brought about by this new technology is similar to going from a conventional 2-lane highway to an 8-lane superhighway. The graphic potential will show its main benefits with the AMD FX series of graphics processors and their communication capabilities, which will improve runtimes and provide higher performance and quality in the final image.
The first games to feature DirectX 12 will The Witcher 3 and Batman: Arkham KnightAlthough this technology, AMD points out, can already be seen in others from Oxide Games and Stardock with which they have collaborated, such as Ashes of the Singularity. This strategy game, which is expected to be released imminently, will be able to use the 8 cores of the AMD FX-8370 processor and achieve performance and resolutions "impossible" to achieve with the current DirectX 11.
DirectX 12 Compatible AMD Cards
A list of products in its range has been published on the AMD website that are compatible with upcoming DirectX 12 and that users can test if they have installed the preview version of Windows 10 (specifically the Technical Preview Build 10041 or later) and installed the latest drivers via Windows Update.
The supported graphics cards are:
- AMD Radeon R9 range
- AMD Radeon R7 range
- AMD Radeon R5 240
- AMD Radeon HD 8000 range for OEM systems (HD 8570 and above)
- AMD Radeon HD 8000M range (notebooks)
- AMD Radeon HD 7000 range (HD 7730 and above)
- AMD Radeon HD 7000M range (HD 7730M and higher)
- AMD A4 / A6 / A8 / A10-7000 APU Range ("Kaveri")
- AMD A6 / A8 / A10 PRO-7000 APU Range ("Kaveri")
- AMD E1 / A4 / A10 Micro-6000 APU Range ("Mullins")
- AMD E1 / E2 / A4 / A6 / A8-6000 APU Range ("Beema")