I finally looked at the OP article (
, I know) and it looks like Intel's main motivation for putting this together is to show that Direct3D not only improves performance but using a frame rate lock (like vsync) can translate that extra performance into power savings. That's kind of a "duh" advantage of Direct3D 12 but something that is easy to overlook.
We all know laptops outsell desktops by a wide margin, the bulk of those laptops have Intel integrated graphics, and that the number of people gaming on these non-gaming laptops is growing so, developers can expand their player base by transitioning to Direct3D 12 because it lowers the bar of hardware required to make games playable.
Edit: I tried to mimic what Intel did using vsync instead of the coded frame lock and I can't replicate their results in terms of power consumption. GPU activity was actually noticeably lower in Direct3D 11 than Direct3D 12 which doesn't make much sense considering D3D11 would start at about 50 fps and work up to 60 fps with vsync on.
Edit: OH! Mystery solved: BOINC was running!
D3D12: 234w, 60 fps
D3D11: 275w, <=60 fps
The power savings is coming from the CPU more so than the GPU!
vsync off:
D3D12: 299-324w, ~140 fps
D3D11: 275w, 57-60 fps