How does the DirectX 12 installation work?

[_TheD0ct0r_]

I am considering upgrading to windows 10, but I want to know 2 things:
1. Upon upgrading from windows 7 to windows 10, will windows 7 be 100% replaced and removed from the hardrive? or will it still be on the hardrive?
2. Upon upgrading, does my current directX 11 get 100% deleted and replaced by directX 12?

 

[why_wolf]

1. yes. Windows 7 will be moved to a folder called old.windows for 30 days in case you want to roll back to it. After that its gone.
2. Yes and no. A new install of Direct X will be there that includes DX11. All your games will still use DX11, only a few use DX12 right now. It will be several years before most new games use DX12.

 

[_TheD0ct0r_]

1. yes. Windows 7 will be moved to a folder called old.windows for 30 days in case you want to roll back to it. After that its gone.
2. Yes and no. A new install of Direct X will be there that includes DX11. All your games will still use DX11, only a few use DX12 right now. It will be several years before most new games use DX12.

so Windows 10 will have both directx 11 and directx 12, but its smart enough to pick which one to use when running a game?

 

[why_wolf]

the game installs direct x, or more specifically the parts of it that it uses, Windows just knows all the API and other related bits so it knows what to do when a game sends it DX commands. Same thing with OpenGL its primary competitor.

 

[_TheD0ct0r_]

the game installs direct x, or more specifically the parts of it that it uses, Windows just knows all the API and other related bits so it knows what to do when a game sends it DX commands. Same thing with OpenGL its primary competitor.

and how much of a performance increase would I get(estimated) when playing a game in windows 10 plus directX12?

 

[why_wolf]

total unknown as that is dependent on the developer of the game and the hardware you have. AMD cards for instance gain more of a bonus than Nvidia cards do from DX12. Though Nvidia cards are better to start with so that really only brings the AMD cards up to parity with them when running under DX12.

If your question is, will installing Windows 10 make my games run faster? The answer is no, not really. DX12 is still young and the few examples of games using it only show small inconsistent gains. Developers have to take the time and effort to unlock its full power, and frankly most will never make that effort. Do not expect a night and day difference.

 

[_TheD0ct0r_]

total unknown as that is dependent on the developer of the game and the hardware you have. AMD cards for instance gain more of a bonus than Nvidia cards do from DX12. Though Nvidia cards are better to start with so that really only brings the AMD cards up to parity with them when running under DX12.

If your question is, will installing Windows 10 make my games run faster? The answer is no, not really. DX12 is still young and the few examples of games using it only show small inconsistent gains. Developers have to take the time and effort to unlock its full power, and frankly most will never make that effort. Do not expect a night and day difference.

ok, thanks. Just wanted to know because if the time does come that I want to upgrade, I want to make sure windows installer knows what its doing and deletes obsolete material before downloading the new stuff so that no issues are caused

 

[why_wolf]

you won't have to do anything differently.