Microsoft drastically improves video encoding performance on Windows 11

With the release of the new DirectX 12 API, Microsoft is finally giving the Windows 11 developer community a chance to test out DirectX 12's capabilities for video processing/encoding with dramatically improved performance.

Microsoft is currently actively developing a new video encoding API for Windows 11 applications as part of the DirectX 12 project. The API is now available in preview for Windows developers, which could speed things up. encode video and enable third-party applications such as Adobe to be compatible with modern DirectX 12 standards.

In the changelog document, Microsoft confirmed the new DirectX 12 APIs, native to Windows 11, will provide GPU acceleration for some video applications using Video Decoding tricks. , Video Processing and Motion estimation. Once deployed, third-party applications will be able to perform video encoding using GPU accelerated video tools.

'There will be D3D12 Video Encode and preview support for D3D12 Enhanced Barriers. Since this is a Preview SDK release, developer mode needs to be enabled in order to use it," Microsoft said in the changelog document of the DirectX 12 preview update.

The framework of the new API is a bit complicated in general, but Microsoft's documentation also suggests that DirectX 12's principles and style, as well as the framework of reference, will be managed and tracked entirely by this API. That would allow Windows 11 apps to have full control over the DPB size.

The API will use the raw power of the GPU, and Microsoft says video editing tasks on Windows 11 will be more efficient and faster than on Windows 10.

It should be noted that the API supports improved video encoding for popular codecs, including N264 and HEVC. These codecs are used in many famous video editors such as Adobe Premiere and Filmora.

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Devices eligible for Windows 11 video encoding upgrade update

Most modern graphics card models are supported. Includes GPUs and CPUs from AMD, Intel and Nvidia. If you have an AMD device, you'll need Radeon RX 5000 series, Ryzen 2XXX series, or higher to support Windows 11's upgraded video encoding. For Intel hardware, you'll need Tiger Lake, Ice Lake and GPU GPUs. Alder Lake.

In case you use Nvidia graphics card, you will need GeForce GTX 10xx, GeForce RTX 20xx or higher. In addition, Microsoft will also provide support for Nvidia Quadro RTX and Nvidia RTX.

It should be noted that support will vary by platform, and Windows 11 will require newer drivers and supported applications.

Lesley Montoya

Update 12 December 2021