Windows 8 Graphics: Microsoft Has Hardware-Accelerated Everything

MrSeb writes "Microsoft has detailed the extensive changes made to the Windows 8 graphics subsystem and DirectX 11.1. In short, everything in Windows 8 is hardware accelerated, and as a result its text, 2D, and 3D performance will blow Windows 7 away. DirectX 11.1 has also received a significant overhaul that should result in faster and more efficient games and applications. The bulk of the graphics changes in Windows 8 pertain to hardware acceleration for simple, typographically-rich Metro-style apps. In Windows 8, the rendering speed of text and simple shapes has been massively increased across the board: Title and heading text renders 336% faster than Windows 7; Lines render 184% faster; Rectangles render 438% faster; and so on. The rendering of JPEG, PNG, and GIF image files has also been improved in Windows 8, mostly by expanding SIMD usage. In one demo, Windows 8 decodes and renders 64 JPEGs in 4.38 seconds, while Windows 7 performs the same task in 7.28 seconds. Amongst a few changes to DirectX, the most significant feature in DX 11.1 is the new, simplified, unified Direct3D 11.1 API, which finally brings together the many API offshoots that MS has implemented in recent years."

Comments

Re:crash faster

[Macthorpe]

Ha ha ha! Oh gosh, that's funny! That's really funny! Do you write your own material? Do you? Because that is so fresh. "Windows crashes all the time!". You know, I've, I've never heard anyone make that joke before. Hmm. You're the first. I've never heard anyone reference, reference that in geek circles before. Because that's what always used to happen? Isn't it? Windows crashing. And, and yet you've taken that and used it out of context to insult Microsoft in this everyday situation. God what a clever, smart person you must be, to come up with a joke like that all by yourself. That's so fresh too. Any, any Dr. DOS jokes you want to throw at me too as long as we're hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity? God you're so funny!

(with thanks to Seth McFarlane)