Can't Enable DirectX 12 in WOW

There are a bunch of different issues being reported here at the moment - and we’re also doing some digging into the DirectX 12 issues on some cards. Here’s some more information on what is needed to run DirectX12 on wow’s engine however, for the technically curious.

  1. Windows 7 or 10 is required for DirectX 12. For windows 7 users, ensure that your windows is completely up to date as a new update was released in March of 2019.
  2. The video card must support Tier 3 or higher Resource binding. This means that your GPU has to be on par with or newer than these architectures:
  • AMD: GCN 1
  • NVidia: Maxwell
  • Intel: Skylake
  1. Your graphics drivers need to be fully up to date.
  2. You must NOT be running the game in Compatibility Mode - setting the app to compatibility mode may make it think you are not running Windows 7 or 10 which is requirement 1 for DirectX.

If none of this works, but your PC meets the above requirements, follow the steps in this post to force DirectX 12.

If your directX 12 keeps reverting after running the game as admin, there’s probably something up with your registry or admin permissions. I don’t recommend modifying your registry as Abefroman mentioned, as doing this incorrectly can result in system instabilty. Try creating a new admin instead and see if it works there. The new admin creates a new set of HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry entries without you having to deal with regedit. If you’re an advanced user you can mess with the registry but do so at your own risk.

If you’re still having trouble after trying these steps, I recommend you create your own thread or contact support. This’ll be too complex to troubleshoot all of your errors in one thread.

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