We were all excited to hear about DirectX 12 and the advantages that it would bring in modern gaming. However, it’s even though it’s been a while since this low-level API became available, it really didn’t manage to deliver on its promise, and it certainly didn’t revolutionize gaming. Not yet at least. Still, things are looking up thanks to Microsoft, which recently introduced a special tool that allows developers to analyze DX12 performance in games. Dubbed PIX, this is a performance tuning and debugging tool that can provide in-depth insight into the performance of DirectX 12, and honestly, I’m just surprised that such a tool wasn’t launched earlier.
Its main highlights include the capability to analyze Direct3D 12 graphics rendering, provide insight regarding memory allocations, and offer captures that reveal the performance and threading of all CPU and GPU work done by the game. The great news is that PIX is completely compatible with both UWP and Win32 applications, but it is worth noting that it is limited to 64-bit applications exclusively. Hopefully, developers will be able to make good use of this tool in order to optimize their games better. This should lead to improved gaming performance in the long run, which is something all gamers are looking forward to.
