Nvidia’s latest driver for its GeForce-branded GPUs now supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Microsoft’s new graphics API for Windows 10 version 2004 now rolling out to PCs, and the upcoming Xbox Series X console.
First announced in March, DirectX 12 Ultimate crams several technologies into one package. These include DirectX Raytracing v1.1 (DXR) and Variable Rate Shading (VRS) along with new features like Sampler Feedback and Mesh Shaders.
"DirectX 12 Ultimate gives developers a large, multi-platform install base of hardware to target, and ready-made tools and examples to work from -- all backed by time-saving middleware," Nvidia states. "This makes game development faster and easier and enables more developers to add these innovative technologies to their games."
Currently, Nvidia is the only GPU manufacturer with hardware that supports raytracing in PCs. That campaign began with the RTX 20 Series launched in 2018 and will continue with the RTX 30 series later this year. AMD’s latest GPUs, meanwhile, do not.
But that will change later on in 2020. The Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 will be based on AMD’s Zen 2 CPU design and its RDNA 2 GPU architecture, the latter of which will support raytracing. On the PC side, raytracing will supposedly only be supported on AMD’s upcoming high-end Navi 2X GPUs: Navi 21, Navi 22, and Navi 23.
With DirectX 12 Ultimate now available to developers, Nvidia currently has the upper handy o claim "world’s first" on the PC driver side. Nvidia’s latest driver also adds full support for a Vulkan 1.2, a new batch of validated G-Sync displays, and new games supported by the one-click optimal settings tool in the GeForce Experience client
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In addition to DirectX 12 Ultimate, Windows 10 version 2004 now adds Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling. This feature allows the graphics card to manage its onboard VRAM to improve overall performance. You can find this setting by following this path:
Settings > System > Display > Graphics Settings
