Report: DirectX 12 To Be Exclusive To Windows 10, NVIDIA Lists DX12 Compatible GPUs

Since its initial announcement, a lot of PC gamers wondered whether DX12 would be exclusive to Microsoft’s new operating system or not. Well, it seems that this new API will be indeed exclusive to Windows 10.

[Double Toasted]

W10 is a free upgrade, so........

[john2]

free upgrade for the first year (whatever that means. TBH the way the put it seems like Win10 will have a subscription fee)

[Pandamobile]

Your Windows 7 and 8 product keys, if redeemed in the first year of Windows 10 will grant you a full license to Windows 10.

Windows 10 will also not be a subscription service. It's a one-time buy apparently.

http://www.pcgamer.com/micr...

[john2]

@Pandamobile: Ah thanks for the link, can't edit the comment. It was really confusing the way they put it. Glad it's not such a thing.

[andibandit]

that ROCKS!!

thanks for the info

[Wizard_King]

God damn it I hate MS for this BS. There is no other reason not to implement DX12 on Win 7 and 8 other than the dirty money.

Even if they are giving you a free Win 10 licence with you old key they still are only doing it to shove their stupid store right in your face every time you switch on just to get at your wallet again and again. I can see unwanted Office 365 (mail and the Office suite), the app store, Skype, One Drive, Xbox Music/Video, and probably Xbox Live Gold being shoved in my face with no way to rid them.

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHH HHHH!

At least when they dropped DX10 support for XP it was semi legit with tech issues. But this is just crap.

I don't want your pathetic touch screen BS OS that looks like your tying to copy Apple, Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit is about as good as it gets for a PC gaming OS.

If only we could get a reliable OS that didn't take coding knowledge to use and ran all my current games and programs the same way Win 7 does and I'd jump straight away. Linux is to much effort and Steam OS doesn't support all the programs and games, the other free solutions are not that great either. Pity.

[3-4-5]

"whatever that means" ?

It means from the time it releases you have 365 days to download it for free.

How didn't you "grasp" that ?

[falviousuk]

Surprisingly a lot of people seem not to understand that.

The tin foil hat brigade or the MS haters are just doing their usual BS.

Win 10 will be sub based blah blah.

its fairly easy to understand, you get to upgrade from win7,8,8.1 for free for the first year after release, after that you will have to purchase a license just like normal.

This is just a way for MS to get most people moved over to windows 10 easily and quickly.

And why not. Win 10 runs nicely, I've been running the insider release for a while and it runs very well. The desktop is as the same as in win 7 but the start menu is far better than before.

best of both worlds.

[awi5951]

It's not that simple allot of programs, games, antivirus and a whole lot of other crap wont transfer. It will be corrupted because windows suck and you will be stuck redownloading huge files.

[crazychris4124]

Free upgrade offer that lasts a year for Win 7, 8, 8.1 users. Its sounds great but how are they going to be making money??

[XB1_PS4]

They'll figure it out.

[Volkama]

Office 365 (mail and the Office suite), the app store, Skype, One Drive, Xbox Music/Video, and probably Xbox Live Gold...

[ElementX]

I'm guessing corporate site licenses don't apply for the upgrade.

[Testfire]

Bingo. When support for XP dropped MS must have raked in a butt load. When you're dealing with corporations you must have a secure OS. They'll probably drop support for Vista soon, which will force some to upgrade now, others will follow soon.

But who cares, if its one thing MS knows, its how to make money.

[rpgenius420]

@testfire

They kept the updates for XP going for corporations only so they can still be "secure" so get your facts straight.

[Sonital]

@Testfire and rpgenius

Actually they only keep the updates going for corporations who exclusively pay for custom support.

Likewise "they'll probably drop support for Vista soon", Vista support timelines are well known to expire April 11, 2017 in line with the 10 year lifecycle with most products.

Source: http://windows.microsoft.co...

[Madrigal]

@Crazy
Still at it, I see.

[CptVimes]

They'll make money off every new pc, tablet and mobile sold with Windows 10 integrated.

[Gh05t]

Not to mention the whole point of doing the free upgrade is so they don't spend more money developing windows 7, 8.1, and 10 versions of "every" app.

Of course they will have to for some but this will dramatically reduce development costs.

Its not always about making money... in the long run they are thinking about how much money they will save in development.

[No_Limit]

"Its sounds great but how are they going to be making money?? "

Be put on a list of organizations that needed help on the Bill and Melinda Gates Charity foundation. LOL

Seriously, MS is in the same old Razor blade business. give away the Razor and hope to make it back on razor blade sales. Their main goal is to unify and integrate as many devices as possible so apps, services, and other programs will run smoothly between platforms...which means more Office, Skpe, Xbox Live Gold, sales because when the next version of office is out with a bunch of new and cool features like holographic enabled, it will most likely only works with Windows 10; thus, it will sell more copies and drive in more subscribers for the online cloud version that can be use on PCs, tablets, phones, and might even work Xb1 as well due to Windows 10 being unify. More hardware = more adaptation and sales. Business 101.

This is like the 8th time you had asked the question, LOL, what is your motive?

[IrishSt0ner]

When everybody moves to WX they'll stop W7 having a XP style longetivity. After the first year everyone will recommend WX, so from that point on it will be seen as the best OS in the market (mobile, tablet & computer). Won't take long for Android and iOS to lose a lot of ground to WX. Unification is here. As for making money, owning all the device OS market equals big cash.

[Thehyph]

I don't think Google or Apple have to worry about losing ground to a new Windows.

You could argue that Windows 8 was supposed to do what you're implying, but not much ever changed in the mobile space.

I'm very certain that Windows 10 will be better than Windows 8, but there will still be a division as long as both ARM and x86 architecture devices exist.

The only way for real unification would be to cut out phones and the RT version of Surface.

Given Google's tendency towards heavy subsidization, Microsoft would have to incur losses on licensing their OS for handsets for a long while to even attempt to take ground away from Google.

Tldr: this won't hurt Apple or Google in any serious means.

[Peanuts110]

They are switching to a subscription base system. It's going to be like what they are doing with Microsoft Office. You'll have to pay an annual subscription fee to continue to use OS and receive updates.

[sorane]

That's not true at all. Windows 10 will be fully usable for as long as you own it without any fees.

[Death]

They make money on new PC sales. If the Xbox One ships with a version, it's not free for the division. OS royalties/license fees are included in the manufacturing costs of the console.

[BluFish]

Supporting legacy OS's is actually pretty expensive.

[slasaru01]

This is upgrade cost to customers. With new PCs vendors still have to buy windows, i think. And corporations as well.

[SJPFTW]

From PC manufacturers mostly, since they have to buy the license.

[Guwapo77]

@ CrazyChris - It's like a drug dealer giving you your first hit for free. They know their product will have you coming back for more. Basically, Microsoft is confident this is the OS to get.

[the_dark_one]

Is it just me or that pic says 2014? Did we go back a year or something??

[nae2shabby]

It's a picture for DX12's introduction at the Games Developers Conference back in March 2014.

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

Sony uses a modified version of DX11 in it's SDK, so I know the claim that DX12 will be exclusive to Windows is nonsense. It should be a rumor and the title should be formed into a question instead of a statement of affirmation.

http://www.geek.com/games/s...

[Dabigsiebowski]

Sony does not use a modified version of DX11. They use their own API partly based off of Mantle from AMD. They've been over this time and time again. Looks like a clickbait article from before the console was actually out!

[IGiveHugs2NakedWomen]

It's obvious you have no idea what you're talking about since this information is readily available all over the internet and in the link I posted:

1. "The good news doesn’t stop there, though. Developers will be able to take advantage of Microsoft’s latest industry standard DirectX API — DirectX 11.1, but Sony has taken the time to improve upon it, pushing the feature set beyond what is available for PC games development."

"That’s achieved not only through a modified DirectX 11.1 API, but also a secondary low-level API specifically for the PS4 hardware."

http://www.geek.com/games/s...

2. Information Directly from Sony/Playstation:
http://develop.scee.net/fil...

Titled: Unlocking The Potential Of The Playstation 4

On page 32 of the presentation and I quote:

"Low level Graphics API (GNM)
1.Builds directly command buffers to feed to the GPU

2.Resembles DirectX and OpenGL without sacrificing efficiency

3.Pre-build and reuse data structure as much as possible

4.Application is in charge of memory management
Synchronization primitives

5.Enhanced performance by bypassing costly DirectX limitations and bottlenecks"

The Playstation 4 uses a low level API, named GNM, and a high level API named GNMX, in which the low level API(GNM) is based on DirectX11/OpenGL (Open Graphics Library).

Like I said, this story should be a rumor posed in the form of a question not a statement of affirmation. Thanks again for clicking the links and reading the information in them.

[Death]

Sony is using a modified version of DX 11.1. Has anyone confirmed DX 11.2 released for the PS4? Last I seen 11.2 was exclusive to the Xbox One and Windows 8.1. With DX 12 being Windows 10 exclusive, there is the possibility PS4 won't be getting it.

[RegorL]

@IGiveHu Do you know why any efficient graphics API have to resemble DirectX and OpenGL?

It is because hardware itself resembles DirectX and OpenGL as hardware developers have tried to improve their performance of programs using those APIs. On PC the most important API has been DirectX...

A low level graphics API that did not reseble DirectX/OpenGL would have done something wrong...

[Pogmathoin]

Regor, hugs has no idea what he is talking about.... Anyone can google and attach links..... I am no expert, and to be honest, as long as something plays good and looks good, I do not care what is under the hood... I am not going to waste your time with other peoples theorys copy and pasted here.

[Ps4andxb1]

Sony uses open cl which can process the same things dx does but in its own way.

Almost a bit like reverse engineering stuff.

[ginsunuva]

OpenCL id for doing mathematical computations on GPUs, not a graphics library.

[GameDev1]

Sony uses their own custom made DX11 though in the PS4 which likely means it won't have same api code for an upgrade to DX12

But no there is no way DX12 is coming to anything else except for windows 10, except Sony wants custom it again but it wont be for PS4 definitely

Sony already uses their own custom Open GL api too, so no need for DX12 anyway

@Dabigsiebowski

lol, who told you that? Sony api is nothing based off Mantle, that is exclusive to AMD and PC

@Ps4andXb1

It is nothing at all like reverse engineering, it is their own custom built open gl with completely different api code to DX

[ravencry]

PS4 uses OpenGL not DirectX or Mantle

@Ps4andxb1 its OpenGL not OpenCL

OpenCL means gpu is used in renderering instead of cpu ( GPGPU) Its not efficient or nor accurate but faster than cpu rendering

OpenGL is api

[strangeaeon]

I love the smell of salt and desperation in the morning. You are truly the model of a fanboy.Bububut Sony will have it to!

[ShottyGibs]

That's interesting.. You think MS would let Sony use their Direct X code.
sony uses an modified open standard.. OpenGL.. Nothing to do with direct X mate

[iNFAMOUZ1]

Wow phil spencer is taking xbox one and pc back to its throne, phil 4 president????

[hasamalaha]

You think just because Phil presented something it was his idea?

[Perjoss]

Let me guess, Halo 3 coming to PC also as a win10 exclusive...

[Sonital]

Yeah, only way that'll happen is if the MCC can be streamed to PC ;)

[Sgt_Slaughter]

Wasn't planning on upgrading to Windows 10 until I got a newer laptop... but the free upgrade just sealed the deal for an upgrade.

Also I'd imagine Windows 10 makes older PC's a it faster, even if it's just on start up and running general tasks. (Same with Windows 8 and 8.1)

[traumadisaster]

In the past performance dropped on older pcs, and there was a ram requirement...

[brads4]

Most recent Windows versions have been far more optimized and stable. You are thinking about the Vista from XP upgrade cycle. Not the case now! Windows 7+ are really well optimized. I bet 10 is even better and will improve performance, just like both 7 and 8 did on comparable hardware.

[jhoward585]

Man, I have a bad feeling about Sony's new upcoming API. The Mix and matching of DX11 codes and Sony's own proprietary coding combined might complicate things...

One thing that is for sure, No one other than MS knows more about their API than they do. MS's DX12 is 100% of their own software engineering so they could have an advantage this year.

I could be wrong, we'll have to wait and see.

[nitus10]

Since DX is propriety to Microsoft, Sony would be stupid to use it when OpenGL available in binary and source form for free.

Sure Microsoft software developers may know DX but Sony also has software developers who know OpenGl so a software performance improvement in DX can be cancelled out with a software improvement in OpenGl.

The bottom line is the PS4 still has the better hardware specifications and that is something that cannot be beaten unless the competing hardware is changed.

[HeMan76]

@IGiveHugs2NakedWomen

Please stop.GNM is completely an OGL based API and has nothing to do with DX.DX12 has league its own by interacting all cores of the CPU with the GPU.The games coming with dx12 is going to be a visual showcase for XO and if Sony can not answer it we will see mp games look and run much better than PS4 counterparts.Thats it.

[jhoward585]

I really don't know what to believe. Some sites says Sony's are using DX and some sites say they aren't using DX. Well, according to naughty Dog it seems they are...

http://gearnuke.com/naughty...

[IrishSt0ner]

What? That link they talk about DX12, nothing about Sony using it, becuase they don't and won't.

[ShottyGibs]

It would be a cold day in hell before MS let Sony use their proprietary Direct X.

[blackout]

More fake Sony fans defending there a api than there are people talking about the exclusive dx 12 for Microsoft. The pony will always come out to play. Do any of you have a job or do you all just wait for great thing about Microsoft to come up on this site and down play what they have done. B!TcHez will be B!TcHeZ I see. Great job Ms. If Sonys api was so great why did they even use dx11. Sony is all hard wear and TRASH for software.

[ipar1]

So with the XBO now with 50% more power with DX12 does this mean the XBO is now more powerful than the PS4.

[yuukiliu]

XO isn't 50% more powerful because of DX12.

[Spid3r6]

Last I heard PS4 was 30% more powerful than the Xbox One. I think now with the leaks showing that the Xbox One is opening a new core and DX12 optimizing it further the gap might get smaller. From what I hear the Xbox One was built with DX12 in mind so this should finally yield some great performances out of the Xbox one. The biggest advantage would be the ease of porting from PC to Xbox One and vice versa. They can leverage this into landing huge franchises by telling developers that they have access to Millions of gamers if they create Xbox One console exclusive along with the promise to make a PC version within days. That is right it will take days to make port due to DX12.

[Phoenix76]

@ipar lmao yeah mate..... In the same way that "the cloud" will give every xb1 owner 8times the power! /s

[DomceM]

Yawn. Linux mint >>>> anything microsoft can come up with

Now if they just release ubuntu phone soon.
..

[strangeaeon]

After reading your post I have to take a shower to wash the geek off. Seriously, they still make you?

[kingduqc]

The features new in windows 10 are features that are literally 5-6 years old on any linux distro. I don't use LUNIX distros because I can't play every games but if I could I would 100% be on it because "Linux mint >>>> anything microsoft can come up with" is 100% true.

[nitus10]

Surprisingly there are quite a few geeks that read this site and not all of them are into PC gaming (myself included) preferring console gaming instead.

As for Linux being better than Microsoft's Operation System that is a debate that really depends on what the user is comfortable with in a OS and like it or not the most dominate OS on the desktop is a Microsoft OS.

The situation is basically reversed when you look at smartphones and low end tablet market. Here the Android OS based on the Linux kernel dominates although the iPhone with it's BSD Unix based OS is also very popular as well.

@kingduqc

While I do agree with you to a certain extent PC gamers will still choose the Microsoft OS because that is the OS where the games they like are the developed and it's IMO easier to stick with one OS then to dual boot.

Looking at the gaming market today you have one one hand the PC which is predominately Microsoft centric while on the other hand you have the console market which is shared between Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

There is another market and one that is worth billions of dollars and that is Android (Linux based) and Apple (IOS - BSD/Unix based). In this market you can find 100's of thousands of applications and games some free many not.

Is it possible to port Android applications to the Linux based PC? Yes it is but the market is just not there so most vendor won't bother, however you can get Android emulators for Linux although I have not tried them so I cannot comment.

[DomceM]

Using linux is more geeky than using windows? Lol.
The fail of logic in some people is pretty big.

Its actually easier to use and more user friendly than windows. So it sounds to me like you are the geek here.

http://linuxmint.com/

[andibandit]

All those great games on Linux...

Yawn indeed

[DomceM]

Valve is releasing their own OS that is based on debian linux. Hundreds of games have been ported already, including Dota, CS:go, borderlands, etc. Other huge games are on the horizon (star citizen is getting a linux client).

And all of this has happened in a single year simply because of valve. I am not worried about game support.

[andibandit]

@DomceM

"Just wait till we get more support", the eternal cry of the linux user, keep waiting, i'll be where the games are.

Wake me up when you get into the thousands and get some games from this decade

[Sonital]

...Comes to a Windows 10 article to post about Linux. That's cool, there's never many gaming-Linux articles so welcome..

[nitus10]

I have my guru creds ready and I find Fedora better. That said I am not going to try every Linux distribution since there are too many. Normally you pick the one you like and stick to it and they all use the same Linux kernel.

If you are not into PC Gaming or playing "Games for Windows" then most Linux Distributions are IMHO better than Microsoft Windows however you really need to qualify that since Microsoft Windows has more applications as well as more virus, worms and Trojans :)

Like it or not but "most" people who buy a PC get one with the latest Microsoft OS on it (in some circles known as the "Microsoft Tax") and "most" people can't or won't install a Linux Distribution on that PC.

If you are a PC gamer the incentive to install Linux is virtually zero although it is possible to dual boot but from personal experience this is rather pointless since you normally stay in the OS that you play games on.

[DomceM]

if you are a pc gamer the incentive to install linux is huge, because if you have the mental capacity that is larger than a mouse you build your own gaming PCs and dont buy from a company.

That means you avoid the MS tax and spend the money on better hardware or games instead.

Purchasing inferior software is a waste of time. So is Windows Metro tile interface.

[DougLord]

True, but both Xone (50% increase) and PS4 (no increase) fans need to check out a Mantle review on a low end AMD CPU at 1080p. In Battlefield 4 it gives 10%-25% boost to framerates.

Now PS4 fans will harp about Xone already being coded to metal, but I want them to show me physical evidence of all 8 cores being equally loaded. They can't. At most games right now are using 4 of 8 cores. 2 for the OS. 1 to feed the GPU (because that's all Dx11 allows) and 1 for AI.

Sony will eventually do something like this. But look at the time gap between Mantle and dX12. And if you think MSFT will allow any non MSFT OS run dX12 you are an idiot.

If Sony just would have licensed Windows from MSFT there wouldn't even be a Xbox.

[Mikeyy]

I moved from Vista to 8.1 about 7 months ago and I'm still getting used to it. It's fine now that I know it really well, but I'm not ready for 10 already... but if it's a free upgrade I'd be stupid not to do it.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

LOL...I know what you mean about getting used to things. I did an upgrade to 8 for cheap. I skipped over the "tutorial" like a typical dude would thinking I can figure it all out easy enough. I spent a good half hour trying to figure out where the power off icon was since there was no system "start / menu" button in the lower corner for that first build.

[jmc8888]

Is that FREE FOR THE FIRST YEAR, or you can upgrade for free for the first year before the upgrade path disappears.

There's a big difference between the two.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Pretty sure its the later....once it launches on the market you will have a year to upgrade 7 and 8.1 for free. After that first year the OS will have a purchase cost.

[Revengeance]

LMAO Xbox drones on here acting like DX12 is the savior. It's not going to make the hardware stronger than PS4's. All it will do is increase the performance and make development easier.

Damn it's like every Phil say something they think it's the second coming.

[trywizardo]

does that mean i can use it with my GT635m ?!

[bleedsoe9mm]

anyone have a list of what graphics card use Fermi, Kepler, and Maxwell GPUs

[Gamer187]

The biggest thing I got from, that presentation is there will be no more "Xbox" exclusives

[no_more_heroes]

The mind sees what it chooses to see...

[Antifan]

When was there ever any "exclusives" for the Xbox besides Halo and Gear?

[1nsomniac]

So is this going to be another Windows Vista DX10 disaster?

When Microsoft claimed it was impossible to run DX10 under anything lower than Vista until hackers found the simple disable codes hidden in the OS/DX & released the stupidly simple fix to bypass it until Microsoft eventually crumbled & removed the requirement altogether & tried to cover up the lie.

[urwifeminder]

Nice thanks for the free upgrade MS a bit of salt coming from pirated windows owners.Nice that my cards are ready bring it on the best of win 7 and 8 looks great.

[Maxor]

Essentially this a free patch for all existing Windows 8 users. MS just made it sound awesome by branding it as another OS. I just gotta give props to MS for this move, it's a brilliant PR. The lure of free Windows will bring millions back to the fold.