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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chizow - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
Yeah buddy! Bring on DX12, aka Low Level API Done Right.Also fun to note all the rumors and speculation of AMD's poor DX11 MT driver support look to be real (virtually no DX11 ST to MT scaling and both lower than Nvidia DX11), but it is also obvious their efforts with Mantle have given them a nice base for their DX12 driver, at least in synthetic max draw call tests.
Main benefits for DX12 will be for CPU limited games on fast hardware, especially RTS and MMO type games where the CPU tends to be the bottleneck. It will also be interesting to see what impact it has on higher-end set-ups like high-end multi-GPU. Mantle was supposed to show us the benefits in scaling, but due to piecemeal support and the fact multi-GPU needed much more attention with Mantle, CF was often left in a broken state.
Barilla - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
I really hope dx12 and it's increase in draw call throughput will bring us greater scene complexity, i mean more "real" objects that could be interacted with rather than tricks like textures that make us think there is depth to them while in reality it's just clever artwork. Also objects like leaves, stones, grass etc. I think this would bring much better immersion in the games than just trying to constantly up the polygon count on characters and find new ways to animate hair. Maybe I'm the odd one, but i often focus much more on the game world rather than the characters.MobiusPizza - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
I can see how FutureMark can help make the next gen MineCraft title :Ptipoo - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
Can Intel do any more on the driver side to see more DX12 gains, or is it all GPU front end limited at this point?mczak - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
I suspect for the chips listed it's about as good as it will get. Note that these are all Haswell GT2 chips - GT3 doubles up on some fixed function blocks in the frontend, though I don't know if it would help (the command streamer is supposedly the same so if it's limited there it wouldn't help).The results could be better with Broadwell, though (be it GT2 or GT3).
tipoo - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
The older article on DX12 showed GT3/3e don't see much more gain past GT2, because while many things are doubled, the front end isn't. Command input limited.I haven't heard that Broadwell is different there.
eanazag - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
DX12 is exciting for PC laptop and tablet gaming.My desktop can heat the room when gaming and I believe that DX12 and FPS limits could allow me to play cooler next summer. I'd like to see some FPS limiting options if it can reduce heat. During the winter I don't care. I pretty much stop gaming during the summer; at least with the desktop.
martixy - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
I like this. Very much. The industry needs a clean reset and this is a perfect opportunity...Now if only the business side was as easy to overhaul as the technical side. :)
KaarlisK - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
I can see the 4770R (GT3e) in the system specifications, but I do not see it in any of the charts. What happened?tipoo - Friday, March 27, 2015 - link
That one I'd definitely be interested in, would the higher bandwidth it has allow any more DX12 gains?