Microsoft adds Shader Execution Reordering (SER) in latest DirectX SDK for more efficient ray tracing — Intel Arc B-series GPUs show 90% performance uplift

In 2022, Nvidia introduced hardware-level Shader Execution Reordering (SER) with its RTX 40-series GPUs in order to make ray tracing less taxing. Now, it’s officially part of DXR 1.2, which is included in the new DirectX Agility SDK (version 1.619). The announcement blog isn’t a casual read because of all the technical jargon, so let’s break down what this actually means and how it improves performance.

SER basically reduces the per-pixel rendering time in a very intense ray-traced or path-traced scene. Unpredictability is a GPU’s worst nightmare, so when rays start to bounce off of surfaces in a very uncontrolled manner, sure, the scene looks good, but it’s crippling the silicon. Here, SER slots in and dynamically categorizes all the reflections and light bounces to form cohesion.