Over the years, the power of 3D video cards has grown dramatically to the point where the vast majority of hardware is dedicated to this function. The Windows XP version of WDM, known as XPDM, reflects the side-by-side nature of GDI and Direct3D (see Figure 1). The effective intermixing of traditional GDI elements with Direct3D elements has been limited by this design. DirectDraw and Direct3D were introduced as alternative APIs to support full-screen games and 3D rendering as extensions to the existing hardware of the time. This API was designed to handle numerous 2D output devices, and it formed the basis for the Windows user interface experience.

The primary API for programming graphics since the early days of Windows has been the Graphical Device Interface (GDI).

Application Compatibility, GDI, and older versions of Direct3D.

This articles discusses Windows graphics features and APIs. Windows 7 and Windows 8 build on the Windows Vista graphics infrastructure by providing additional graphics features and APIs.

This redesigned model reflects the evolution of video hardware from the world of 2D raster operations and GDI applications to that of 3D games with fixed-function graphics hardware, and finally to that of the modern programmable graphics processing unit (GPU) that supports a wide-range of high-performance graphics applications. Windows Vista includes support for an entirely new display driver model that represents a major revision in the design of video drivers since the introduction of the Windows Driver Model (WDM) for Windows 98.

Metal 1.2 compatible graphics card