Microsoft detail increased graphics performance for Windows 8

Microsoft has been sharing details details about the graphical improvements you can expect to see with Windows 8. Right away we want to point out these are 2D graphical improvements, a detailed breakdown of the 3D gaming aspect of Windows 8 was not published alongside this. With the transition to ARM devices and the addition of the Metro interface Microsoft has taken it as a priority to maximise 2D graphics performance.

The result of all the tweaking has been dramatic increases in how Windows 8 renders and displays different kinds of texts. Microsoft have focussed on Paragraphs, titles and headings as well as user interface text – particularly important for the metro UI.

2D geometry rendering was next on the Microsoft hitlist. The core graphics technology used to render tables, charts, graphs, diagrams and other user interface elements using HTML5 and SVG technologies for Metro style apps have all been improved significantly. Improvements are as high as 438% boosts in frame rates.

Microsoft developed a new form of rendering for irregularly shaped objects. Named TIR, Target Independent Rasterization, it allows Direct X 11.1 GPUs to render faster. The advancements mean fewer CPU cycles are spent on tessellation, allowing it to pump drawing instructions to the GPU faster without influencing visual quality.

“As you can see, we’ve done a lot of work to enable a very fast and smoothly animated user experience in Windows 8. From new ways to measure our progress, to optimizations for mainstream uses of our graphics platform, and new hardware features, we’ve created the best Windows graphics platform yet,” wrote Microsoft’s Rob Copeland.

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