Intel has discontinued native support for DirectX 9 on the latest integrated Arc and Xe graphics cards. Instead, these GPUs use Microsoft’s DirectX emulation layer, which according to the manufacturer performs relatively well.

Intel Corporation Confirms on their website that Arc video cards and integrated Xe GPUs from 12th generation processors no longer offer native support for DirectX 9, Tom’s Hardware was the first to notice this. Applications using this API will still run on these video cards Via D3D9On12. This is a kind of simulation layer from Microsoft, which redirects DirectX 9 instructions to D3D9On12 and then compiles them so they can be used on the video card’s DirectX 12 driver. The integrated GPUs of 11th and earlier generation Intel processors retain native DirectX 9 support.

D3D9On12 has been a part of Windows 10 and translation layer source code for years It has been open source since last year. Microsoft says that this simulation approach has evolved in recent years into a “complete, relatively high-performance implementation of the D3D9 driver.” With that said, the performance shouldn’t be much lower than the original DirectX 9.

Intel makes integrated graphics processing units (GPUs) for its processors and currently works on discrete Arc Alchemist video cards for laptops and desktop computers. The first reviews showed that Arc GPUs had driver issues and disappointing performance. The company previously confirmed that games that use older graphics APIs, such as DX11 and earlier, It is not well optimized yet on your house. That’s because these legacy APIs have “extra driver baggage” between the game and the GPU, where modern APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan are more. low level Thus, it can communicate directly with the devices. The company says it is improving Arc for older APIs.

It’s not clear what the impact of DirectX 9 emulation performance will have on Arc and Xe, but given Intel’s driver issues with outdated APIs and Microsoft’s claims that D3D9On12 works relatively well, it appears to be a good move. Arc video cards will be widely available later this year after a delay.