essays

DirectX Coverage with Earliest Supported Runtime

● Native: VPU/GPU drivers target this DX version and VPU/GPU accelerates DX features in hardware
◐ Compatible: VPU/GPU drivers instantiate software orchestration (common) or software emulation (uncommon)
○ Incompatible

Card	Earliest DX install	DX3	DX5	DX6	DX7	DX8	DX9
S3 ViRGE	DX1	●	○	○	○	○	○
Voodoo1	DX3	●	●	○	○	○	○
Voodoo2	DX5	◐	●	○	○	○	○
Banshee (SGRAM)	DX5	◐	●	●	○	○	○
Voodoo3 2000	DX6	◐	◐	●	○	○	○
TNT2 (128-bit)	DX6	◐	◐	●	◐	○	○
Matrox G200	DX6	◐	◐	●	◐	○	○
Savage4 Pro	DX6	◐	◐	●	◐	○	○
Rage 128 Pro	DX6	◐	◐	●	◐	○	○
Matrox G450	DX6	◐	◐	●	◐	○	○
Radeon 7000 (128-bit)	DX6	◐	◐	●	◐	○	○
GeForce2 MX	DX7	◐	◐	◐	●	○	○
GeForce4 MX (128-bit)	DX7	◐	◐	◐	●	○	○
Radeon 7200 (DDR)	DX7	◐	◐	◐	●	○	○
Kyro II (Hercules 4000)	DX7	◐	◐	◐	◐	○	○
GeForce3	DX8	◐	◐	◐	◐	●	○
Radeon 9000	DX8	◐	◐	◐	◐	●	○
Radeon 9200 (128-bit)	DX8	◐	◐	◐	◐	●	○
GeForce FX 5200 (128-bit)	DX9	◐	◐	◐	◐	◐	◐
Radeon 9550 (128-bit)	DX9	◐	◐	◐	◐	◐	●
Radeon 9600 (128-bit)	DX9	◐	◐	◐	◐	◐	●
Radeon 9700 Pro	DX9	◐	◐	◐	◐	◐	●
Radeon X1650	DX9	◐	◐	◐	◐	◐	●
Radeon HD 3650	DX9	◐	◐	◐	◐	◐	●

Note1: Some cards are technically exceptional for having multiple driver sets targeting different DX versions
Note2: Some cards do not target a DX version that they fully implement in hardware

Citation

Computing Culture. Table: DirectX / VPU and GPU Compiled Reference.
Computing Culture Essays, 2026.
https://github.com/computing-culture/essays