AMD HD 7000 Series Doesn’t Fully Support DirectX 11.2, Driver Issues To Blame

AMD Graphics Cards based on the first generation GCN architecture have apparently encountered problems with operating the Direct X 11.2 API according to Heise.de. The Sea Islands and Southern Islands families of GPU currently makes up the HD 7000 and HD 8000 OEM series of desktop graphics card. Apparently they have trouble supporting the new Direct3D component of Direct X 11.2 including D3D tiled resources.

AMD Engineer Laylah Mah stated that the feedback routine Microsoft deployed in the final specification of DX11.2 was different from what AMD had expected. That said the incompatibility is not reported to be at the hardware level but only an issue with drivers. Windows 8.1 will bring Direct X 11.2 so the market for it will be relatively niche unless Windows 8.1 has great success. Direct X 11.2 will also be made available for the Xbox One and because the GPU architecture is fundamentally the same we should eventually see a driver update to fix the problem. It is not known if the PlayStation 4 will be able to leverage the Direct X 11.2 API or whether it will remain a Windows 8.1 and Xbox One exclusive.

Image courtesy of Martin Fischer (Heise.de)