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.
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Senior Member
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I say that's fine, time to leave DX11 behind.
Senior Member
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As someone using win10 anyway, I'm not really bothered with win7 support at all, but I think it's good that they want to keep people in. Although I would honestly say, if they didn't support win7, I would understand as well.
What we see now is that FINALLY consoles and PCs work on the same API, which should make cross platform coding and ports a lot easier (are they still ports with the same API?), and that's actually what I've been anxious to see. Took them about two decades anyway but yeah...
I just hope dx12 works well for everybody.
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Posts: 1453
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Pretty much expected.
Not sure why people cling to DX11 so much, all GPUs today from the most entry level (including new Intel iGPUs) support DX12.
What is the newest NVidia GPU without DX12 support?
700 series ? That's 7 years old...
Anything newer works with DX12 just fine !
As for AMD, everything GCN and up supports DX12 (with some reduced features in older 7900 / 200 series)
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Good news for everyone. Dx12 is the way to go, and while Dx11 served us well for the past years - it has its limitations.
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Good to see support for hardcore Win7 folks.
And I guess they develop and optimize game engine REDEngine 4 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-Projekt#REDengine) as they develop the game.
Simpler engine with less bugs to fix for DX11 is a good call.
Looking forward.