Microsoft adds reusable geometry tools to DirectX ray tracing, cutting sample memory by 90%
Microsoft has previewed Clustered Geometry and Partitioned TLAS, two additions to DirectX Raytracing that let games reuse geometry data and update only changed parts of a scene. In Microsoft’s Radeon RX 9070 sample, acceleration-structure memory fell from about 7.5GB to 774MB, while ray-tracing time per frame dropped from 72.6ms to 9.27ms; Microsoft cautions that games should not expect gains of that scale. The features remain in preview and require developer adoption before they reach games through DirectX.
Bottom line — DirectX’s preview offers developers a shared route to techniques Nvidia already uses, but game-level gains remain unproven.
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TechSpot reports that the sample’s frame rate rose from 1.2 to 79 frames per second; the figures are for a test, not a full game.
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Microsoft’s detailed measurements put animated acceleration-structure memory at 244MiB, down from 6,794MiB.
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Clustered Geometry breaks meshes into reusable clusters of up to 256 triangles, reducing how much geometry must be rebuilt.
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Partitioned TLAS divides a scene into regions, so unchanged sections can keep their existing structures between frames.
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The clustered approach needs more temporary scratch memory: Microsoft’s sample rose from 1.83MiB to 526MiB for static geometry.
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TechSpot says the preview requires Windows Developer Mode. Nvidia supports all RTX GPUs; AMD lists RX 9000 cards, while Intel lists Arc B-series and Core Ultra chips.
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GH reports that Qualcomm is targeting Snapdragon X2 platforms in the first half of 2027.