Microsoft Unveils Biggest DirectX Raytracing Upgrade Since 2018, Bringing More Efficient Ray Tracing To NVIDIA, AMD & Intel GPUs

Key Points:

• Microsoft released DirectX 12 Agility SDK 1.620 Retail and 1.722 Preview, featuring major enhancements to ray tracing, GPU efficiency, and Advanced Shader Delivery, marking the most significant update to DirectX Raytracing since 2018.
• The 1.722 Preview introduces Clustered Geometry, Partitioned Top-Level Acceleration Structures (PTLAS), and GPU-driven acceleration structure builds, which reduce computational costs by enabling partial updates and reusable geometry clusters in complex, dynamic scenes.
• Tests on an AMD Radeon RX 9070 showed Clustered Geometry boosting ray tracing performance from 1.2 FPS to 79 FPS and cutting acceleration structure memory use by nearly 90%, though actual game performance will vary by workload and hardware.
• Agility SDK 1.620 enhances Advanced Shader Delivery with Partial Graphics Programs for shader reuse and reduced compilation overhead, currently supported on Radeon RX 7000/9000 GPUs, with broader vendor support planned.
• Additional improvements include tools for GPU crash diagnostics, new command list APIs, and machine learning compiler interfaces; Shader Model 6.10 remains in preview with a retail release expected in early December.