DirectX won't let me use D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE despite having a DirectX11 capable Graphics adapter

Question

I'd like to use SharpDX for the rendering Engine of a WPF project (Windows 7, 64 bit, DirectX10 / 11) but i'm running into problems getting the samples to work. I can use the DirectX 9 samples though. The problem is likely not directly related to SharpDX since i'm also seing similar problems with SlimDX and the other DirectX samples.

The only DirectX driver types that work when using Direct3D 10 / 11 are D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_REFERENCE and D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_WARP. D3D_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE does not seem to be working. This does not only affect SharpDX, C++ samples also let me only choose between RFERENCE and WARP drivers.

My understanding is that those drivertypes are merely software rasterizers. Which implies that my directx installation is not working properly. But i don't see any errors, the latest drivers are installed and the system is reporting the DirectX 11 drivers and the Graphics adapter supports DirectX 11.

• dxdiag is not reporting any errors
• dxdiag confirms that DirectX 11 drivers are installed
• I'm using a GT 460, which should support DirectX 11
• System is Windows 7 (64bit) / VS2013

SharpDX is able to create the devices but as soon as a VertexShader is created or a SwapChain is set up i get DXGI_NOT_SUPPORTED or E_NOINTERFACE errors.

I already swapped Graphics cards from a Radeon HD 5450 to a Nvidia Geforce GT 460 to no avail. The sharpdx samples run fine on another computer with Windows 7 and Intel on board graphics. Can anyone give my an idea what is going on here? Why can i only use Warp and Reference drivers despite having a DirectX11 capable Graphics adapter?

Any help is greatly appreciated. The only references i found online to such an issue was someone running the IDE inside a VM that did not have proper 3d drivers.