Direct x question

bigjimmyauk · 1 Dec 2009 at 17:54

is direct x governed by the operating system
I:E i love windows XP PRO if i went and bought a direct x 11 card such as the 5970 would it still work?

might be a silly question for some but i have no idea

Alex74 · 1 Dec 2009 at 17:58

Directx is software installed on the operating system that programmers can use to 'bridge the gap' between 3d applications and your graphics driver and hardware.
However, anything beyond Directx 9.0c is incompatible with Windows XP due to a near total revamp of the model.

That said, the 5970 would still work!! It is only called a directx 11 card because it supports the directx 11 rendering model and software. It also supports dx10, dx9, dx8...etcetcetc. So you can use the card, but you wont get any dx10/10.1/11 goodness.. You'll be limited to directx 9

(which imho defeats the point of buying the card..)

anyway windows 7 is awesome, you should buy that instead

bigjimmyauk · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:15

Alex74 said:
Directx is software installed on the operating system that programmers can use to 'bridge the gap' between 3d applications and your graphics driver and hardware.
However, anything beyond Directx 9.0c is incompatible with Windows XP due to a near total revamp of the model.

That said, the 5970 would still work!! It is only called a directx 11 card because it supports the directx 11 rendering model and software. It also supports dx10, dx9, dx8...etcetcetc. So you can use the card, but you wont get any dx10/10.1/11 goodness.. You'll be limited to directx 9

(which imho defeats the point of buying the card..)

anyway windows 7 is awesome, you should buy that instead

i'm a bit undecided on windows 7 altho i did hear that it has a windows XP mode but uses a lot of power and memory (is that correct as you have windows 7)

95thrifles · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:22

You have to get the professional version or above for the XP compatibility mode, however that said I and many friends and family use it and am unaware of any issues at all, in fact I think I've only seen one person with an issue on here. windows 7 is very stable and compatible, I think thats what microsoft focussed on this time, they realised they spent too much time on "goodies" and not enough on stability last time with vista and have thus put all their efforts in the right area this time. Also win7 uses less system resources than vista, and will run fine on any new PC, that was again an issue with vista, it was ahead of its time in terms of hardware requirements which didnt help with the compatibility issues

Alex74 · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:22

tbh, XP mode is just a more integrated virtualisation (OS running from within an OS if you like). You need a reasonably recent processor to use it (for the hardware based virtualisation features), but most people on these forums shouldnt have a problem with that I imagine.

The only real reason to use it, though, is for productive applications that arent supported on newer operating systems. Otherwise, it's somewhat redundant when you're actually using windows 7.

Out of curiosity, what puts you off upgrading? If you have a computer capable of holding its own with a 5970, you'd probably end up performing better with it

bigjimmyauk · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:28

Just thinking future not getting the new system till after the new year just looking around deciding on budgets and my options i got a HAF 932 in preporation which i've put my old system into and the extra cooling as allowed me in delve into my first overclocking experience.

As with windows i can't seem to break away from XP probably cause i've been using it so long lol

Alex74 · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:35

haha i know what you mean tbh..
started out last year with the desktop and laptop with XP Pro, then dual-booted XP with 7 Beta on the desktop..Same with the Release Candidate..

By the time windows 7 was released in full though I just wasnt using the XP install any more..
Finally got round to formatting and installing Windows 7 Ultimate this weekend without an XP partition.. All that's changed is i have some more space on my hard drive

Still got XP on the laptop though, bit too old for 7

bigjimmyauk · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:39

Alex74 said:
haha i know what you mean tbh..
started out last year with the desktop and laptop with XP Pro, then dual-booted XP with 7 Beta on the desktop..Same with the Release Candidate..

By the time windows 7 was released in full though I just wasnt using the XP install any more..
Finally got round to formatting and installing Windows 7 Ultimate this weekend without an XP partition.. All that's changed is i have some more space on my hard drive

Still got XP on the laptop though, bit too old for 7

shame there ain't some kind of software driven trial where u can interact with a few things to see what it's like. DO MSOFT have a official video of it in action

thepeganator · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:39

Windows 7 is lovely, XP is outdated and there is no need to run it with the better compatibility in Windows 7 compared to Vista.

Nameless_87 · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:42

bigjimmyauk said:
Just thinking future not getting the new system till after the new year just looking around deciding on budgets and my options i got a HAF 932 in preporation which i've put my old system into and the extra cooling as allowed me in delve into my first overclocking experience.

As with windows i can't seem to break away from XP probably cause i've been using it so long lol

I was in the same situation as you 4 weeks ago.

I bought a brand new pc and installed windows 7 x64 bit so for no confusion I formatted my laptop and installed windows 7 as well instead of XP.

It's confusing at first especially if you haven't experienced vista but after 2 days, you'll get used to it. The performance increase is great. Never saw a windos with this much stability without a service pack!

I recommend to switch to windows 7. You will not regret it and will get used to it in a few days.

Alex74 · 1 Dec 2009 at 18:46

bigjimmyauk said:
shame there ain't some kind of software driven trial where u can interact with a few things to see what it's like. DO MSOFT have a official video of it in action

Well the big change for Microsoft this time round was their extremely publicised Beta and Release candidate, with an 'emphasis' on people trying it out and telling microsoft what they thought and where improvements could be made..there was also a rolling blog straight from the developers as they made the OS (Here's the Link, a lot of what they put up was a good read, if you're interested in some of the features in W7)

Isnt much in the way of a public 'demo' though unless you're subscribed to Technet

If you want vids of W7 in action, I'd probably suggest a search on youtube tbh..