Squeezing ever drop of performance out of DX9

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C++

DirectX

Hi guys,

I have been coding with C++ and DX9c for a few years now. But, I must admit I have been using Game Maker: Studio for the past 6 months.

I am now back to writing my own framework in DX9c again as I have hit a few issues that just can't be gotten around in GM:S.

The point of concern is that I am bewlidered as to why my framework is slower than GM:S.

I have created a comparision project in both my framework vs GM:S and here are the results. First column is the number of objects being rendered and the rest is the FPS.

Rendered Sprites (256x256)	ID3DXSPRITE	Quad		GM:S 1.3

0				1740		1740		~1400	
1 				1570		1740		~1350
10				706		1209		~1350
100				106		297		~1100
500				25		68		~620
1000				13		35		~450

I have stripped my render loop to the bone, so all it is doing is this;

for(int i=0;i<1000;i++)
    mRenderer->getDevice()->DrawPrimitive(D3DPT_TRIANGLESTRIP,0,2);

How is it possible that GM:S is still over 10 times faster under load. GM:S also uses DirectX 9c.

Just had a thought while typing this. I am using Summer 2004 DX SDK where GM:S uses June 2010. Could that make such a significant performace increase?

Thanks in advance, guys :)