We originally ran this article in May 2015, but with the release this week of Windows 10, we thought we'd revisit DirectX 12 on the launch version of the OS, using the latest drivers in order to update the benchmark data. We've also replaced the AMD A10 7800 benches with the same tests run on an FX 6300 - this is a more direct equivalent to the Core i3 4130. We also re-tested Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and found that significant issues remain with AMD's DX11 performance on less capable processors on both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

There's a palpable air of excitement surrounding the arrival of Windows 10 and DirectX 12 - a sense that the PC will finally shrug off the shackles holding it back and that the cutting-edge components released by AMD, Nvidia and Intel will finally reach something approaching their full potential. We experimented with Windows 10 this week and came to a highly satisfying conclusion - DX12 offers huge advantages to virtually all PC owners, but it will be a boon to AMD in particular, perhaps going some way to restoring a degree of plurality to the PC hardware market.

With DirectX 12 on Windows 10, low-level hardware-agnostic graphics access is now a reality on PC—and it won’t be long before it is joined by Vulkan, an alternative which isn’t bound to Microsoft’s platforms. With a set of significant changes to how programs interact with 3D hardware, these APIs offer an opportunity to create games which scale better to higher degrees of hardware parallelism, and offer more consistent performance. Reducing the size of the API and the responsibilities of drivers should also eliminate AAA titles’ reliance on day-one driver updates for compatibility and performance, and make the PC an even more stable and versatile gaming platform overall. And to top it off, the vast majority of these advantages are independent of new hardware features and can be leveraged with most existing DX11 GPUs.