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WDDM 1.2 best practices

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To deliver the best experience in Windows 8 and later, Windows takes advantage of the graphics hardware paired with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.2 or later driver. This section summarizes the best practices.

System manufacturers:

  • Ensure the following cases are fully tested and work well with your system configurations:
    • Compatible with Microsoft Basic Display Driver
    • Updates on servers that don't need a reboot
  • Design new servers with WDDM hardware and adopt the relevant WDDM driver type that best suits your customer's needs.
  • Work with graphics hardware vendors to get certified WDDM 1.2 drivers for validation.
  • For headless systems:
    • System firmware should set the VGA Not Present flag in the IAPC_BOOT_ARCH field of the Fixed ACPI Description Table (FADT), and if there is any VBIOS, it should implement an empty mode list through the VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE).
    • In the absence of VBE support, the headless system should not represent a working display through the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Graphics Output Protocol (GOP).
  • See Windows hardware certification for validation and testing information.
  • Test a variety of hardware configurations on both desktops and mobile systems to ensure a solid end-user experience on Windows 8 and later.

Graphics hardware vendors:

  • Work with Microsoft to develop WDDM 1.2 drivers.
  • Test pre-release WDDM 1.2 drivers on Windows 8 and later.
  • Provide updated WDDM 1.x drivers to Microsoft for deployment through Windows Update.
  • In addition to the Windows certification test suite, validate graphics and gaming performance, application compatibility, and various self-host scenarios on each ASIC family.
  • Test WDDM 1.0 and 1.1 drivers on Windows 8 and later.
  • Make the full retail package for WDDM 1.2 drivers available as early as possible.

Independent software vendors (ISVs):

  • Test existing and upcoming Microsoft DirectX games with WDDM 1.2 drivers on Windows 8 and later.
  • Test individual applications on Windows 8 and later.
  • Take advantage of the Windows 8 DirectX feature improvements.