DirectX 12 is rumored to be a piece of software that can improve the Xbox One's performance in many areas. We've read quite a lot about developers who believe the API will improve performance, and "Nitrous Engine" is no different.
Nitrous Engine employees, Dan Baker, Tim Kipp and Brian Wade, sat down with Gaming Bolt to talk about DirectX 12 and its possible performance gains for the Xbox One, but not much. It should be noted that DirectX 12 will benefit the PC platform more while the Xbox One should see a slight increase.
In terms of the type of performance gains developers and Xbox One owners should expect, the Nitrous Engine team made it clear that DirectX 12 should deliver a lower CPU overhead. This is important due to the fact that the CPUs in the Xbox One are not powerful. The Console has 8 CPU cores, but by themselves, they are below par, and even when combined, they are still not good enough to compete with a mid-ranged PC processor.
With the lower overhead, the CPUs in the Xbox One could see an improvement in performance.
"We're not experts on the Xbox One, but I can tell you what my understanding is. There are two benefits with DirectX 12 that are performance related. It's a lot lower CPU overhead. That's important because the CPUs on the consoles are not powerful. You have many of them but each one is not powerful. You'll get a huge CPU benefit if you were having trouble with that by using DirectX 12," according to the team in an interview with Gaming Bolt.
When it comes down to advanced GPU features, DirectX 12 shines here as well. This means we should expect to see more graphically impressive video games in the distant future on the Xbox One. The Nitrous Engine team stated that there's not many developers can do to take advantage of advanced GPU features with DirectX 11.
Furthermore, the team said DriectX could potentially improve the FPS and a number of pixels the Xbox One can deliver. In a world where 1080p and 60FPS are the hallmark, this could definitely play well into Microsoft's hand.