The market answered resoundingly. For almost six years, DirectX 9 was the de facto standard.
So, what made DirectX 9 so special? Here are some of its key features:
Furthermore, modern GPU driver teams allocate only minimal resources to DX9 optimization. While NVIDIA and AMD ensure games run, new features (like DLSS 3 Frame Gen or Anti-Lag+) do not work in pure DX9 applications without third-party wrappers.