Exploring DirectX 12: 3DMark API Overhead Feature Test
by Ryan Smith & Ian Cutress on March 27, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- Radeon
- Futuremark
- GeForce
- 3DMark
- DirectX 12
Integrated GPU Testing
Switching gears from high performance discrete GPUs, we have our integrated GPUs. From a high level overview the gains from DirectX 12 are not going to be quite as large here as they are with dGPUs due to the much lower GPU performance, but there is still ample opportunity benefit from increased draw call performance.
Here we have Intel’s Haswell CPUs, and AMD’s Kaveri APUs. We'll start off with the higher-end processors, the Intel Core i3/i5i7 and AMD A10/A8.
As expected, at the high-end the performance gains from DirectX 12 are not quite as great as they were with the dGPUs, but we’re still seeing significant gains. The largest gains of course are found with the AMD processors, thanks to their much stronger iGPUs. From DX11ST to DX12 we’re seeing a surprisingly large 6.8x increase in draw call performance, from 655K to 4,470K.
As to be expected, with a relatively weak CPU, AMD’s DX11 draw call performance isn’t very strong here relative to their strong GPU and of course our more powerful dGPUs. Still, it ends up being better than Intel (who otherwise has the stronger CPU), so we see AMD offering better draw call throughput at all levels. Ultimately what this amounts to is that AMD has quite a bit more potential under DX12.
Mantle meanwhile delivers a very slight edge over DX12 here, although for all practical purposes the two should be considered tied.
Meanwhile for the Intel CPUs, the gains from DX12 aren’t quite as large as with the AMD processors, but they’re still significant, and this is why Intel is happily backing DX12. All 3 processors share the same GT2 GPU and see similar gains. Starting from a baseline of 625K draw calls under DX11 – almost identical to AMD – the i7-4790K jumps up by 3.2x to 2,033K draw calls under DX12. The i5 and the i3 processors see 1,977K and 1,874K respectively, and after adjusting for clockspeeds it’s clear that we’re GPU command processor limited at all times here, hence why even a 2 core i3 can deliver similar gains.
Intel does end up seeing the smallest gains here, but again even in this sort of worst case scenario of a powerful CPU paired with a weak CPU, DX12 still improved draw call performance by over 3.2x. This means that in the long run even games that are targeting lower-performance PCs still stand to see a major increase in the number of draw calls they can use thanks to DirectX 12.
The story is much the same with our lower performance processors. AMD continues to see the largest gains and largest absolute performance under DirectX 12. With a 7x performance increase for the A8, even this weaker processor benefits greatly from the use of a low-level API.
The Intel processors see smaller gains as well, but they too are similarly significant. Even the Pentium with its basic GT1 processor and pair of relatively low clocked CPU sees a 2.7x increase in draw call performance from DirectX 12.
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Vayra - Saturday, March 28, 2015 - link
Oh hi Star Citizen, how are you today.Michael Bay - Sunday, March 29, 2015 - link
Wait until they hit optimizations stage.Refuge - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
As mentioned below this will make the ports much more scalable to PC's. So when taking a game meant ton run on 6 year old hardware meets brand new hardware it isn't like taking a Porsche 911 from your city streets to a mud pit like it is now. It will be more like going from the city to the Autobahn.Ports will actually run better on better computers, not worse. Also, it will speed up the time of release for ports, in fact in a few years I wouldn't be surprised if multiform games were released on consoles and PC's at the same time as standard policy.
Belgarathian - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
I'm more interested in being able to display more dynamic enviroments with more artifacts, more units on screen etc.Can someone please remaster Supreme Commander Forged Alliance for DX12, and fix the bad AI. SC:FA is by far the best RTS, it's a shame that it was released before the technology was there to support it.
DarkXale - Sunday, March 29, 2015 - link
The performance issues with SupCom Forged Alliance Forever (or you're just doing it wrong), are from the sheer quantity of units the game needs to manage. Not the number of issued drawcalls.The 'gameplay' simply requires the CPU to do too much - all of which must be done in a single thread - for any machine to reasonably manage in large games. DX12 can't help much with that.
FlushedBubblyJock - Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - link
Q: " How much can they do with it really? "A: "How much did mantle do ?"
akamateau - Thursday, April 30, 2015 - link
Hmmmm... yes you are right. Partially. Console games will be developed to the limit of the console and Microsoft just announced that DX12 was going into XBOX.AMD 8 core Jaguar will scale much higher tan 4.4 million draw calls on XBOX.
But you also have to realise the GAMES are about the storey and eye candy. Games studios are also highly competitive. It is the nature of business that all things evolve to the lowest limiting factor. Until now DX11 was THE factor that limited the size and complexity of games. DX12 removes those limits.
Expect games to be photorealistic at 4k easily!
So the decision the consumer must make si simple. Great gaming with exensive Intel silicon or better gaming with inexpensive AMD silicon!!!
akamateau - Thursday, April 30, 2015 - link
FINALLY THE TRUTH IS REVEALED!!!AMD A6-7400 K CRUSHES INTEL i7 IGP by better than 100%!!!
But Anand is also guilty of a WHOPPER of a LIE!
Anand uses Intel i7-4960X. NOBODY uses RADEON with an Intel i7 cpu. But rather than use either an AMD FX CPU or an AMD A10 CPU they decided to degrade AMD's scores substanbtially by using an Intel product which is not optimsed to work with Radeon. Intel i7 also is not GCN or HSA compatible nor can it take advantage Asynchronous Shader Pipelines either. Only an IDIOT would feed Radeon GPU with Intel CPU.
In short Anand's journalistic integrity is called into question here.
Basically RADEON WOULD HAVE DESTROYED ALL nVIDIA AND INTEL COMBINATIONS if Anand benchmarked Radeon dGPU with AMD silicon. By Itself A6 is staggeringly superior to Intel i3, i5, AND i7.
Ryan Smith & Ian Cutress have lied.
As it stands A10-7700k produces 4.4 MILLION drawcalls per second. At 6 cores the GTX 980 in DX11 only produces 2.2 MILLION draw calls.
DX12 enables a $150 AMD APU to CRUSH a $1500.00 Intel/nVidia gaming setup that runs DX11.
Here is the second lie.
AMD Asynchronous Shader Pipelines allow for 100% multithreaded proceesing in the CPU feeding the GPU whether it is an integrated APU or an 8 core FX feeding a GPU. What Anand sould also show is 8 core scaling using an AMD FX processor.
Anand will say that they are too poor to use an AMD CPU or APU set up. Somehow I think that they are being disingenuous.
NO INTEL/nVidia combination can compete with AMD using DX12.
RandomUser15 - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
First and foremost this is the first comment, also great article, very well done!RandomUser15 - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
Damn, nooooooooo.