Enabling DirectX 11 Code Path in WoW?

[Madmick]

I was reading this Tom's Hardware article analyzing graphic performance in WoW, and this page mentioned that enabling DirectX 11 support achieved a ~25-30% increase in FPS performance on the two cards it tested relative to the native DirectX 9 support. He mentions that even on lower end builds, "I've been passing this DirectX 11 flag around to a number of friends with lower-end Core i5 and Core 2 Quad configurations, and they're all seeing roughly 20 frame per second performance boosts.":
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793-7.html

I'm on a Radeon 7750, so I'd like to enable DirectX 11 support. But these instructions he gave aren't clear to me:

Rather, you'll need to add '-d3d11' to your World of Warcraft shortcut. Or, open your config.wtf file (located in ...\World of Warcraft\WTF\) and add the line SET gxApi "d3d11".

What does that mean? How do I "add" '-d3d11' to my World of Warcraft shortcut? I right-clicked on my World of Warcraft launcher icon and selected "Properties". This took me directly to the "Shortcut" tab in properties. I think I'm in the right place, but I don't know what to do.

 

[blackened23]

Have you tried just going in the graphic options and selecting DX11 in game?

 

[Madmick]

Have you tried just going in the graphic options and selecting DX11 in game?

No, he said you couldn't. Here's the full paragraph:

As it turns out, Cataclysm incorporates experimental support for DirectX 11, and rather than adding anything visually, it's designed to help speed up performance, too.

Of course, if you want to take advantage of DirectX 11, you'll need a DX11-capable card from AMD's Radeon HD 5000/6000 lineup or Nvidia's GeForce GTx 400 series. You can't enable DX11 through a graphical option. Rather, you'll need to add '-d3d11' to your World of Warcraft shortcut. Or, open your config.wtf file (located in ...\World of Warcraft\WTF\) and add the line SET gxApi "d3d11".

I should mention that the article is from December 6, 2010.

 

[Dahak]

for the shortcut option, you would right click on the icon and in the target line change
C:\Games\Wow\Wow.exe
to
C:\Games\Wow\Wow.exe -d3d11

and that should be it.

if your shortcut has spaces add the -d3d11 after the quotes ""

"C:\Games\World of Warcraft\Wow.exe" -d3d11

 

[Anubis]

that article is from 2010, the checkbox inside wow for enabling it works fine now, unless they broke it again, it worked in 2011 when i quit

 

[Madmick]

that article is from 2010, the checkbox inside wow for enabling it works fine now, unless they broke it again, it worked in 2011 when i quit

Ah, cool, ty, I'll use that. I'm downloading the game client on this new comp now. I just wanted to be prepared to run DirectX 11 when it was finished.

for the shortcut option, you would right click on the icon and in the target line change
C:\Games\Wow\Wow.exe
to
C:\Games\Wow\Wow.exe -d3d11

and that should be it.

if your shortcut has spaces add the -d3d11 after the quotes ""

"C:\Games\World of Warcraft\Wow.exe" -d3d11

Cool, ty. That was actually my best guess, LOL. Good to understand this for future reference. I wasn't sure if addending anything after the "exe" would break the comp's recognition of the file as an executable program.