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Microsoft unveiled DirectX 11 at the Gamefest 08 event in Seattle, with the major scheduled features including GPGPU support (DirectCompute), and Direct3D 11 with tessellation support[29][30] and improved multi-threading support to assist video game developers in developing games that better utilize multi-core processors.[31] Direct3D 11 runs on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Parts of the new API such as multi-threaded resource handling can be supported on Direct3D 9/10/10.1-class hardware. Hardware tessellation and Shader Model 5.0 require Direct3D 11 supporting hardware.[32] Microsoft has since released the Direct3D 11 Technical Preview.[33] Direct3D 11 is a strict superset of Direct3D 10.1 — all hardware and API features of version 10.1 are retained, and new features are added only when necessary for exposing new functionality. This helps to keep backwards compatibility with previous versions of DirectX.

Microsoft released the Final Platform Update for Windows Vista on October 27, 2009, which was 5 days after the initial release of Windows 7 (launched with Direct3D 11 as a base standard).

DirectX 11.1 is included in Windows 8. It supports WDDM 1.2 for increased performance, features improved integration of Direct2D (now at version 1.1), Direct3D, and DirectCompute, and includes DirectXMath, XAudio2, and XInput libraries from the XNA framework. It also features stereoscopic 3D support for gaming and video.[34] DirectX 11.1 was also partially backported to Windows 7, via the Windows 7 platform update.[35][36]

DirectX 11.2 is included in Windows 8.1 (including the RT version) and Windows Server 2012 R2.[37] It added some new features to Direct2D like geometry realizations.[38] It also added swap chain composition, which allows some elements of the scene to be rendered at lower resolutions and then composted via hardware overlay with other parts rendered at higher resolution.[39]

DirectX 11.X is a superset of DirectX 11.2 running on the Xbox One.[40] It actually includes some features, such as draw bundles, that were later announced as part of DirectX 12.[41]