You weren't expecting this: Windows 7 gets DirectX 12 support

World of Warcraft has been around since 2004 — no less than five years before Windows 7 became generally available, and even before the release of Windows Vista. Last year, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth received DirectX 12 support (only in Windows 10, obviously). Now, the time has come for the WoW players still stuck with Windows 7 to enjoy the DirectX 12 visual treats in their favorite game.

Released yesterday, the patch 8.1.5 made Blizzard the first game developer to use DirectX 12 for Windows 7. According to Microsoft's Jianye Lu, "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."

This surprising move comes as an answer to the feedback that Microsoft received from both Blizzard and the many WoW players still spending long hours in the game nowadays, more than 14 years since its first iteration came out. However, the user mode D3D12 runtime that was ported from Windows 10 does not take full advantage of all optimizations present in Microsoft's latest Windows release, so DirectX 12 titles might run at least a bit slower in Windows 7.

Unfortunately, there is no information on other titles that will get DirectX 12 support in Windows 7, but Microsoft has confirmed that other game developers are already working with the Redmond giant to bring their D3D12 games to Windows 7. Are you still using Windows 7? Which DirectX 12 title would you like to see in Windows 7 first?