DirectX 12 and Fortnite

Nov 20th, 2019

On Monday, Epic Games appear that DirectX 12 support is coming to Fortnite. And today, the wait is over: anyone updating to the v11.xx patch has the choice to effort out Fortnite's beta DX12 path!

What does this all hateful? Let's encounter if we can help!

What's incorrect with DX11?

Nothing!

We at the DirectX team designed DirectX 11 to exist the best API for game developers to use in their engines. Even though we shipped DX11 a decade agone, for many games it's all the same a cracking option. Having said that, DX12 has several advantages over DX11.

A major difference between the two APIs is that DX12 is more low-level than DX11, meaning that DX12 gives developers more fine-grained control of how their game interacts with your CPU and GPU. This is a double-edged sword: DX12 comes with fewer guardrails but gives developers more power and flexibility. With DX12, developers have fifty-fifty more options to optimize their games.

Additionally, DX12 is a modern API with more than next-gen features than DX11, or whatever other graphics API. DX12 is the simply API with broad native support for exciting new graphics features like Variable Rate Shading, DirectX Raytracing and DirectML.

What nearly Fortnite? Will switching to DX12 ameliorate my functioning?

While DX12 may better overall average frame rate, the most important benefit is that DX12 tin can provide is a performance boost when Fortnite gamers demand it most. During a heated battle, the number of objects on the screen can skyrocket, which places additional demand on the CPU*. This additional demand on the CPU can cause the frame rate to drop during the most disquisitional moments of the game. Because DX12 uses the CPU more efficiently, the frame rate will drop much less when the game demands the nearly performance, providing a more consequent frame charge per unit throughout the entire gaming experience.

To show this, we used PresentMon to collect some early on functioning data.  Considering competitive gamers care most about maximizing frame rate and minimizing latency, we lowered the graphics settings, but set view distance to "Far". Your specific results will vary depending on your exact car configuration.

While the boilerplate frame rates for DX12 were slightly college than DX11 (two%), DX12 was much faster when it matters most. When the game is rendering the most demanding frames (slowest .1% of frames), DX12 shows an ~x% average improvement in frame rate.

*Check out our mail on CPU- and GPU-boundedness

Am I CPU-jump?

The truth is, information technology'due south complicated and depends on your auto, settings and playstyle.

In general:

  • Machines with mod GPUs will tend to exist more CPU-bound.
  • Machines are CPU-bound at lowered settings. (Many gamers tune down their graphics settings to max out performance to get a competitive advantage in the game. If that'south you lot, you're likely CPU-bound for parts of your gameplay).
  • Machines tend to get more CPU-leap when there is lots of activeness happening.

How do I attempt out DX12?

To try out DX12 in Fortnite, become to your Settings menu in Fortnite and make sure you're looking at your Video settings. At the very bottom of the menu, select DirectX 12 (BETA) next to DirectX Version

Will my machine be able to run DX12?

Anyone who meets minimum specifications for Fortnite can run DX12. If y'all're on Windows 10, you'll be able to test out DX12!

Reporting Bug

The best style to submit feedback is by using the in-game Feedback tool