DX12 and Vulkan are essential moving forward.
DX12 and Vulkan are essential moving forward.
DX12 and Vulkan aren't mandatory in every game, that's why big titles like BO4 and Assassin Creed still lack support for them. I'm surprised they haven't improved their optimization efforts, especially since they could benefit from using these technologies. With a Vega 64 and an i7 4790, I notice a noticeable boost in performance and consistent frame rates when using DX12, just like with Vulkan. In 2019, all developers should have enabled DX12 in their games, and AMD should take steps to encourage it, as their hardware performs better with these tools.
Beyond ray tracing, DX11 and DX12 offer comparable graphics capabilities. This suggests the two APIs can produce images of similar quality. OGL and Vulkan might seem alike in this context. The main reason a developer would opt for DX12 or Vulkan is to achieve higher performance, likely due to CPU limitations during compilation of graphics or compute tasks. They may have limited choices between DX11 and OGL.
I agree, Assassins Creed is quite demanding on the CPU, especially with the strict DRM they employ. I'm not sure if switching to DX12 would make a difference. Still, I hope Ubisoft incorporates ray tracing in upcoming titles, which could encourage them to adopt it (since ray tracing is supported by DX12).
The challenge lies in DX12 needing a fully custom engine to unlock its advantages, and games that were forced into it after development often lag behind in performance compared to DX11. Although their current engine still works adequately, I don't think significant improvements are on the horizon.
This situation is complicated by developers having to license engines and middleware from various companies, all needing compatible agreements. I don't recall the specifics, but I remember a developer mentioning they couldn't port a game to Linux because the required middleware was only available on Windows.
But DX11 indeed causes many games to be CPU intensive. It's astonishing how much CPU power Assassins Creed Odyssey demands to run at 4K 60fps, and the Assassins Creed titles in general have struggled with CPU issues this generation. The ability to play them on consoles versus PC highlights just how much more efficient DX12 is.
Largely focused on AMD systems since they didn't prioritize DX11 deferred context support. Beyond that, maintaining full GPU usage with DX11 won't be beneficial as the GPU is already heavily loaded. Also, without a profile examining the game's behavior, it's hard to explain why the game relies so much on CPU.
It's fascinating how many believe low-level APIs hold the secret to higher FPS in every game. But the reality is different. My 20% improvement claim seems questionable, as my CPU and GPU both outperform yours, and I haven't noticed any significant gains close to 20% in any title. In DX12 games, performance tends to be similar, perhaps only a few FPS more, but nothing major. The greatest gains I've seen come from Vulkan in Doom, where I noticed a 5 to 10 FPS increase—but only after reaching 150+ FPS already. In general, DX11, DX12, and Vulkan mostly deliver comparable results. It's only in very specific cases that low-level approaches provide noticeable benefits. This is why emulators haven't adopted DX12 or Vulkan and suddenly achieved extra FPS without any effort.
DRM is an easy target because it's always the evil enemy in PC gaming and the way people think they understand how Denuvo works. But it really depends on the game:
Some games had a noticeable performance impact, other games had virtually none. Also some games that were patched later to have Denuvo removed and people who tested them may not be doing a fair assessment because of the other patches that may have improved performance independent of Denuvo's impact.
Which is why I demand the usage of a CPU profiler to analyze what the game is doing to determine what's really using the CPU. Otherwise all you have are correlated events. And while you can present strong evidence DRM is to blame, there's no definitive proof it actually is and that the game may just be that much of a CPU hog.