Back in 2014 Microsoft finalized the DirectX 12 API and NVIDIA stated that all of its current hardware is compatible with the new API. At that time NVIDIA GPUs were based on Maxwell, Kepler and Fermi architecture. While Maxwell and Kepler supported DirectX 12 after a few weeks, Fermi didn't receive any update until today. With the new 384.76 drivers, NVIDIA has finally added DirectX 12 support for Fermi GPUs.


This feature hasn't been listed in the changelog so far but thanks to the Guru3D forum user "maur0" we now know that Fermi is Direct3D version 12 compatible. According to the him, his NVIDIA GTX 570 can now run benchmarks like 3DMark Time Spy DX12 without any issues.

For comparison reasons, a GeForce GTX 580 barely hits 1200 points while the GTX 1050 easily scores up to 2200 points. The poor performance in Time Spy is linked to the fact that the Fermi architecture is only compatible with rudimentary parts of the DirectX 12 API.

Even if it took NVIDIA years to finally release a driver that supports DirectX 12 on Fermi GPUs it's good to see that this has finally been taken care of. If you are playing recent games using a Fermi-based card, that supports both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12, we suggest you head over to NVIDIA’s website, grab the latest driver and give it a shot how your card performs using the DirectX 12 API.




Source: Tewchpowerup