why benchmark says wrong info

Hi Jay Reviewie,

I understand why this can be confusing, especially when different tools show different results. Have you already tried the Q&A Assist suggestions? In addition, please try the following.

1. Press Windows + R
2. Type “dxdiag” and press Enter
3. On the “System” tab, check “DirectX Version”

If it shows DirectX 12, then DirectX 12 is correctly installed on your system, regardless of what a benchmark reports.

If you want to go one level deeper:

• Open the “Display” tab in dxdiag
• Check “Feature Levels”, you should see entries like 12_0, 12_1, or similar depending on your GPU and driver support

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3rd party benchmark tools may sometimes read incorrect data from your BIOS and drivers and report incorrect output.

Click your Start Button, then just type dxdiag and press Enter.

On the resulting DirectX utility, select the Display tab.

Please provide a screenshot of that Display tab

Benchmarks and tools sometimes report the wrong DirectX version because they are reading limited or outdated information from the graphics driver or from Windows, not because DirectX itself is actually missing.

On Windows 11, DirectX 12 is included with the OS and updated through Windows Update. A benchmark may still show “DirectX 9.0” for one of these reasons:

1. It is checking the feature level / DDI level that the game or test is using, not the highest DirectX version installed.
2. It is using an old detection method similar to older tools that misreported DirectX 11 hardware as DirectX 10.1 on Windows 7.
3. It may be reading the capabilities of a specific path (for example, a compatibility or fallback mode) rather than the full DirectX 12 capabilities.

To see the actual DirectX version on the PC, use the DirectX Diagnostic Tool:

1. In the Windows taskbar search box, type dxdiag and select dxdiag from the results.
2. In the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, on the System tab, check DirectX Version under System Information.

If that shows DirectX 12, the system has DirectX 12 even if a benchmark reports an older version.

References:

• Which version of DirectX is on your PC?
• The DirectX Diagnostics Tool incorrectly reports DirectX 11 devices as DirectX 10.1 devices on a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2
• A DirectX 11 device is displayed incorrectly as a DirectX 10.1 device in Performance Information and Tools in Windows 7