In the case of DirectX, Microsoft hands off the device-dependent work to the driver but maintains much of the work that is independent of the underlying hardware. It is gaining traction in gaming environments and may well have a more significant role to play in professional spaces in the future. In addition, other APIs do exist, such as Vulkan from industry-consortium Khronos (which also manages OpenGL). In fact, the standard in workstation graphics benchmarking, SPEC’s Viewperf, measures 3D performance running both APIs. With its long legacy status, OpenGL remains relevant particularly in professional CAD applications. Due in large part to its ability to progress rapidly under one entity - in contrast to the egalitarian group-directed OpenGL board - DirectX quickly emerged to become the dominant API on Windows. Microsoft created DirectX back in the 1990’s to help unify support for applications, with gaming a primary focus. OpenGL is the tried-and-true, open-standard offshoot from the early days of graphics workstations, originally derived from Silicon Graphics’ workstation API, IrisGL. In the context of professional CAD applications, running Windows, DirectX, and OpenGL remain the primary APIs used. Instead, the application programs to an application programming interface (API), and the driver underneath that API handles some or all of the work that’s required to implement the application’s requests, such as drawing a line or polygon. It’s impractical for either an OS or application to know enough about the underlying hardware to program directly to it in an effective and robust way, plus an independent software developer (ISV) would not have the time or expertise to support multiple vendors and architectures that evolve over time. But, what exactly does a graphics driver do? What are the differences between drivers, and how might they impact your CAD workstation’s throughput and reliability for your go-to applications? This month, I’ll explain the role of the driver and how drivers for CAD-oriented graphics don’t share the same functionality, performance, or stability as their game-oriented peers.Ī graphics driver provides a level of abstraction and translation between the application and the supporting hardware underneath. We know they exist, we know we need them, and chances are, we’ve all searched for the one best suited to our system and applications. Graphics Drivers-Purpose-Shaped for CAD Use 18 Mar, 2021 By: Alex Herrera Herrera on Hardware: Keep up to date with CAD-oriented drivers and get the power you need to drive your designs.
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