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".
Uhhh what sorcery or witchcraft did you guys pull to get DX12 working on an OS that does not support DX12 at all due to factors like an outdated driver framework and Microsoft offering zero support for this? Is this emulated through Vulkan or something?
Did you miss a link in first post to microsoft blogs where they are saying that Win7 got DX12 support or what?
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. 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.
Today, with game patch 8.1.5 for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard becomes the first game developer to use DirectX 12 for Windows 7! Now, Windows 7 WoW gamers can run the game using DirectX 12 and enjoy a framerate boost, though the best DirectX 12 performance will always be on Windows 10, since Windows 10 contains a number of OS optimizations designed to make DirectX 12 run even faster.
We’d like to thank the development community for their feedback. We’re so excited that we have been able to partner with our friends in the game development community to bring the benefits of DirectX 12 to all their customers. Please keep the feedback coming!
FAQ Any other DirectX 12 game coming to Windows 7?
We are currently working with a few other game developers to port their D3D12 games to Windows 7. Please watch out for further announcement.
How are DirectX 12 games different between Windows 10 and Windows 7?
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!
Found a weird bug today with the new patch… it dropped all my graphics settings from ‘10’ to ‘7’… changed back to 10 and it froze wow…
Work around turned out to be change to DX11-legacy, change graphics to 10, then change back to DX12…and somehow it works fine. No idea why it was so broken on DX12 directly.
Can we please have more information on this?
inb4 “windows update”, no thanks, I don’t want more “install windows 10” ads.
a direct link would be awesome if possible.
You would want to go to Microsoft’s site as DX12 is their product. They should have downloads there. However I highly advise doing system updates as they help to close exploits. Not updating your Windows will eventually cause tons of issues. If you are still on Windows 7 then you will need to upgrade by the end of the year anyway as Windows 7 is being end or lifed and will no longer be supported.
So far as I can figure out, Win7 isn’t actually getting a DX12 update. Instead, WoW is simply having a version of it “bundled” with or otherwise baked right into the game.