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DirectX 12 will not be supported by Windows 7

S

Sajjaja

Member
DirectX 12 promises both dramatically increased performance in games, thanks to reduced CPU overhead and better support for multithreading, and significantly reduced power consumption, a real boon for owners of gaming laptops. It will of course be built into Windows 10 and compatible with Windows 8 as well, but the news isn't so good for Windows 7 diehards.
Speaking at a PDXLAN presentation earlier this month, AMD's Chief Gaming Scientist Richard Huddy said Windows 7 remains Microsoft's most popular operating system: 52 percent of all Microsoft OS users are still on Windows 7, and that number is actually growing. "It's a very, very popular operating system," he said in comments starting around the 20:30 mark of the video.
But in spite of that, or perhaps because of it, he continued, "One thing that's not going to happen to it is DX12. Yup, DX12 is not coming to Windows 7."

The Steam hardware survey confirms the popularity of Windows 7—47.8 percent of users run the 64-bit version, compared to 21.4 percent for the second-place finisher, Windows 8.1 64-bit—but the lack of compatibility isn't entirely surprising. It's getting a bit long in the tooth, and as we noted in its announcement, Microsoft isn't shy about using new, better APIs to "encourage" people to upgrade to a new version of Windows. Let us also not forget that Microsoft announced this past spring that mainstream support for Windows 7 will come to an end in January 2015.
Windows 8 obviously hasn't caught fire and at this point obviously isn't going to, so I would expect Microsoft to be more aggressive in pushing Windows 10. But if DirectX 12 can actually deliver on its promise, I'd be willing to bet that a lot of us Win7 laggards won't really mind.
Click to expand...
http://www.pcgamer.com/directx-12-will-not-be-supported-by-windows-7/

Update 1:
Kayant said:
Apparently "he misspoke"

"There have been reports based on a video of Richard Huddy of AMD making speculative comments around DirectX 12 support on versions of Windows," AMD said in a statement. "Richard Huddy does not speak for Microsoft, and he was unfortunately speculating from Microsoft’s publication of key dates and milestones for Windows 7 lifecycle and mainstream support policy. Richard has no special insight into Microsoft’s Windows or DirectX roadmaps. Microsoft is a key, strategic partner for AMD and we’re continuously collaborating with them on DirectX 12."
Click to expand...
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
I think it's a terrible decision, not because I personally give much of a damn about W7 at this point, but because like Vista exclusivity for DX10 it could end severely slowing down adoption rate for DX12.
 
G

GhostTrick

Banned
I don't get the hate for Windows 8.1...
I was on the bandwagon of the "wtf is that thing" until I tried it. It's basically Windows 7 with Metro UI.
 
M

Marinlik

Neo Member
Can fully understand why MS would like to give an incentive to get people to switch from a 5+ year old OS. Don't really see any problem with this.
 
S

system11

Member
Watch them extend it due to the number of businesses running W7. Nobody in large corporates wants to touch W8 with a 10 foot pole.
 
The Cowboy

The Cowboy

Member
Expected and as OnionPowder states, by the time its out Win 7 will be 6 years old. Add to this, we've still yet to see the upgrade to Windows 10 prices, it may be cheap and as such this might not be a big issue.
 
F

fargofallout

Member
More surprised by Windows 7 support supposedly ending in January - I hadn't heard that before. Two months from now? Is that right, or is he mistaken?
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
Not surprised. The reason DirectX stuck around for particularly long before across Windows versions was because they really needed to get DirectX adopted and it was an add-on after the fact.

Now that it's more integrated into the OS, plus the fact that it's fairly standard now for Windows games, means newer versions aren't going to be backported.

Same reason you don't find Apple backporting their graphics stuff to previous OSXs.
 
F

FACE

Banned
GhostTrick said:
I don't get the hate for Windows 8.1...
I was on the bandwagon of the "wtf is that thing" until I tried it. It's basically Windows 7 with Metro UI.
Click to expand...

I dislike the Metro UI, plus it has(or had, maybe they fixed it) some mouse-related issues with older games.
 
E

Elios83

Member
This will just slow down DX12 adoption rather than helping Windows 8 and 9...emmm 10.
But it's expected and it's in their right to do it.
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
FACE said:
I dislike the Metro UI, plus it has(or had, maybe they fixed it) some mouse-related issues with older games.
Click to expand...
I don't particularly dislike it (aesthetically, at least), but that doesn't even matter since I virtually never have to use it.
 
Q

Qassim

Member
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
It actually feels even more fast/responsive, to say it all.
Click to expand...

It's a better operating system in pretty much every other way outside of the start menu. It's faster, more efficient (runs better on lesser hardware and has lower requirements), more reliable, some nice new features (client Hyper-V, storage pools, etc).

Windows 10 will basically just be Windows 8 except with the start menu fixed (and some other nice new things, like virtual desktops).
 
L

leadbelly

Banned
meptrep said:
Was Windows 7 support expected?
Click to expand...

It wasn't, but in terms of the history of DirectX and Windows, it is a relatively recent trend from Microsoft. The last 7-8 years.

It seems like from now on they're going to bend over backwards to find some new way to link DirectX directly to their latest OS. I can only think of it cynically at this point.
 
A

AlterOdin

Member
Win8.1 i pretty great, along with start8 startmenu I haven't seen the metro screen in years.

But hey win10 is right around the corner, which should "redeem" (rumors) most of the faults of 8.
 
K

Krakn3Dfx

Member
Aren't they giving away the next iteration of Windows for free to Windows 7/8/8.1 users anyway? If so, not a huge deal.
 
K

Kinthalis

Banned
I don't think this will eb an issue, IMHO because:

1. Windows 8.1 will support it, that's a not insignificant portion of the gaming population.

2. I'm sure DX11.3 WILL support windows 7. DX11.3 is suppsoed to be feature ocmpatible with DX12. So a dev can develop as game on DX12, and it will run on DX 11.3. The only issue is that it will run slower - or more precisely, there will be more CPU overhead (that doesn't necessarily mean it will run slower - that is going to depend on the CPU and GPU loads and hardware).

So I think this is still ok. Makign it windows 10 exclusive would have been bad, IMHO.
 
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