Whether your video hardware is DirectX 11 compatible is a little tricky to answer.

As we’ll explain in the next section, this could cause performance implications in Windows 8. Many older PCs have video hardware that’s simply not fully compatible with DirectX 11. But our PCs may not be able to handle all the features of the newest version at all. Sure, it’s likely that we all have the latest version of DirectX on our systems. Is DirectX 11 supported by my video hardware? Run Windows Update and be sure and look in the Optional Updates, if it’s not in Important Updates.

If you don’t have DirectX 11, it’s a good idea to get it.

Under System Information, look at the DirectX version.

(Officially, the last version for Windows XP is DirectX 9.) If you’d like to check on that:

If you run Windows Update regularly, you likely have DirectX 11 installed, as this is the most current version on Windows Vista and Windows 7. What version of DirectX do I have on my PC? So it’s important to know two things: whether your PC has the latest version, and whether your hardware can support the latest version - DirectX 11.1. Though originally designed for games, DirectX has now become important for users of other applications or Windows in general - especially Windows 8.

DirectX scales the multimedia experience on a system based on its hardware. In plain language, DirectX allows any application to learn what your PC is capable of, and then adjusts the application’s settings to run best on that PC. Under System Information, determine your DirectX version.ĭirectX is Microsoft’s set of APIs, or application programming interfaces, that handle multimedia on Microsoft PCs.

Directx 11.1 download