This makes writing games and applications much simpler, and more importantly if something works for Feature Level X, then you can assume it will work for Feature Level X+1. There are some specific optional features and format usages that may or may not be present (and thus require the use of CheckFormatSupport or CheckFeatureSupport), but most things can just be assumed based on the current device’s Feature Level. An application requests a particular feature level (or a set of feature levels where the application can optionally use more advanced features if present), and the majority of the capabilities are known already. The key to this is the concept of a “Feature Level” for devices which simplifies the old Direct3D 9 “sea of capabilities bits” to an increasingly capable group of level-sets for video hardware.

In various forums and discussion threads of late, I’ve seen some confusion about the difference between “DirectX 11” the API and “DirectX 11” the class of video hardware.

Dx11 feature level 11.0 download