subject: Microsoft Details Windows 8 Graphics Performance Gains Through Hardware Acceleration [print this page] Windows 8 is getting buzz for its Metro interface, touch-screen capabilities, and even for Microsoft's decision to remove the Start button from the legacy desktop view. But the company says it's been working hard on improving overall performance with its latest OS, and a new developer blog post describes in great detail how Microsoft's done it.
In particular, Rob Copeland, a Microsoft group program manager for its graphics team, discusses how Windows 8 makes greater use of hardware acceleration from graphics chips as well as taking advantage of new DirectX features. The tweaks have led to improvements in the following capabilities, according to Copeland:
Text rendering, including paragraphs, titles and headings, and UI controls
2D geometry rendering for lines, ellipses, rectangles, and rounded rectangles
Image rendering for popular formats like JPG, PNG, and GIF
Optimizing mainstream (non-game) app rendering performance using DirectX
According to internal benchmarks, the performance gains over Windows 7 are indeed impressive -- such as a 336-percent framerate increase in handling titles and headings, a 438-percent framerate increase in rendering rectangles, and a 40-percent reduction in time to render a group of 64 images.
Microsoft also says Windows 8 is relying on the improved power of today's powerful graphics cards to help accelerate different types of content using the new Direct3D 11.1 API. On the other end of the spectrum, it's also trying to perfect the balance between performance and battery life in mobile devices running Windows 8, like forthcoming tablet PCs using the new operating system. For example, it allows graphics hardware to render using less precision in order to process more data simultaneously and improve power efficiency.
Of course, how this all correlates to the performance you see on your system is yet to be determined. If you've downloaded an early version of Windows 8, have you noticed an increase (or decrease) in performance in apps and games? Let us know your findings in the Talkback section below.
Fino Announces App Development for Windows 8 Mobile Platform
Fino, a technology and consulting firm that delivers cloud and mobile solutions for the enterprise, announced today that it will be developing mobile applications on Windows 8. Fino's support for Windows 8 builds on the firm's renowned development capabilities for Apple's iOS platform. Their services have been widely embraced by several Fortune 1000 companies most notably Hess, for whom they developed a suite of award-winning iOS sales applications.
"As longtime Microsoft partners, we're very excited about the mobile capabilities of Windows 8," said Brian Fino, Managing Director of Fino. "We work with our clients to develop exceptional cloud-based mobile applications that deliver tremendous business value. In this space, Apple has been our vendor of choice. However, the upcoming hardware offerings running Windows 8 provide a viable alternative to the iPad. And that will make our Enterprise clients very happy."
Fino will begin developing for the Windows 8 platform immediately, and is re-designing some of its iOS applications and offerings for Windows 8. "Windows 8 presents a new design paradigm that is focused around information and typography," says Chad Haas, Creative Director of Fino. Fino is applying Metro designs to its applications in sales, banking, education, and other enterprise capabilities.
