DX11 the next generation - overall impressions

spirits247 · 31 May 2010 at 19:28

With the release of the 465, we now have a pretty good idea about the first wave of DX11 graphics cards from ATI and nVidia. Still waiting for the 460, but at a guess it's going to be up against the 5770.

So, let's have a good talk about where we are at. Here are a few points to mull over:

What is your overall impression of this generation?
Is tessellation finally the big step forward over DX9 we've been waiting for? The last big jump being SM3?
What do you think of the performance jump from the last generation to this and the current pricing models? Were we spoiled by previous generation jumps to unified shaders and the speed of development in the past?
Are you waiting for the next refresh of DX11 cards with perhaps more tessellation power - something that may be required when it gets mainstream use in games?

Just generally discuss what you feel about DX11, the future and the new cards.

Klo · 31 May 2010 at 19:41

PC gaming on the whole is being limited by consoles at the moment, so when the next generation of those come out, thats when we actually need all the power (I'm talking mainstream, not those who play with 27 inch monitors with everything at full setting demanding 60fps).

The fact that no game has matched Crysis yet indicates a stagnation at least in the graphics front for PC gaming.

Regarding DX11, I imagine if the new Xbox will have tessellation properly built in, then it will be used a lot more. Until then, we will be stuck with DX11 add ons to DX9 games.

TAC4U · 31 May 2010 at 20:45

Klo said:
The fact that no game has matched Crysis yet indicates a stagnation at least in the graphics front for PC gaming.

Fact, hey? What about Metro 2033? And to me Far Cry 2 was a FAR superior game, graphically and gameplay wise.

CaptainRAVE · 31 May 2010 at 20:53

Distinctly average imo. Wish they would go back to working on gameplay rather than focussing everything on the graphics.

HW91 · 31 May 2010 at 20:53

TAC4U said:
Fact, hey? What about Metro 2033? And to me Far Cry 2 was a FAR superior game, graphically and gameplay wise.

metro 2033 and Crysis aren't really comparable graphics wise due to different locations and lighting, although they both look very good

IMO Far Cry 2 sucked, graphics aren't as good as Crysis, maybe about the same as Fallout 3, gameplay was horrible because you repeated everything over and over and over again, if there was something new, you were very early on in the game.

andyuk1 · 31 May 2010 at 21:03

just look at it like this.we all ran out to buy these dx11 cards.so wheres all the dx11 games?.even new games system req is dx9-dx10 .shouldnt it be dx10-dx11 and dx9 should be scrapped now.i feel abit hard done by tbh.just hope that dx11 will be around for sometime yet and its not passed by with dx12.

elpedro · 31 May 2010 at 21:12

andyuk1 said:
dx9 should be scrapped now.i feel abit hard done by tbh.just hope that dx11 will be around for sometime yet and its not passed by with dx12.

Goes back to the point about consoles restricting game development seen as the 360 and PS3 both use DX9 compatible GPUs!

HW91 · 31 May 2010 at 21:14

andyuk1 said:
just look at it like this.we all ran out to buy these dx11 cards.so wheres all the dx11 games?.even new games system req is dx9-dx10 .shouldnt it be dx10-dx11 and dx9 should be scrapped now.i feel abit hard done by tbh.just hope that dx11 will be around for sometime yet and its not passed by with dx12.

well Just Cause 2 is DX10 minimum

and Metro 2033 would be DX11 minimum but the PS3 could actually handle it

alex24 · 31 May 2010 at 21:21

I didn't think it'd be all that, but the DX11 additions to DiRT 2 were actually quite noticeable for me, and I think it's a good step forward. It's not a massive deal, but progress in the right direction. Perhaps future titles will see more dramatic changes from further usage of tessellation, time will tell.

sturmtruppe · 31 May 2010 at 21:27

dx11 im just meh atm.

I was really fussed about getting a dx10 card though - only so i could use the aero feature and get maximum compatability in vista - not just for games.

Quixote · 31 May 2010 at 22:12

DX11 was just a little bonus for me but in fact tesselation on Call of Pripyat does improve the look of the models. But it's a fairly subtle thing not a jaw dropping thing.
Metro 2033 looks great but I think it probably looks great on DX10 or 9 too.
I wouldn't pay a lot more for DX11 but it's one more incremental step.

Scania · 31 May 2010 at 22:16

I'm that impressed, I'm still using XP.

When I see a jump worth making, I'll take it.

jamiehavok · 31 May 2010 at 23:49

maybe when crysis 2 gets released, we might see more games using cryengine 3 as its multiplatform which will push things forward a bit and encourange developers to make better engines also.

Klo · 1 Jun 2010 at 03:57

TAC4U said:
Fact, hey? What about Metro 2033? And to me Far Cry 2 was a FAR superior game, graphically and gameplay wise.

Well, its a matter of opinion really, I personally loved Crysis's outdoor tropical environments

mame · 1 Jun 2010 at 05:10

I just think that this generation of cards are too expensive when the performance is compared to last years cards that were much cheaper even then.

Freddie1980 · 1 Jun 2010 at 10:35

It took at least 5 years for DirectX 9 to show us what it could do so I wouldn't judge DirectX 11 to harshly as game development these days is long and expensive and developers have to learn how to get the best our of the API.

What I would say with regards to diectX 11 is it's introduction has been a lot more successful then directX 10, we already have about 6 DX11 games with more in development and DX11 isn't even a year old yet, I believe we may have had 2 or 3 DX10 titles in it's first year so DX11 IMO has a promising future.

spirits247 · 1 Jun 2010 at 11:35

That's one of the big problems isn't it? Developers take much longer to adopt new standards as games have a long lead time. At the same time, GPU manufacturers are struggling with yields and smaller processes, pushing up prices (along with exchange rate) and making the jump from last gen to this gen seem not so stellar.

Power usage has dropped for the same performance, which is always welcome, especially for crossfire. And tessellation does look promising - the extra detail in the heaven benchmark points to some nice use in the future.

Alex74 · 1 Jun 2010 at 11:49

spirits247 said:
[*]Is tessellation finally the big step forward over DX9 we've been waiting for? The last big jump being SM3?

I suppose you're talking about HDR into games and suchlike, so in terms of what the user sees DX9.0c was probably the biggest jump.

But on the developer side, SM4 in DX10 really was the 'last big jump'.

Ultimately a technology's only as good as how you use it. Tesselation is no different. It has great potential for adding to picture quality, but as long as Directx 11 isnt adopted as a mainstream rendering option by developers, we simply won't reap the benefits.

Happily DX11 isnt nearly as much of a jump from DX10/10.1 as DX10 was from DX9, so getting developers to move on shouldnt be so much of an issue this time round.

As long as people still use XP, and as long as consoles dominate gaming development, then yea the adoption of new Directx releases on PC will be slow. After all, why code DX11 on PC when its so much easier to port to DX9 from the xbox?

Yakyb · 1 Jun 2010 at 13:19

sturmtruppe said:
dx11 im just meh atm.

I was really fussed about getting a dx10 card though - only so i could use the aero feature and get maximum compatability in vista - not just for games.

Aero does not need dX10

Kelt · 1 Jun 2010 at 13:24

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
I'm that impressed, I'm still using XP.

When I see a jump worth making, I'll take it.

Trust me, as a long time (9 years!) user of XP, Windows 7 x64 is a jump well worth making. I'm still running both while I make the final transition, and I now dislike going back to XP, and that's something I thought I'd never say!