directx10

ringo747 · 7 Oct 2006 at 15:00

hi guys,

anyone know much about how compatible existing hardware will be with direct x10? Will there be completely new mobos, gfx etc etc to work with dx10 or will it all be backward compatible?

cheers

paradigm · 7 Oct 2006 at 15:17

DX10 runs just fine on older hardware, just you will not be able to utlilse all the new 3D technology that DX10 brings unless you buy a DX10 hardware compliant graphics card (not scheduled for release until november at the earliest).

For example, windows Vista (inc aero) runs just fine on my current PC, and it runs DX10

kitten · 7 Oct 2006 at 15:17

DirextX is a graphics programming API. And applies only to graphics cards (GPUs).

DirectX10 cards will run non DirectX10 games.

All your current hardware except Graphics card will be usable with DirectX10, depending on power consumption of DX10 graphics cards cards lower power PSU's may not cope.

iirc Windows XP will not support DX10 you will need Vista.

imho one should ignore DX10 and Vista for the first 6 or so months after Vista release, or at least until m$ fix the initial release of Vista with a 1.5Gb service pack. There should be a good selection of DX10 graphics cards by then too.

paradigm · 7 Oct 2006 at 15:19

kitten said:
DirextX is a graphics programming API. And applies only to graphics cards (GPUs).

Not true. DirectX also incorporates directsound, which as you can guess is soundcard based

kitten · 7 Oct 2006 at 15:34

paradigm said:
Not true. DirectX also incorporates directsound, which as you can guess is soundcard based

....and directplay(network), directmusic and directinput. So it is almost true, just not a complete statement of DirectX's full API's.

I don't believe an upgrade of current NIC, joystick or soundcard hardware will be required to implement DirectX10 fully. Just the GPU and OS???(not sure)

I guess I should have said DirectX is an API to allow programmers to easily code for differing hardware. Games being the primary use for the DirectX API.

Echo toxin · 7 Oct 2006 at 15:43

From what I understood, DirectX 10 won't run at all on today's cards. What you will in fact be running is DirectX 9.0L which is a special Vista version of DirectX 9.0c.

paradigm · 7 Oct 2006 at 16:12

Echo toxin said:
From what I understood, DirectX 10 won't run at all on today's cards. What you will in fact be running is DirectX 9.0L which is a special Vista version of DirectX 9.0c.

:S

So long as the graphics card supports the new vista WDDM driver model (most do), then it will run DX10 fine, just as already said a few times in the thread, WILL NOT run the DX10 features that the card does not support (extensive shaders etc etc).

ringo747 · 7 Oct 2006 at 17:03

thanks for the information.. il def not be going for vista for a while i wouldnt imagine... just wanted to check out my options as im thinking of upgrading my pc soon and didnt want to do it a month before some new stuff comes out!