Cyberpunk 2077 will only run with DirectX 12

We're not sure that is surprising really?, as it offers raytracing support, and that DXR is tied to DX12. However the PC version will only support DX12, not Vulkan or even DX11.

If you were wondering which APIs Cyberpunk 2077 will support, CD Projekt Red finally announced the answer: Only DirectX 12. This, thanks to being the API used on Xbox, and its support for DirectX Ray Tracing. This is what Marcin Gollent, Leader of the game's Graphic Programming, stated in this regard:

Thanks to the introduction of DX12 support for Windows 7 SP1 that Microsoft introduced last year, the game will run on this system. We do, and will continue to, test Cyberpunk 2077 on Windows 7 in an attempt to iron out any edge-cases that might arise. Unfortunately, Windows 8 didn't receive its variant of DX12 libraries.Regarding DX12 Ultimate, Cyberpunk 2077 will work absolutely fine with all DX12-compatible GPUs. What the "Ultimate" feature set does is it allows us to do more if the hardware allows for it. We opted to go with DX12 for two main reasons. Firstly, it is the standard API for the Xbox platforms, and with the game also coming to Xbox One, we naturally wanted to have it implemented as soon as possible. Secondly, it is the birthplace of DXR, and given we had plans to invest in DXR very early on, that made the choice to go with DX12 a pretty straightforward one.

In this way, the game will only be compatible with PCs that use Windows 10, or Windows 7 with the latest updates that added DirectX 12 support. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 users will not be able to play it, unless they update their operating system to Windows 10.

Cyberpunk 2077 is coming to PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One on November 19 . Later it will come to Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X when these consoles hit the market.