Microsoft Ports DirectX 12 to Windows 7 - Boosts World of Warcraft's Performance in Latest Update

That's right, DirectX 12 has come to Windows 7

[darthv72]

Well this is a surprise.

[bmf7364]

Strange they made this update with DX12 when Windows 7 is going to be EOL next year

[rainslacker]

I guess when they said they needed the new kernel for DX12 that was just them spewing BS like they always do. I knew this to be true, because Win10's kernel is essentially Win7's kernel. Same BS they've spewed for so many DX updates locked behind new versions of windows, which held back PC gaming for so long, because devs wouldn't use the new API's, and even skipped generations of the API because MS didn't sell enough of the new OS's to make it worthwhile for the dev.

it is a surprise though, because I thought they were going to abandon older versions of windows because Win10 was their way forward, and Win7 doesn't have the native access to Live like they have now.

[King_Noctis]

World of warcraft? Does this game need a boosting at this point?

[Stanjara]

I still don't get it if dx12 is better for performance or not.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

I guess it all depends on the developer and how they optimize it.

[maybelovehate]

DX12 allows much better optimization. But that is of course up to the developer to take advantage of.

[CaptainCook]

Since DirectX12 was built around Windows 10, it will always offer superior performance compared to Windows 7

[rainslacker]

If the dev takes advantage of it then yes. Even if you don't have a DX12 card, there are some things with the rendering pipeline which are better than previous versions. The low level stuff can be hit or miss with older cards, but luckily it can adapt when you do the actual application runtime.

@Captain

DX is not built around Win10. The graphics API, which is the most important, is not actually tied to the kernel, and Win10 uses essentially the same kernel as Win7. MS saying it's a kernel related issue was them just once again trying to get gamers to upgrade to new versions of windows, just like they have so many other times in the past. That lie that MS kept spewing has held back console gaming for years, because devs often wouldn't support new versions of DX because people weren't upgrading their OS's.

Win10 does have other advantages in terms of game performance, but it has nothing to do with how the API and kernel are connected.

[Stanjara]

Bravo...this is absolutely the right answer!

[maybelovehate]

Yeah, it would make more sense to say that Windows 10 was built around DX12.

[rainslacker]

@Maybe

No, it wouldn't.

The windows Kernel, and DirectX have no direct relationship to one another. One is a software API that runs in windows, and is not dependent on it outside the interpreter that handles the instructions that get carried out between the API and the hardware. Windows itself does not in any way need DirectX, nor does the base rendering process have any connection to how Windows renders the OS, or anything in it. Developers can enable that in their programs, but it isn't required. It is even possible to uninstall DirectX if one knows the process to do so. I have done so on many occasions in my work due to beta versions having issues which didn't allow me to do my work, so I had to reinstall other versions.

Win10 is a modified version of Win7. A few core commands have changed, but the meat of the kernel is still the same. There may be dependencies for DX built into Windows which are based on the kernel, but dependencies can be implemented in older versions to allow it to work. MS just chose not to do so, because they want to push new versions of windows.

[maybelovehate]

Seems strange to port it to Windows 7 at the same time they started to notify customers it has reached its end of life lol

[eddvdm]

Woah, that's great actually! I can finally throw my Win 10 in the trash and go back to an OS that doesn't f*** up my games performance at each update.