That’s great to hear! 
Hope you are having a great time playing!
You don’t use the ms basic render you need to use your actual drivers for it to work there are two issues at work , the avx issue which is NOT related, and the GPU requirements, some gpus while have a higher number are actually not supported do to not supporting direct x 12 which is what fails.
The failed to initialize graphics device will always occur on windows 8.
to make it work on windows 8, set d2r.exe to windows 7 compatibility mode and make sure your drivers are fully up to date. Certain drivers will still generate the error.
The game will launch with a black screen and the screen will only update when the cursor or something else draws over it. To deal with this, close out all processes including explorer.exe that generate any kind of window, (even a hidden window like elgato game capture devices make) then with d2r as the only program, just hold alt+tab down while you play so it constantly re-selects it as the active window . you cannot type or use any other hot keys like this as you are holding down alt. Since the game starts in full screenmode you will have to deal with slowly refreshing it with alt tabing in and out until you can reach the options to set windowed mode
Edit:
I used the program in this youtube video and can now play almost perfectly in windows 8 while running the game in windows 7 compatibility mode.
The program allows the screen to fresh normally, but it cannot be tabbed out of, and explorer must still be closed, fortunately it has an option for it. I added d2r to the text file. the only problem I have now is the graphics are now a bit more rippley/wavey they were perfect before, some cinematic sitll black screens, and the cursor has a black box over it and constantly disappears and re-appears/clips in and out. which is a problem I don’t have with the alt tab method, but i can’t talk or use hotkeys without blinding myself temporarily uusing that method. So this program is a step forward. I can almost run it perfectly now.
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Still nothing. Did anyone with this problem try to start it on win10 instead of win8? Did it help?
I’m trying to start it on Win10. Same issue. Already used every solution possilbe. No avail ( Hope today’s fix will make it work.
Howdy!
The error, “Failed to initialize graphics” generally is a sign the system does not meet our system requirements primarily the GPU. In some cases, it can simply be due to extremely out of date Operating System version, drivers, or if the wrong GPU is running the game. I recommend checking the following items:
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Windows 10 is the only operating system supported, make sure Windows 10 is up to date Here.
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Check graphic drivers to ensure they are up to date Here. Note: If you have a laptop or a prebuilt system though it’s recommended to get drivers from the manufacturer depending on the age of the system the manufacturer may have stopped updating their drivers. In that case you may wish to get them directly from AMD, Nvidia or Intel’s site directly for the latest driver. All Intel iGPUs are not supported but we have seen players update their drivers may get the game to run depending in the iGPU this may not work at all.
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Make sure your primary graphics card is running the game. Press (Windows key + Q) type in: Graphic Settings → Select Graphic Settings → Browse → Goto the game folder by default C:\Program Files(x86)\Diablo II: Resurrected → Select: D2R.exe. It should now appear on the list and select Options → Set to high performance.
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Double check your hardware meets our system requirements. Note: Linux, bootcamp, or running the game in a virtual OS is not supported in this case you may wish to start your own thread for that platform to help each other out.
If you have done all the troubleshooting above and strongly believe your system meets our requirements, feel free to place a ticket with our support team so we can help you out Here.
Thank you.
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Hey Schizm,
What is your discord? I can try to take a look.
Oh my god! This video really helped, I can play. It is very sad to realize that this “our game only runs on win10” is an artificial limitation.
Thank you, good sir!
- Make sure your primary graphics card is running the game. Press (Windows key + Q) type in: Graphic Settings → Select Graphic Settings → Browse → Goto the game folder by default C:\Program Files(x86)\Diablo II: Resurrected → Select: D2R.exe. It should now appear on the list and select Options → Set to high performance.
Just tried this, it was turned off by default
Well, from what I can tell, all this does is make the GPU run at 99% Usage and somehow made the graphics look worse?.. Quite strange 
The fps remained the exact same. Aka Abysmal.
Im going to switch that off again. Was quite hoping for this one
Just downloaded the game and got the same error.
GTX1080, Win10, 8GB RAM
Tried disabling onboard graphics, running the .exe, compatibility mode etc with no luck.
Given the number of people having this issue and the lack of response from Blizzard is it worth waiting or just ask for a refund?
Explain this to me: I get this error msg on the latest gpu/windows 10 drivers running a gtx1080 - no integrated gpu on processor. Then I tried opening exe directly and it works. Btw the game worked for days and this came up out of nowhere and for no reason after i restarted blizz launcher. Took out an old crappy unupdated for years laptop with a gtx960m garbage card and game runs just fine.
Usually when I see this it means the Nvidia profile is doing something funky. I normally recommend using DDU to do a clean install of the Drivers.
Let us know how things go. Cheers!
My game not open too , Intel core i3 , 8 gb ram , Intel graphics 2gb , why blizzard not make options for slow machines? Is is one game 2000 age
Tried the DDU method and installed a clean version of all the drivers. The problem is still there
Intel Core i7 cpu 860 @ 2.80GHz
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 760
RAM 8.00GB
Windows 10 Pro
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im getting the same problem. i have a I7-6700 also a 1gb GPU (in addition to onboard graphics) and 32gb of ram and windows 10 and i updated my drivers already.
It’s now 8 months later and I’m having the same issue. Has this been fixed?
I have tried removing the GPU and the game launches (albeit runs terrible) on the integrated graphics. I’ve ran DDU, completely cleaning and reinstalling the latest drivers. I’m pretty sure I meet the system requirements.
Why don’t post your specs?
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i5-4460 Processor
Radeon HD 6950 2GB GPU
MSI H81M-E33 Motherboard
DDR3 8GB RAM
When the GPU is removed the game starts right up. Not playable but starts. When the video card is in I get the error.
Update* I replaced the Radeon HD 6950 with an GTX 1060 6GB and I actually have 4GB DDR3 RAM . It started right up and runs with everything on ultra…so don’t let anyone tell you “system requirements” BC it was the GPU not the RAM that was the issue (even though the Radeon HD 6950 should run it…In the end I’m pleased with the card upgrade but Blizzard should figure out why certain cards don’t work. Is it AMD cards ?
I had the same issue with my AMD Radeon R9 200-series card. The only quirk was I installed the game on another disk and folder than the pre-populated one. When I ran the game directly by executing the d2r.exe-file everything worked.
Hey do you know which two windows updates you had to download for Windows 7 to get it running?