In 2015, DirectX 12 was released with Windows 10, significantly advancing both gaming for users and game development for studios. As it was manifested through reduced CPU overhead and increased, more effective usage of GPUs, a lot of people switched to DirectX 12 pretty quickly.
But is the performance gap between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 always beneficial enough to make a switch? Here is not only the differences but will also explain the topic of Microsoft’s DirectX itself. Moreover, APIs are interfaces of a computer program that connect two programs, akin to a relay.
Differences Between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12
To summarize, DirectX 12 is the most recent iteration of DirectX. Importantly, it changes how games interact with the hardware compared to DirectX 11. A game developed with DirectX 11 involves just a few CPU cores, with a single core handling communication with the GPU.
Conversely, DirectX 12 parallelizes the workload over multiple cores, such that each core simultaneously communicates with the GPU. Furthermore, DirectX 12 includes new features like asynchronous computing and pipeline state objects. The asynchronous computing feature significantly increases GPU usage. As a result, it is more efficient to let everything work at once than to wait for certain things to be accomplished.
DirectX 11 requires the GPU to perform tasks one at a time, making the utilization of resources not that efficient. On the other hand, a PSO is a form of object developed to help alleviate the graphics pipeline. Unlike DirectX 11’s pipeline, which entails dependencies between different states, DirectX 12’s PSOs encapsulate the entire pipeline state, optimizing GPU performance and reducing CPU overhead.
Challenges in Transitioning from DirectX 11 to DirectX 12
DirectX 12, though apparently providing few promises, is not the perfect way to enforce changes. Thus, as a high-level API, Direct 11 has many directions for developers with less risk of performance. Meanwhile, low-level API such as Direct 12, have fewer directions for developers when one knows not much about the best way to improve its performance. Hence, if the DirectX 11 game were transferred to the Direct 12, developers would not use it effectively. As a result, the game works much worse. Therefore, DirectX 11 and 12 opportunities depend on how well the game and hardware correlate.
Choosing Between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12
While some games exclusively support DirectX 11 or DirectX 12, others offer both options. In-game performance may vary depending on the API selected, with DirectX 12 typically requiring fewer resources than DirectX 11. Ultimately, hardware compatibility also plays a crucial role. While modern GPUs support DirectX 12, older models may lack compatibility, restricting their ability to run DirectX 12-enabled games effectively.
