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Microsoft PIX

Tool Intermediate

Microsoft

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Description

(Performance Investigator for Xbox, on Windows) is Microsoft's primary profiling and debugging tool for DirectX 12 games on Windows and Xbox GDK builds. Downloads and release notes are hosted on the PIX devblog; Visual Studio Graphics Diagnostics explicitly directs D3D12 developers to PIX instead.

PIX offers GPU captures that record and replay D3D12 command streams for frame debugging, shader inspection, resource views, and GPU timing. Timing captures profile CPU and GPU work across threads, memory allocations, file I/O, and function summaries. Recent releases add DXR 1.2 support, work graph shader debugging, mesh nodes previews, and WinPixEventRuntime API markers.

The tool targets 64-bit C++ D3D12 titles on Windows (x64 and Arm64 builds available). Integrate pix3.h and the WinPixEventRuntime NuGet package to annotate CPU and GPU regions with PIXBeginEvent and PIXScopedEvent for clearer captures.

PIX is free from Microsoft with frequent versioned releases; multiple versions can install side by side. Xbox developers use the GDK-bundled PIX rather than the public Windows download.

Standard tool for D3D12 PC game optimization; widely described as the successor spirit to classic PIX for Windows and the recommended path when Visual Studio's graphics debugger lacks D3D12 support.