Microsoft has introduced DirectX Raytracing 1.2 at the GDC convention with claims of “sport altering” performance benefits. But the newly revised API looks an terrible lot like it has included some key Nvidia applied sciences slightly than introducing new options and so is probably not the ray-tracing performance panacea we have all been ready for.
Microsoft is claiming performance pace ups of 2x and extra for DirectX Raytracing 1.2. Particularly, Microsoft says the introduction of assist for opacity micromaps (OMM), “considerably optimize alpha-tested geometry, delivering as much as 2.3x performance enchancment in path-traced video games. By effectively managing opacity knowledge, OMM reduces shader invocations and enormously enhances rendering effectivity with out compromising visible high quality.”
The opposite key performance-enhancing function is shader execution reordering (SER). Microsoft says it, “affords a significant leap ahead in rendering performance — as much as 2x quicker in some eventualities — by intelligently grouping shader execution to reinforce GPU effectivity, scale back divergence, and increase body charges, making ray-traced titles smoother and extra immersive than ever. This function paves the method for extra path-traced video games in the future.”
Our understanding is that Nvidia RTX GPUs, at the very least again to the RTX 30-series, already assist each of these options in {hardware}. SER assist seems to have been added with the RTX 30-series, whereas OMM was there from the very starting with RTX 20-series GPUs.
In different phrases, the claimed performance benefits Microsoft is speaking about are already current in most Nvidia RTX GPUs. That is possible why Microsoft says, “Nvidia has dedicated driver assist throughout GeForce RTX GPUs,” but that it is, “actively working with different {hardware} distributors, together with AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm, to make sure widespread adoption.” In different phrases, RTX GPUs are already good to go.
Notably, a slide posted by Microsoft features a quote from Intel saying that the firm is , “trying ahead to supporting SER when it is obtainable in a future Agility SKD launch, with OMM assist coming in future {hardware}.” AMD is name-checked by Microsoft, but there isn’t any direct indication of its plans for OMM or SER.
What’s extra, it’s important to grasp the precise implications of those sorts of performance claims. The will increase in performance of opacity micromaps or shader execution reordering (SER) possible wouldn’t increase general path-tracing performance by the claimed quantity, not to mention precise body charges.
As a substitute, these performance beneficial properties will speed up the pace of that specific a part of the rendering pipeline by the claimed quantity. The remainder of the time required to render a body can be unaffected, together with different parts of the path tracing pipeline.
All instructed what seems to be taking place is extra Microsoft adopting what Nvidia has already efficiently carried out in its {hardware}. Now, that really makes some sense. In spite of everything, it has been Nvidia pushing ray-tracing from the starting and its RTX GPUs nonetheless have a transparent performance benefit in ray-tracing and notably in path-tracing.
The one slight snag is {that a} DirectX API constructed round Nvidia {hardware}, or at the very least following its lead, inevitably favours Nvidia GPUs when it involves performance. And that is not essentially nice for market competitors. Put one other method, if DirectX tends to reflect Nvidia {hardware} specs, the likes of AMD or certainly Intel will at all times be one step behind.
Nonetheless, if ray-tracing is going to be a factor—and at this level it looks like a executed deal—baking performance-enhancing {hardware} necessities into DirectX has bought to be a good suggestion. AMD has actually upped its sport with the Radeon RX 9000-series of GPUs. But it can be no dangerous factor if Microsoft required additional {hardware} options for AMD’s next-gen GPUs.
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