Microsoft has announced that it will offer a new abstraction layer for game developers to utilize for multiple GPU support in their DX12 games. This will allow developers to take advantage of multiple GPUs on a system with only minimal coding, something that will definitely please a lot of PC gamers.
Do note that while this layer will enable multi-GPU support, developers seeking to unlock the full potential of multi-GPUs will still need to implement Explicit Multi Adaptor properly.
It will be interesting to see whether this simple layer will allow multiple GPUs from different vendors work together.
Microsoft claimed that it is currently making some final tweaks and doing additional testing.
This new abstraction layer will be made available soon, and Microsoft will also be publishing two mGPU sample projects along with it – one using the layer and one not using the layer.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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its about time 🙂 should have been there from day 1
Good for those who need it, after years and years of using multi-GPU’s in SLI I wont be using it anymore, As my GTX 1080 has finally arrived 🙂
Coooool, what is the game you are most excited to try out ?
At the moment I just want to finish Rise of the Tomb Raider, As it didn’t run very well on my GTX 680 SLI.
Awesome.
The irony: Uwp and windows store does not support multi-gp, sli or crossfire.
Down the line and quite soon hopefully I reckon it will!
SLI and Crossfire work, games just need to support it just as always.
Who did the game? Microsoft studios? Microsoft partners?
And is that not Ironic?
Your comment makes no sense.
He’s saying Microsoft-funded/owned games don’t have Multi-GPU support.
I have an argument, you don’t. So your comment make no sense.
Killer instinct and Gears of war are 2 games that show Microsoft did this games for windows 10 and don’t allow use multi-gpu. Quantum Break is another good exemplo.
A game with Directx 12 with the hands of Microsoft and have a horrible performance and no multi-gpu support too!
Where are your arguments about that? Who makes no senses? You, a fanboy with no sense.
English doesn’t seem to be your native language. Maybe brush up first.
Nobody is being a fanboy mate.
Yes, my english is far from perfect. I don’t use translators and I’m not ashamed.
But at least I have a logical opinion, an argument that makes sense.
Your English is a lot better, but you don’t have an answer to defend Microsoft from all this ironic situation.
stop giving false information, UWP isn’t stopping SLI/Crossfire, lazy development is
Yet even in TombRaider in DX11 under UWP you can’t use SLI or CF…
As I said, lazy development, UWP does not hold back multi GPU, never has and never will
Yet the game on Steam under DX11 runs SLI / CF just fine… It’s a UWP problem brah
DX12’s multi-GPU function isn’t the same thing as SLI or Crossfire.
Can’t argue with that, I haven’t got a clue why one game has multi GPU support on steam and the other version does not. However Phil Spencer did say UWP does not affect Multi GPU systems. But you make a very valid point
well originally Steam uplay and origin did not support multi gpus at first. Windows store just has a lot of catching up to do
Who did the lazy development? MICROSOFT studios.
Ironic.
God…. you’re an idiot.
Me, who has arguments? So, you, who don’t have, are what?
For me idiots are who don’t have any arguments and start offending people who has.
Coalition and Remedy, they made the games with poor performance, Gears and Quantum break respectively. Sadly I can’t remember the studios that made killer instinct and Forza but they run amazingly, is Microsoft to blame/take credit for them?
HOW IS IT IRONIC? This means its coming, although uwp/win10 should have been more polished for games before release. stay away from win10 and cry more.
Nope, it’s not coming. And i stay away from what I want, if I want.
You can’t say what I have to do to myself. And saying that is not an argument.
Just to finish you: Yes, it’s a lot ironic when a company create an API to help Multi-GPU but has a store that don’t use it and will not use it.
Oh, well, if Microsoft said that something is coming…….
*buys stocks*
this is the future of gaming dx12,wup its a good thing.
2 x RX 480 FTW!
do you use that configuration? If so how is it? I was tempted to get it until i saw the reference cards are on par with a 970 and not a 980/390x/Nano. I am now waiting to see what the likes of Sapphire, Power Colour and MSI non reference boards are like
He doesn’t….just an AMDrone who talks a lot of BS…
i hope Remedy change there mind and add multi GPU support to Quantum Break, that game is beautiful, but sadly runs like crap. If they do add this new ‘new abstraction layer’ thing ill buy the game in heart beat
I agree completely, we shouldn’t have to at all, Microsoft has made it so dam easy for developers to port there Xbox1 games over to PC it’s almost like they haven’t even bother to test there games before they released them. I hope they have learned there lesson from Gears and Quantum Break. killer instinct, Minecraft and Forza run really well
I knew it!
AMD was betting too much on crossfire, without a clear path, now everything makes sense, it was too much risk, they probably had the deal with MS for sometime ago, but was waiting for some competitors move.
My newly purchased GTX 1080s suddenly became even more useful.
Which one I got the Zotac amp extreme 1080’s
Most games already use Windows 10 – Windows 10 64bit is more popular than all older 64-bit version of Windows. Check Steam Survey – DX12 already win:
DX12: 44.96% (win10 64bit)
DX11: 44.25% (win7 64bit + win8.1 64bit + win8 64bit + Vista 64bit)
Now more and more developer will be using DX12 instead of old DX11. And they learn how to use new options.
The majority of these popular and successful DX12 games are running under the normal architecture/environment (.exe). UWP games are just garbage with very limited functionality IMO.
I don’t care if app is old win32 (.exe) or new UWP. After redstone both type of apps can be sell in Windows Store. No difference for end user. Wait one month longer and most of old win32 apps will be in store
Proof? Source? Link? Anything?
Nothing?
Typical.
“Most games” – lol. Microsoft-funded/owned games, & a handful of 3rd party games =/= “most games.”
“DX12 already win”
it’s not like you can use older version of DX on win 10.
You can, just not on UWP games.
lol typo. meant to say “can’t” instead of “can”
Really questionable stuff. On one hand everyone in Steam surveys has outdated hardware that struggles to run 2012 games – on the other half of all Steam users have already switched to Win10? I don’t believe it. Personally, I skipped the Steam survey and so does anyone else with an active lifestyle. Which leaves people who like bragging about being up to date such as your average “hardware enthusiast” or teenagers who recently bought a PC etc. The sample is flawed.
Good luck talking him out of using the ridiculously inaccurate Steam Survey in a serious conversation, though.
According to this guy it might as well be the gospel, right up there with Windows 10 & UWP (even though he himself by his own admission never buys anything from Steam, so…… yeah).
Sli and crossfire is crap, good for benchmarks but not for gaming. I always go for single card raw power when I upgrade.
Its about time, so far DX12 has been a huge marketing scam.
Devs are skipping this feature because multi-GPU setups are rare and usually consist of two powerful, recent cards any way so using just one of them is still enough to make the game work. Multi-GPU is doomed forever because it will never become mainstream and everyone involved knows it by now. Back in the day there was speculation that the performance scaling could become so good it would eventually pay off to buy two slow cards instead of one fast card, for example. But doing that you just get micro-stutters, games that don’t support you at all and an electricity bill from hell. Multi-GPU is a failed experiment.
Indeed. What with the lack of any kind of Crysis-like game in recent years, & the ever-increasing drag consoles have on the technical performance side of Video Games, multi-GPU setups have basically become pointless these days, in light of how powerful single-GPU’s can actually get.
It’s a shame, but it is what it is. Maybe once someone (anyone? please?) makes a new Crysis-like game that actually requires multi-GPU setups to be maximized properly, we’ll see a return, but it would also take the demise of antiquated consoles to also see a multi-gpu resurgence as well.
Do people realize that DX12’s multi-GPU function isn’t the same thing as SLI/Crossfire? They work in completely different ways.