like for example “GPU XXX Suports DX12”. which is touted as a feature on the retail box as well.
from what I understand the API is standardized for a certain graphical pipeline to draw various stuff on screen (polygon pipeline, brightness of a pixel pipeline…etc.) and it’s hardware agonistic, and it’s up to GPU manufacturers to “optimise” the workflow of said pipeline.
You can go into some detail, ELI10 if you will lol
In: Technology
A graphic API is indeed a standardized way to ask the GPU to do stuff (This includes drawing, as well as general computation).
To support and API, GPUs have to be able to handle all the features that the API exposes to the programmer.
This includes stuff like supported shader instructions, texture formats.
For example, DX12 requires shader model 5.1 which includes a bunch of new instructions to do atomic computations (called `Interlocked…`). Theses instructions most likely require hardware support so GPUs that do not have the circuitry to perform these operations can not pretend to be DX12 compatible.
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