Windows 10 DirectX 12 exclusive to Wondows 10 and 8.1

[kemical]

It seems DirectX 12 will only be available to those running Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, so if the API lives up to its name, and game developers make full use of it, this may finally be reason enough for gamers to upgrade from Windows 7.

Ref:
http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsofts-directx-12-api-set-will-reportedly-not-be-available-windows-7

The good news is the cards like Nvidia 600 series and AMD's 7000 series can run DX12 so it won't be a case of upgrading although I've heard this before with previous DX releases and it seems the devs always manage to find a way of making it exclusive to a series of card. I hope this time it's the other way round.

 

[ussnorway]

I'm fine with this as long as the DX12 adds something worth the upgrade...
no games have stepped up yet to say they will back it.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Well I have a GTX 690 so we'll see what happens when DX 12 games appear.
I have the new Dragon Age game pre-ordered but I don't know if it will support DX 12 but I doubt it at this point.

 

[kemical]

The wiki guide has this to say about what DX12 will bring to the table... Sounds exciting:

DirectX 12 has been announced by Microsoft at GDC on the 20th of March 2014 and is targeted for Holiday 2015 games.[44] The main goal of Direct3D 12 is to reduce driver overhead, similarly to AMD's Mantle (API);[45] in the words of lead developer Max McMullen, the goal is to achieve "console-level efficiency".[46] Windows 10 will ship with DirectX 12.[47]

DirectX 12 will be essentially supported on all Fermi and later Nvidia GPUs, on AMD's GCN-based chips and on Intel's Haswell and later processors' graphics units.[45]

At SIGGRAPH 2014, Intel released a demo showing a computer generated asteroid field, in which DirectX 12 was claimed to be 50%-70% more efficient than DirectX 11 in rendering speed and CPU power consumption.[4

Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX

 

[kemical]

More information has leaked about the abilities of DX12:

Windows 10 will be coming with DirectX 12. DirectX 12 is the first version of DirectX that really uses multiple processors cores more effectively in term getting that render latency down. Two slides indicating exactly that have just leaked onto the web.

What this means to you

Next time you watch Jurassic Park or Phantom Menace, please realize that the CGI in those movies can be done in real-time today. However, most graphics engines in games still render scenes very differently than in movies. That’s because it’s only recently been possible to create real-world fidelity in real-time. But a modern machine with DirectX 12 (or Mantle) could do real-time visuals in a game that is as good as you would get in say Lord of the Rings.

Ref and full article:
http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/directx-12-vs-directx-11-performance-slides.html