As with Windows Vista, the newest version of Windows brings with it a newer version of Microsoft’s DirectX. Windows 7 was released with Direct X 11 support, and it was initially thought that Direct X 11 support would remain a 7-only technology.
Reports indicate that a platform update is being pushed via Windows Update that will enable DirectX 11 support on Vista PC’s. With an impressive lineup of Direct X 11 games announced which includes Crysis 2 and The Lord of the Rings Online, Vista users will be happy to know that they can go out and purchase a Radeon 5870 and use it to its full potential.
Windows XP users cannot use any DirectX version above 9.0c, as their OS does not support WDDM.
Microsoft has previously assured Vista users that they would not be left in the cold, this move is indicative of such a commitment.
AMD and TSMC gave some demonstrations of the new processing power of the 40nm DirectX11 GPU, in a video with improved detail in character models through tessellation.
That’s not all, the game developers also discussed how a few developers will be taking advantage of DirectX11, allowing developers to better use the hardware through the API:
