#1

After we saw the performance gains of using multi-threaded rendering in DirectX 12 for the initial Tides of Vengeance update, we worked together with Microsoft and our hardware vendors to bring similar performance gains to our Windows 7 users. We are pleased to announce that with today’s content update, World of Warcraft will now support DirectX 12 on Windows 7. This allows our Windows 7 users to take advantage of the performance benefit of using DirectX 12, which was previously only available to our Windows 10 users.

Windows 7 users will need to make sure they have the latest graphics drivers to use DirectX 12. If your GPU supports DirectX 12 on Windows 7, you may enable it by selecting it in the Advanced System settings, under "Graphics API".

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DX 12 is coming to Windows 7
Windows 7 no longer supported
Can't Play WoW anymore with today's patch
World flickering is becoming a problem: solved
Windows 7 no longer supported
#2
#3

Just read about this over at Tom’s hardware, thank you for getting them to do something they should have done from the start.

1 Like
#4

Very nice of Blizzard to invest the time into this legacy OS even though Win7 will be end of life in January.

#5

Just activated it on my rig and so far I’m really liking what I’m seeing. At least the technical team and art department continue to shine, even in BfA.

As a note, I was getting the “nvidia stopped responding and has recovered” error a lot and this appears to have stopped with the DX12. This is great.

Thank you.

#6

Oooer, I may have to down(up)grade to Win7 now!!!

#7

This should be in announced in the Launcher so everyone on Win7 can make sure to get the updates needed.

2 Likes
#8

Credit when credit is due. Pretty amazing feat of strength for Blizzard.

#9

Win7?

it would be great if DX12 and Win10 worked well enough to allow running the game in full screen, not windowed.

Or we had the option to run DX11 and full screen.

1 Like
#10

Win 7 will not suddenly stop working in January.
That is just the date when MS will stop offering free security updates and patches.

Win 7 will work in the months and years following January just the same as it works now. You just won’t get any more updates.

5 Likes
#11

Right, that’s what end of life means. it will no longer be supported by the vendor. No more bug fixes or security updates. There’s little, if any, financial justification for a software company to invest the resources for Windows 7 software.

#12

My overall FPS went down but became more consistent.

But in the past hour, I’ve had 5 major lockups that last anywhere from 5-20 seconds. Looks like they haven’t worked out all the bugs yet.

2 Likes
#13

This is excellent news for some of my friends that play World of Warcraft on Windows 7 currently.

I know of a few friends that prefer to play on Windows 7 rather than Windows 10 as some of their programs will not work on Windows 10 correctly still.

Glad to see this was added for Windows 7 users though.

#14

Yeah I still use Win7 for various reasons. I have rather sensitive eyes when it comes to bright light, so I have to use a very particular custom shell theme that darkens all windows and text to something much easier to look at it.

There’s also, like you said, many old programs(old games as well) which will work well on windows 7 but won’t work at all/will behave strangely on windows 10.

I also like the very basic environment windows 7. It’s just like windows XP or 2000 but with updated graphics is all. No unnecessary “features.”

3 Likes
#15

On my particular Win7 machine, DX12 runs noticeably worse than DX11 Legacy, but the DX11 multithreaded version runs very well indeed.

DX12 gives me lots of microstutters, likely due to a similar bug to the one that crops up for Mac users occasionally, where textures are streamed from the disk every time they’re needed instead of cached in vram like they should be. But that’s just speculation on my part. The api was ported to a system it wasn’t designed for, so even with latest graphics drivers there’s bound to be some hiccups when using it.

It’s still worth the effort to upgrade to 7, just don’t expect performance to go through the roof by using DX12 instead of 11.

3 Likes
#16

I am using Win 10 on a HP laptop and I cannot use DX12. I had to switch it to DX11 to even see the game. Even after updating drivers and all the suggestions, this is only way I can run the game. Still, there are lots of little annoying bugs. I get randomly dc’ed several times a session. When I log off it takes the game several MINUTES to finally shut down and often it freezes and has to be shut down by WIndows for non response. The lag is still there and very annoyingly in dungeons now as well as the major cities. In fact I know I cannot go anywhere there are lots of others around, as the lag completely freezes me for several seconds at a time. It won’t stop until I am clear of the congested area.

3 Likes
#19

Make sure that it’s Windows 7, 64 bit. Kaivax neglected to mention that they got rid of the Windows 7, 32 bit players when they got rid of the Windows XP and Vista players prior to BfA.

#20

On a daily basis since this update, my Windows 10 system has seen a complete screen freeze for up to 30 seconds. Sometimes, I teleport and just get a black screen but I can hear game sounds that indicate the controls are still working and my only option is to hard quit the game and reload. I’m not sure I’d really call this a ‘win’.

1 Like
#21

Anyone else feel like using DirectX 12 has actually made the game run worse?
Most times FPS has gone way up, getting well over 100 in many situations, but after a few hours of play in 5 mans especially, the game starts getting real inconsistent. Often times getting 15fps then jumping back to 40+.

Don’t know if its just a coincidence or if it would be better to go back to previous directx?

Makes sense to me, because I assume them doing this was probably not perfect so there will be issues.

3 Likes
#22

Yes. My game will literally lock up for 10-15 seconds at a time. It’s insanity.

1 Like