Will DirectX 12 Come to Windows 7?
AMD Chief Gaming Scientist Richard Huddy gave a brief scare during his presentation at PDXLAN, reporting that consumers still love Windows 7, which claims 52 percent of the Windows operating system market. And although that number continues to grow, Microsoft will not bring DirectX 12 to the platform.
According to the Steam Hardware Survey, 95 percent of Steam users play on a Windows platform. Of that group, 47.78 percent use the 64-bit version of Windows 7, followed by Windows 8.1 64-bit (21.43 percent), Windows 7 (11.73 percent), Windows 8 64-bit (7.01 percent), and Windows XP 32-bit (4.08 percent). Yes, some gamers still use Windows XP.
Microsoft introduced DirectX 12 back in March. The API will be closer to the hardware than what was seen with DirectX 11 and older, enabling better performance in games that utilize the API. Microsoft's Matt Sandy said in a blog that DirectX 12 will run on many GPUs currently on the market, which should be good news for PC gamers who feared they may need to upgrade their graphics cards.
So far, we know that DirectX 12 will ship with Windows 10 next year and will work on a number of devices such as the Xbox One, PCs, smartphones and tablets. Whether Windows 7 will get the DirectX 12 treatment is unknown at this point. However, AMD went out of its way over the weekend to correct the mess made by Huddy's remarks, saying that he "misspoke."
According to the company, AMD's gaming scientist does not speak for Microsoft; he was merely speculating when he said that DirectX 12 is not coming to Windows 7.
"He was unfortunately speculating from Microsoft's publication of key dates and milestones for Windows 7 lifecycle and mainstream support policy," an AMD representative said. "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."
Given how gamers still flock to Windows 7, not supporting games running on that platform seems a little insane. Sure, we can see Microsoft holding off on the DirectX 12 release until Windows 10 goes gold, but there's just too much business on Windows 7 at this present time to ignore the platform completely.
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Then again, Microsoft stopped selling OEM versions of Windows 7 Home (Basic, Premium and Ultimate) at the end of October 2014. The end of mainstream support will take place on January 13, 2015 followed by the end of extended support in January 14, 2020. Perhaps this is why there's an assumption that DirectX 12 won't come to Windows 7.
Are you looking forward to DirectX 12? Are you still running on Windows 7?
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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danwat1234 It doesn't really matter to me since all software is free on the internet and as long as third party software allows for Windwos 10 to look like Window 7 mostly, I'd be fine and I'd get all the kernel improvements of win10. Start8 already has support for win10 and I'm sure the others will too.Reply -
tomc100 If MS is so arrogant and greedy that they won't release dx 12 onto win 7 then AMD has an opportunity to provide close to the metal API with mantle on Vista, win 7, win 8, linux, and steam os.Reply -
Somasonic History shows that MS will withhold DirectX from old platforms to push people to the new ones. I don't why anyone expects and different.Reply -
skit75 Well the whole Windows 7 to Windows 8 funnel completely backfired. Microsoft should have learned something from trying to make decisions for their users but, I doubt it. After spending the weekend with Windows 10, I don't think it will be big issue. It "feels" close enough to Windows 7, for me.Reply
I guess I would say, first.... show me a game that is worth leaving my current operating system. I get 5 years to browse still. -
drapacioli Is this really a surprise to anyone? That's the current OS after all, anyone running Windows 7 is going to be on extended support once DX12 is released and shouldn't be expecting new features to be added anymore.Reply -
skit75 Reply14608457 said:Umm, wouldn't the real question be whether or not it's being released on Windows 8.1? That's the current OS after all, anyone running Windows 7 is going to be on extended support once DX12 is released and shouldn't be expecting new features to be added anymore.
Windows 7 is where the users are at. Windows 8/8.1 is just today's Vista or WinME -
yumri @skit75 even though what you say is true windows 7 is still acting like windows XP did until they totally ended offical support for it and many ppl still use it in companies even though there is no offical support.Reply
End of new feature support saddly means just that no new features but i am mostly sure once DX12 is out there will be a way to get it onto windows 7 but also i predict a very slow adoption by triple A game devs as it includes a ton of what i see as nice to have for a static system ie console, smartphone spefic apps, an embeded prebuilt fixed hardware set systems but i do not think it will go to well onto the desktop nor the laptop market for the same reason that DX11 and DX 11 feature sets did not there is nothing worth doing it ... unless it can curb the insanely high computing resource needs of Ubisoft and their new game engine i do not think they will use it nor have many other game studios either until it is built into Unreal Engine and/or another popular to use game engine.