Microsoft Launches Nex-Gen DirectX 12 Graphics Interface

(RTTNews) - Microsoft has unveiled its next-generation gaming graphics interface, DirectX 12, at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. The company plans to launch Direct X 12 during the 2015 holiday season.

According to the company, DirectX 12 focuses on maximizing performance, by efficiently spreading computing tasks across multiple CPU cores, thereby improving PC utilization by 50 percent.

With the DirectX 11, workloads are generated and sent out as a steady list of commands. In DirectX 12, those commands are sent as command lists, which will contain all the information necessary for the GPU to compute and execute the command.

With DirectX 12, Nvidia says that applications and developers will be in a much better position to take advantage of a system's resources, while past APIs were much more focused on investments in image quality.

DirectX 12 is compatible with DirectX 11 graphics cards, and works across multiple devices, from laptops to desktops, mobile devices as well as the Xbox One console. GCN-based AMD cards including select Radeon R7, Radeon R9, and Radeon 7000-series cards will also receive DirectX 12 support.