DirectX 12 will not be supported by Windows 7

[Doctalen]

DirectX 12 will not be supported by Windows 7

This needs its own thread.

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.

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/directx-12-will-not-be-supported-by-windows-7/

 

[CostinRaz]

The lack of compatibility is as a result of new features that Windows 8 in terms of graphics. At least I believe I saw Guy post this on the forums.

So it stood to reason we wouldn't DirectX 12 on Windows 7, just as we didn't see DirectX 11 on XP but saw it on Vista.

 

[Engagerade]

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH :wallbash:

 

[sidspyker]

Water is wet

 

[eskiMoe]

 

[Mataresa]

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.

Wasn't aware of that. From wikipedia:

Support und Aktualisierungen
Ursprünglich sollte der Support für Windows 7 planmäßig bis Anfang 2015 bis einschließlich zur Edition Home Premium sowie Ultimate (sog. Mainstream-Phase) und bis Anfang 2020 für die Editionen Professional und Enterprise (sog. Extended-Phase) von Microsoft bereitgestellt werden. Damit wären die an Privatkunden gerichteten Editionen nur geringfügig länger unterstützt worden als jene des Vorvorgängers Windows XP.[68][69] Am 20. Februar 2012 gab Microsoft bekannt, dass alle Versionen einheitlich bis Anfang 2020 mit Updates versorgt werden.[70][71]

It says, that originally begin 2015 was planned, but now they said it will be 2020 for all versions. (I should have probably realized immediatly that is wasn't an English source. ^^)

 

[dragonbird]

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.

Just to make this clear, the "support" concerned means
- No-charge incident support directly from MS
- Warranty claims
- Design changes and feature requests.
Mainstream support makes little difference to the ordinary user, because most people don't have access to this anyway. The important one is extended support, which covers all of the stuff like hotfixes. That's the one that's 2020.

 

[M4xw0lf]

The lack of compatibility is as a result of new features that Windows 8 in terms of graphics. At least I believe I saw Guy post this on the forums.

So it stood to reason we wouldn't DirectX 12 on Windows 7, just as we didn't see DirectX 11 on XP but saw it on Vista.

Mantle runs under Windows 7 as well as Win8 and 8.1 just fine, and due to the technical similarity of Mantle and DX12, technical reasons for the decision of excluding Win7 from DX12 are very doubtful.

 

[Jack_in_the-Green]

Ah, fuck it. Im not getting Windows 8 just fot that. The graphic quality will suffer somewhat, who cares, it will still be awesome. It's a shame, but I really dont like Windows 8 (I even have XP installed in my old-just-for-work-computer, so much user friendly it was ).

 

[3dub]

Ah, fuck it. Im not getting Windows 8 just fot that. The graphic quality will suffer somewhat, who cares, it will still be awesome. It's a shame, but I really dont like Windows 8 (I even have XP installed in my old-just-for-work-computer, so much user friendly it was ).

Yup that's what I do XP for my buisness pc and 7 for my gaming machine hooked up to the same screen. I hate change but time marches on

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Say thanks to MS approach of pushing users to newer systems with artificially limiting key features supported in the older ones. For instance OpenGL 4.5 will work anywhere where drivers are available.

I hope with arrival of OpenGL-next, DirectX will get a serious hit in usage, reducing MS lock-in that results in such mess.

 

[randyrhoads]

Here's hoping Windows 10 would be good

 

[sidspyker]

 

[GuyNwah]

Mantle runs under Windows 7 as well as Win8 and 8.1 just fine, and due to the technical similarity of Mantle and DX12, technical reasons for the decision of excluding Win7 from DX12 are very doubtful.

Without inside knowledge, such a claim cannot be sustained. If you don't work with this stuff, day in and day out, you don't know what obstacles to compatibility exist.

Microsoft has made very substantial technical advances in DirectX 11 since the introduction of Windows 8. So much so that the difference between Windows 7 and 8 is now considerably greater than the difference between Vista and 7. These advances, not any speculative similarity to Mantle, are the foundation of DirectX 12. If they have broken backward compatibility with Windows 7, then that is unfortunate, but I am not going to second-guess other engineers.

Unless we hear a knowledgeable insider say that Microsoft has deliberately failed to backport DirectX 12 without technical justification, I say it is FUD.