Video Graphics in Windows 8

I was reading the review of Windows 8 and I think that it will be an awesome operating system. It was mentioned that Windows 8 will require the computer to have video memory in order to be installed and get full functionality. Since this operating system needs video memory, I think that the graphics for this operating system will be more than better. Has anyone tried the trial version or preview version of Windows 8? I wanted to know how the graphics in this operating system will look like. Can someone tell me?

Windows 8 promises to bring visually rich and high quality graphics in the operating system. The Metro interface of Windows 8 is targeted for development of more interactive applications and softwares. To achieve this, the developers needed to have higher level of hardware in user’s computer. The Metro theme used in Windows 8 is very heavy. To make it operate smoothly without nay lags or jerks, good amount of video memory is needed. The DirectX must be of high level to support the graphically rich interface and visuals that will be used in the applications built for Windows 8. I think Windows 8 provides a good performance and capabilities after being a graphically oriented operating system.

The visuals of Windows 8 are dependent on both CPU as well as the video memory. The video memory renders the graphics while the CPU executes the processes fast enough for the renders to act along with processes. We know that graphics look smooth and proper when they are executed on framerate of 60 fps. As Windows 8 is primarily designed for touch screen displays. So the framerate needs to be maintained at high levels. If proper hardware is provided to this operating system, then it can easily maintain the framerate of 60 fps for a long time. But once in a while the framerate might drop down and raise to an unexpected levels. These spikes of framerate might cause problems once in a while, but they are not a matter to worry about.

Windows 8 manages the graphic memory very well in a computer. The first thing that I was worried about when I read the Windows 8 will need to use video memory to operate smoothly, I thought that if operating system itself would be needing video memory to operate, how much memory will be left back for the applications to operate smoothly.

But after using the consumer preview of Windows 8 I found that Windows 8 leaves ample amount of video memory. One can run high end games and applications smoothly without any problem on Windows 8. Also the smooth coordination between the CPU and GPU ensures proper working of games and other applications.

As we know that text is the most used graphical element, so in Windows 8, there has been made great number of enhancements for the text and related content. Windows 8 is focused to improve the txt present in web pages, e-mails and other text editing and viewing applications. The fonts and other textual elements used in Windows 8 are rich in their quality which ensures that they provide a good quality of text needed for reading. There has been made a good improvement in framerate of various aspects of text. For example, paragraphs will be rendered with 150% more framerate than that was in Windows 7. Similarly, there is 131% increase in framerate of rendering of user interface and 336% increase in framerate for rendering of titles and headers.

Usually people related the requirement of video memory with the rendering process of 3D graphics. But let me tell you that video memory is also needed for proper rendering of the2D graphics. The edges of the shapes have to be smooth also the colors should be properly distributed and many other things matter in 2D graphics. The increase in framerate of rendering of 2D graphics is also implemented in Windows 8. The framerate for rendering of a line is increased by 185%, for ellipses the framerate has been increased by 369%, that for rounded rectangles the framerate for rendering has been increased by 220% and that for rectangles, framerate have been increased by 438%.

Being a photographer by profession, the first thing I did was to study the rendering process of the images in Windows 8. I think that Windows 8 has added some good features for rendering of images that were not present before. The utilization of video memory for rendering images has been done properly by the developers in Windows 8. The three common formats used in photography or in any image are .jpg, .gif and .png. There have been few improvements in these formats like in jpg images, SIMD usage on CPU have been improved for better decoding of jpg images. Also the encoding and decoding process by Huffman method is improved for jpg image format.

With Windows 8 one can experience dynamic visuals in their computer. This operating system provides ability to render and modify the images in many ways possible in real time. By dynamic visuals, Windows 8 will be able to apply effects like blur, 3D transitions and artistic layers in real time without having to render different layer to overlay the original image. Also the adjustments of exposure, contrast, vibrancy, sharpness and other such image enhancement effects can be implemented in real time. Also this operating system can render images of optimal quality to suit the needs of the applications.

The effects generated by Windows 8 are hardware accelerated as well as software accelerated. With use of simple APIs, the graphics in Windows 8 can be modified and edited as per the need of the user. Also the in-built effects of Windows 8 are good enough for fancy graphics. Also images of very high resolution are supported along with support for 32-bit channel graphics. Windows 8 uses the Direct2D technique to render various effects ewe can see on the screen.

One of the effects that is commonly seen is the effects used on the tiles on the desktop. The effects of tilting and turning in to 3D perspective are achieved by Direct2D effects.

With such high requirements of video memory, one would think that this operating system would be useless in laptops as it would consume a large amount of power. But let me tell you that Windows 8 uses tile based rendering which saves power as well as cache memory.

When rendering anything on the screen, a small part is first rendered. When it is done, the data in cache memory is cleared up before taking up the rendering of next tile. This whole process saves a good amount of energy too. This also utilizes the video memory in proper manner and efficiently.