Microsoft Unveils DirectX Raytracing 1.2 and Next-Gen Neural Rendering at GDC 2025; Supports NVIDIA, Intel & AMD GPUs
Microsoft has officially announced significant updates to its graphics technology, including DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2 and revolutionary Neural Rendering features during its GDC 2025 keynote. These advancements will support hardware across all major GPU manufacturers—NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm—ushering in the next generation of graphics fidelity and performance.
DirectX Raytracing 1.2 (DXR) Brings Big Performance Gains
The latest iteration of DirectX Raytracing, DXR 1.2, introduces two major technological advancements:
Opacity Micromaps (OMM)
OMM dramatically optimizes alpha-tested geometry, significantly reducing the workload associated with transparent textures. It provides up to 2.3x performance gains in path-traced games, substantially reducing shader invocation overhead and boosting efficiency without compromising visual quality.
Shader Execution Reordering (SER)
SER intelligently groups shader execution tasks, dramatically improving GPU efficiency and reducing execution divergence. This results in smoother gameplay and frame rates, achieving up to 2x faster rendering in certain scenarios, particularly enhancing raytraced graphics and paving the way for more path-traced games.
In practical terms, DXR 1.2 delivers up to 40% performance improvements in complex raytraced scenes. This was exemplified through Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake 2, prominently featured at GDC, demonstrating these powerful enhancements.
NVIDIA is already incorporating support for DXR 1.2 into its GeForce RTX GPUs and drivers, with AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm to follow.
Introducing Cooperative Vectors and Neural Rendering
Microsoft also announced Cooperative Vectors, an innovative addition to Shader Model 6.9, enabling hardware-accelerated neural rendering integration directly into graphics pipelines. Key highlights include:
Neural Block Texture Compression: Significantly reduces memory usage without sacrificing visual quality, achieving up to a 10x inference speed boost as demonstrated by Intel's internal tests.
Real-time Path Tracing: Enhanced via neural supersampling and denoising techniques, delivering ultra-realistic visuals at feasible performance levels.
NVIDIA Neural Shading SDK: NVIDIA confirmed their Neural Shading SDK will fully support DirectX and Cooperative Vectors, making it easier for developers to implement advanced neural rendering techniques for improved realism and performance.
Windows WARP Renderer Gets Major Upgrade
Additionally, Microsoft’s CPU-based software renderer, Windows WARP (Advanced Rasterization Platform), is receiving notable upgrades. The WARP renderer, useful on systems without GPUs or for diagnostic purposes, will now fully support DirectX 12 Ultimate features such as raytracing, mesh shaders, and work graphs.
Day-One PIX Support and Availability
Microsoft’s DirectX debugging and profiling tool, PIX, will have day-one support for DXR 1.2, allowing developers to quickly utilize these new features for efficient debugging and optimization.
DXR 1.2, Neural Rendering, and Cooperative Vectors will all be available to developers via the preview Agility SDK in late April 2025.
Demonstration Videos:
Are you excited about these next-generation graphics features? How do you think they'll impact gaming visuals moving forward? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
