The tech won't be released for Windows 7 so games will have to make due with DirectX 11

Nov 13, 2012 07:34 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has confirmed that only gamers running its new Windows 8 operating system will be able to take advantage of the new DirectX 11.1 technology, as it has no plans to bring it to Windows 7 or Vista.

For PC games the DirectX 3D graphics API is quintessential as it creates a framework for titles to use the computer’s resources, no matter how varied its components might be.

With every new OS, Microsoft has updated the DirectX tech, jumping from DirectX 9 in Windows XP, to 10 in Vista or 11 in Windows 7.

With the recently released Windows 8, Microsoft has made a smaller leap to just DirectX 11.1. However, unlike DirectX 11 that came out with Windows 7 and was then ported over to Vista, Microsoft has confirmed that 11.1 won’t be brought over to 7.

“DirectX 11.1 is part of Windows 8, just like DirectX 11 was part of Windows 7,” a Microsoft representative wrote on the company’s Answers forums. “DirectX 11 was made available for Vista but at this point there is no plan for DirectX 11.1 to be made available on Windows 7.”

Will DirectX 11.1 force you to upgrade to Windows 8 or are you going to stick with Windows 7 and DirectX 11?