Microsoft opens DirectX 12 support for Windows 7 to Developers
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Alessio1989
Complete D3D12 support like version 1903, except for DirectML (which means also no WinML).
All the differences are covered under the hood by the provided dynamic library except for presentation which is a little difference (DXGI still remains limited to 1.1 version).
Applications meant to support "DirectX 12 for Windows 7" will need to care only on the different presentation mode and will need a differently tuned memory residency management (WDDM 1.1 does not handle memory residency as good as WDDM 2.0).
What does it means? Games that are CPU limited by poor DX11 threading model and pipeline state caching could benefit on DX12 support for Windows 7. Not so much for those application which bottlenecks are related to memory management. How much? Generally speaking a little less then Windows 10 which kernel and WDDM 2.x provide a better deep implementation for some parts of the D3D12 APIs.
phatbx133
Windows 7 Vs Windows 10 with 12DX run games, benchmarks compares I like to see. I am sure there will be lots of reviewers.
Alessio1989
You need to wait for properly supported games. DX12 Games need some different code path to run on Windows 7.
RealNC
Maybe they'll extend it. Who knows. It's all really weird.
In any event, 7 will be used for many years, even if MS kills support for it. Just like XP did.
anticupidon
One can only assume.
1 M$ is doing this just to show"openness" to the large public, and to other large companies.
Promoting "openess" lubricate some gears and can open some doors, which in the end translate to bussines on M$ check book.
"Microsoft♥ Linux – we say that a lot, and we mean it! Today we’re pleased to announce that Microsoft is supporting the addition of Microsoft’s exFAT technology to the Linux kernel." This could be a very good example
Basically, they give "nothing-DX12" (Windows 7 is EOL to anyway )and can gain so much.
2 M$ backpedaling on gaming and DX12 across all Windows version, as Valve's Proton now packages VKD3D For Direct3D 12 Over Vulkan, giving Linux better leverage in gaming area. Gaming is where Microsoft can loose a lot.
Both my 2 assumptions are wild and just my personal take on this. Not as taken as facts.
Zooke
Some people just try to make everything out to be racist, I suppose blackberries, yellow fever, brown sugar and red herrings are racist too.
slyphnier
yes i understand that windows7 usage still high in china
but it still dont make sense to me, those high-usage in china doesnt matter for microsoft right ?
those win7 user in china not even asking for DX12 support, not even care about EOL nearing etc.
so its like giving help to those not asking
even say if in china have 80% share of win7
if we calculated to worldwide win7 user, it still wont all of sudden jump to 50% shares right ?
i am guessing it become like around +30% shares
also if we considering the effect of this, it seems not really good
i mean for some people might decide to return to win7 , which opposite to what MS trying to (more people move to win10)
so its more like ms themselves reviving their dead-product, rather than making their main-product (win10) better and more attractive
obviously MS might have their own reason, but saying MS decide to give to dx12 support simply because there still many user in china seems make no sense to me
ruthan
Better later than never, they still 10x more Windows 7 users than whole Linux stuff, its till i would say at least 2x big as Mac Os. Nice for as retro gamers.
Digilator
May be me, but looks like you answered your own questioning - MS doesn't have to support it for it to continue to function.
Weird, huh?)
As long as it makes sense, some companies may use this.
I may be "dim" when it comes to things like this, but Vulkan makes more sense to me, as it runs on Linux also(certain games can also be ported to mobile easier?).
schmidtbag
That's actually a really good point: if it was that important for companies like Blizzard to get support for W7 for cutting-edge APIs, why didn't they just support Vulkan? It'd have been less work for them when making their Mac ports.
schmidtbag
So... you know slyphnier isn't Chinese? I'm not saying he's right that Denial made a racist comment because of course he didn't, but for someone who says "it's not nice to insult someone" you seem quick to give labels (I'm not sure what a WASSFP is but it doesn't seem complimentary) and make assumptions.
nhlkoho
My guess is they'll release it broken and then say I told you so and that for the best experience you need to upgrade to Win10.
Kind of pointless anyway. Eventually you won't have proper GPU driver support for Win7 and people will complain about that too. Just upgrade already
Yxskaft
I agree that it should have been there already 2015, and that's true for DX11.1 and later as well.
I can see the argument that Microsoft realized that allowing DX12 to still work on Win7, although with reduced gains, can give DX12 adoption a boost and still give Win10 the edge for modern gaming. The other obvious argument is as mentioned above, that studios have the option to use Vulkan, and Microsoft might have feared that more upcoming games would use that instead of DX12.
tsunami231
Win 8/8.1 is like Win ME imo that OS verison no one want to talk about let alone MS
NVM I edit the chart and even inf 2019 it about the same, My guess to why does mater what china is? last I heard they want to make there own OS cause they didnt want MS OS or something made in the USA or something like that. not really sure at this point.
Alessio1989
There is a simple sample in the DirectX Sample repository on github, if you really care about Windows 8.1 you can download and build it with Visual Studio and try.
XP-200
https://i.imgur.com/MewLsHh.gif
:p
Icanium
Probably for the same or similar reason the US banned Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei from the US.
Bladeforce
Soo all this crap about dx12 only working on windows 10 and lets not forget you NEED windows 8 for dx11 was just that CRAP. You buy microsoft you deserve the endless crap they give you
vbetts
Moderator
11 was launched with Windows 7.
Astyanax
microsoft has chosen not to have this work on windows 8, which is strange since thats most likely where the 7 users will be going to keep the os as similar as possible.
