Summary
Asynchronous compute is one of the most interesting new features in DirectX 12. The work that Time Spy places into the COMPUTE queue and the specific implementation of that work is the result of deep co-operation with all BDP members including AMD, Intel, Microsoft, and NVIDIA among others.
The implementation is the same regardless of the underlying hardware. In the benchmark at large, there are no vendor specific optimizations in order to ensure that all hardware performs the same amount of work. This makes benchmark results from all vendors comparable across multiple generations of hardware.
Whether work placed in the COMPUTE queue is executed in parallel or in serial is ultimately the decision of the underlying driver. In DirectX 12, by placing items into a different queue the application is simply stating that it allows execution to take place in parallel - it is not a requirement, nor is there a method for making such a demand. This is similar to traditional multi-threaded programming for the CPU - by creating threads we allow and are prepared for execution to happen simultaneously. It is up to the OS to decide how it distributes the work.
