14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just announced that it brings DirectX 12 to Windows 7 specifically to improve the gaming performance in some specific titles.
The first to benefit from this release is World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, as Microsoft says that it worked together with Blizzard to make the whole thing happen.
Blizzard has apparently recorded major performance improvements on Windows 10 thanks to DirectX 12, and the company specifically reached out to Microsoft to see how the same results can be achieved on Windows 7. The result is a Windows 7 version of Direct X 12, which was exclusively released for Windows 10, with no port so far for the previous versions of the operating system.
“At Microsoft, we make every effort to respond to customer feedback, so when we received this feedback from Blizzard and other developers, we decided to act on it,” DirectX program manager Jianye Lu explains.
“Microsoft is pleased to announce that we have ported the user mode D3D12 runtime to Windows 7. This unblocks developers who want to take full advantage of the latest improvements in D3D12 while still supporting customers on older operating systems.“
Other games to follow soon
Blizzard is thus rolling out for the new DirectX version on Windows 7 with game patch 8.1.5 for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, so gamers who haven’t yet upgraded to Windows 10 should see a noticeable framerate boost after installing this update.
Microsoft says it’s already working with other game developers to get support for DirectX 12 on Windows 7, but no specifics can be provided at the moment.
Needless to say, Microsoft reminds everyone that Windows 10 provides much more refined gaming experience thanks to native DirectX 12 implementation.
“Windows 10 has critical OS improvements which make modern low-level graphics APIs (including DirectX 12) run more efficiently. If you enjoy your favorite games running with DirectX 12 on Windows 7, you should check how those games run even better on Windows 10!” it says.