Home Gaming DirectX 12 is out now, but you can’t use it

DirectX 12 is out now, but you can’t use it

1 min read
35

Even Obama is sad

Microsoft had a pretty great last week, with their Windows 10 keynote getting their year off to a promising start. One of the highlights from the conference was DirectX 12, which will be exclusive to Windows 10. There was really a timeframe on when the API would be launched, and it seems like there didn’t need to be – because DirectX 12 is out right now.

Anyone who is currently running the Technical Preview of Windows 10 can boot up diagnostics and see that they’re actually already running DirectX12 in the background. I say this because there currently isn’t any way to access Microsoft’s new graphical boosting API, because neither Nvidia or AMD have released drivers that support it. Without those, you’re still stuck on DirectX 11.

Those drivers should make their way out soon, but even then it’s all pretty points at the moment. A game needs to inherently support DirectX 12 for you to take advantage of it, and right now the closest one to that is Fable Legends. You’d also need to download a “work in progress” Windows 10, which will probably make all your other games behave weirdly.

That’s the same situation for the Xbox One, which will presumably get DirectX 12 support when Windows 10 arrives on the console. The gains from the API will only be realised on games that support it, so don’t expect retroactive performance leaps on older Xbox One titles. That’s unfortunately not how this works, although it would be pretty neat.

So yes, you can have DirectX 12 on your PC, right now, if you really want to. Is it worth the pain of working with an unfinished Windows 10? Not in the slightest.

Last Updated: January 26, 2015

35 Comments

  1. Even worse, you’d have to play Fable.

    Reply

    • Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

      January 26, 2015 at 15:36

      Comment of the week!

      Reply

    • Tosh MA

      January 26, 2015 at 15:43

      Unless you’re VIKTOR!!!

      Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      January 26, 2015 at 15:55

      Worse, you might have to pay to play Fable….

      Reply

      • Tosh MA

        January 26, 2015 at 15:55

        Nightmares. For life. Thanks. XD

        Reply

      • HairyEwok

        January 26, 2015 at 15:58

        Seems totally legit since people are fooled to pay for games that aren’t even complete (cough H1Z1, DayZ)

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          January 26, 2015 at 16:02

          These days, you can wrap a dog turd in some tissues and squeezed it into a game box; the dirty illiterate unwashed gamerdom will throw their money at it.

          Reply

  2. Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

    January 26, 2015 at 15:41

    Well it should be alright. I mean Windows has a history of good release / bad release.

    Windows Vista (Bad) / Windows 7 (good) / Windows 8 (Bad) / Windows 10 (Should be good then right?)

    Reply

    • Ghost In The Rift

      January 26, 2015 at 15:43

      Please dont Jinx it,lets wait until release then we troll the shit out of it:-P

      Reply

    • Tosh MA

      January 26, 2015 at 15:45

      I’ll be upgrading from Win 7 when 10 releases, so either way I’m in it for the long haul.

      Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 26, 2015 at 15:52

      They skipped 9 (Well naming it 9 anyway)

      Reply

      • Tosh MA

        January 26, 2015 at 15:56

        Win 3.11. Win 95. Win 98. Win NT. Win XP. At least they’re following a bit better now than before.

        Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        January 26, 2015 at 15:59

        Numbers are merely guides for Microsoft. It’s like how the Xbox went from (just) Xbox to Xbox 360 (the fuck) and then Xbox One.

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          January 26, 2015 at 16:00

          PS: Did you realise that all three iterations of Xbox are essentially Xbox “1”. 360 implies a return to the beginning, which is then followed by Xbox One. Which means the next xbox will have to follow this naming convention.

          The fourth Xbox could very well be called Xbox Alpha…. 😮

          Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      January 26, 2015 at 15:55

      Windows 10 will bring balance to the force!

      Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      January 26, 2015 at 15:58

      Maybe they have a B-Team and an A-Team. Windows Vista and 8 are clearly the products of their weaker team, whereas the true wizards are Team A (now bolstered with geniuses from Apple – who presumably left before Apple squeezed out the utterly disappointing and pathetic iOS 7). This means that Windows 10 should be the greatest OS ever created.

      Better even than North Korea’s Red Star.

      Reply

      • Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

        January 26, 2015 at 18:12

        Lol. The funniest part is they could actually have something like 2 teams that tag team it out

        Reply

    • Brady miaau

      January 26, 2015 at 16:52

      8.1 is pretty ok in my book. Seems to do what I need for work. Gaming? Who knows

      Reply

      • FoxOneZA

        January 26, 2015 at 17:15

        8.1 is superior to 7 with gaming and 3D apps.

        Reply

      • Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

        January 26, 2015 at 18:12

        8.1 performs well enough for gaming in my opinion hey

        Reply

    • Marc O Polo

      January 26, 2015 at 21:21

      Or they skipped Windows 9 cus it was gonna be good

      Reply

      • Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7

        January 27, 2015 at 08:47

        oH NO!!!!!!

        Reply

  3. Ghost In The Rift

    January 26, 2015 at 15:44

    So games will be compatible with Windows 10 on launch?

    Reply

    • Tosh MA

      January 26, 2015 at 15:44

      What I really want in Windows 10 is the ability to play my old Win 95 and Win 98 games from the disk. This would avoid me having to buy the games again IF they’re ever released on GoG

      Reply

      • Ghost In The Rift

        January 26, 2015 at 15:47

        yeah,like i still cant play homeworld 2 on my windows 7;(

        Reply

        • Tosh MA

          January 26, 2015 at 15:48

          Yeah I have a box full of games that I can’t play. I want to, but thanks Windows for essentially rendering all my golden oldies useless.

          Reply

          • Ghost In The Rift

            January 26, 2015 at 15:50

            i just hope we can customize how our windows 10 will look, i’m not a fan of the “flat” UI lol

          • Tosh MA

            January 26, 2015 at 15:52

            Agreed. I love customisation. Changing stuff is part of the PC experience. 🙂

        • TwinStripeUK

          January 26, 2015 at 20:29

          Remasters are out in a month’s time… So you can then (as long as you don’t mind paying for it)!

          Reply

  4. Ryanza

    January 26, 2015 at 15:44

    AMD’s Mantle pushed Microsoft to take Direct X 12 seriously and to fucking release it.

    So what’s going to happen to Mantle now? Does the developer pick one or the other? Can they work together? If so, what’s the benefits?

    Reply

  5. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    January 26, 2015 at 15:54

    Pffft I’ll stick with Windows XP and Direct X 9.0c, like the end level boss that I am.

    Reply

    • FoxOneZA

      January 26, 2015 at 17:16

      And play FIFA 99 like a boss.

      Reply

  6. Jackie

    January 26, 2015 at 16:06

    I’m Running The tech preview build 9901 and its pretty solid with games from way back. Best windows so far, still some stability and bug fixes needed, obviously.

    Reply

  7. I_am_Duffman!

    January 26, 2015 at 17:48

    Might be a stupid question, but will older graphics cards work with DX12? Or will there be a new batch of cards that will support this?

    Reply

    • TwinStripeUK

      January 26, 2015 at 20:43

      Not stupid at all… the answers are ‘Yes’ and … ‘Yes’!

      Older cards (DX10 and up) should notice some minor speed improvements due to the efficiencies of the new code (up to around 50% in some cases.

      Newer cards get an even better deal with anything up to 400% increase in draw call speeds if the new 3DMark API tests are to be believed!

      https://ll.ms-studiosmedia.com/events/2015/1501/Windows10CP/live/Windows10CP.html

      (Phil Spencer starts his talk about 1:09 (yes, it’s a two hour presentation!), but 1:16:32 is where the DX12 stuff starts)

      Reply

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