Windows 8 Graphics: Microsoft Has Hardware-Accelerated Everything 563
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."
crash faster (Score:0, Funny)
I bet it also crashes much much faster!!
Re:really? (Score:4, Funny)
no it isn't :-P
maybe your machine isn't hardware accelerated enough.
Re:Yes but.. (Score:5, Funny)
A good part of the reason OSX is considered 'beautiful' is because people are comparing it to Windows. Yeah I just insulted Microsoft and Apple fanboys, but it's true.
Let's be realistic (Score:5, Funny)
To be fair, a Commodore 64 could render the Metro interface at a reasonable speed. The advantage of changing to an interface that looks like it is from the 80s or 90s is that you don't have to push around a lot of pixels or do fancy 3D tricks to make it work.
When they finally retire the old non-Metro UI and just have the full-screen interface, I wonder if they will rename the product from Microsoft Windows to Microsoft Window. The tagline: there can be only one (program onscreen).
Re:Maybe it's just me (Score:2, Funny)
I can put lipstick on this pig 8 times faster than I can put it on this woman. You want that, right?
Re:crash faster (Score:5, Funny)
Re:...typographically-rich Metro-style apps. (Score:5, Funny)
So, "typographically rich" is the new buzzword, yes?
Give us $1 million or WE WILL USE BLOCK CAPS EVERYWHERE.
Re:Who cares... (Score:4, Funny)
That is the generally-accepted definition of the word "faster".
Re:crash faster (Score:4, Funny)
SEE? Windows is buggy!
A REAL OS would have just kept on chugging until those puppies burned out.
Re:crash faster (Score:5, Funny)
was that during install time when you inserted the Windows install disk instead of SuSE or Redhat? --
Re:Maybe it's just me (Score:4, Funny)
Re:crash faster (Score:5, Funny)
You can use Windows as a server? Gosh, next you'll be saying they do phones too.
Re:crash faster (Score:4, Funny)
No kidding! If the drivers have drivers, then thats an extra layer of protection.