'By unifying the graphics platform across PC and Xbox Series X, DX12 Ultimate serves as a force multiplier for the entire gaming ecosystem. Even more cards will support ray tracing later this year when AMD release its next-gen Radeon parts. The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 will both support the feature, as do a handful of PC graphics cards.

Probably the biggest upside to this is faster adoption of real-time ray tracing. Though such hardware won’t provide the visual benefits of the new features, it can still provide a very compelling gaming experience on next generation games, depending on the specifics of the hardware,' Microsoft explains. In fact, next-generation games which use DX12 Ultimate features will continue to run on non-DX12 Ultimate hardware. 'It is very important to note that DX12 Ultimate will not impact game compatibility with existing hardware which does not support the entire breadth of DX12 Ultimate features. Not to worry, though, Microsoft says they will still run on regular DX12 hardware, you'll just potentially miss out on some features. You can expect games to bear the DX12 Ultimate badge as well.

There's no such thing as future proofing, of course, but DX12 Ultimate should remain relevant for at least the next couple of years. Related to that, Microsoft is pitching this as a way of ensuring 'future-proof' feature support.

Spotting the DX12 Ultimate badge is the key, and I suspect hardware makers will be quick to promote it. The main benefit for gamers is knowing, at a glance, if the graphics card they are about to buy supports all the latest features.

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