12th Gen Intel Core iGPUs and Arc Discrete GPUs Lose Native Support for DirectX 9

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Image: Intel

Intel has shared a new support document that can confirm the iGPUs in its 12th Gen Core processors, as well as its new Arc discrete GPUs, no longer support DirectX 9 (DX9) natively. All DirectX 9 support is being transferred to DirectX 12 in the form of emulation, per an open-source conversion layer known as “D3D9On12” from Microsoft.

The post from Intel in full:

12th generation Intel processor’s integrated GPU and Arc discrete GPU no longer support D3D9 natively. Applications and games based on DirectX 9 can still work through Microsoft D3D9On12 interface.

The integrated GPU on 11th generation and older Intel processors supports DX9 natively, but they can be combined with Arc graphics cards. If so, rendering is likely to be handled by the card and not the iGPU (unless the card is disabled). Thus, the system will be using DX9On12 instead of DX9.

Since DirectX is property of and is sustained by Microsoft, troubleshooting of DX9 apps and games issues require promoting any findings to Microsoft Support so they can include the proper fixes in their next update of the operating system and the DirectX APIs.

Here’s how the process is meant to work, according to Tom’s Hardware:

Conversion works by sending 3D DirectX 9 graphics commands to the D3D9On12 layer instead of the D3D9 graphics driver directly. Once the D3D9On12 layer receives commands from the D3D9 API, it will convert all commands into D3D12 API calls. Basically, D3D9On12 will act as a GPU driver all on its own, instead of the actual GPU driver from Intel.

Consequences of emulation may include ” including higher CPU usage (since the translation is software accelerated), and potential side-effects with older games.”

Source: Intel

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Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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