Fermi Gets DirectX 12 Support

[SteelCrysis]

https://www.techpowerup.com/234835/nvidi...chitecture

With its latest GeForce 384 series graphics drivers, NVIDIA quietly added DirectX 12 API support for GPUs based on its "Fermi" architecture, as discovered by keen-eyed users on the Guru3D Forums. These include the GeForce 400-series and 500-series graphics cards. The support appears to be sufficient to run today's Direct3D feature-level 12_0 games or applications, and completes WDDM 2.2 compliance for GeForce "Fermi" graphics cards on Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703), which could be NVIDIA's motivation for extending DirectX 12 support to these 5+ year old chips. Whether they meet your games' minimum system requirements is an entirely different matter.

[SteelCrysis]

http://techreport.com/news/32191/nvidia-...directx-12

The poor performance in Time Spy is likely attributable (at least to some degree) to the fact that almost none of the DirectX 12 API features are supported by the old Fermi hardware. Some folks coaxed user1 into running the DX12 Feature Checker on his laptop's GPU, and the resulting list is an excellent exercise in the many ways of reading the word "no." Still, even if the performance isn't great, DX12 support for these old cards means that they can stay in service for years to come. Also, simpler DX12 titles that aren't as demanding as benchmarks won't simply bomb out on otherwise-capable cards, like Vulkan apps forever will.

If you've still got a space heater Fermi GPU pressed into service and your favorite DX12 game is crashing out to the Windows desktop, head on over to Nvidia's website to grab the latest driver.