• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Is a DirectX10 card really worth it?

tophee

tophee

tophee

Associate
Joined
12 May 2005
Posts
460
Location
Cambridge, or somewhere else in the world
Hi folks,

Is worth getting a DirectX10 (or 10.1) card for Vista at the moment?
I want to be upgrading my system completely sometime next year, however I want to upgrade the GPU sooner as the one currently in this rig is embarrassingly poor.

I believe that at the moment DX10 hammers the humble PC, even those DX10 uber-rigs. So is it too early try to have DX10 and should I stay with a DX9 card? With the 8800s and DX9 under XP nvidia beat ATI hands down, is this as true in vista? If I got a 8800gt for example I'd be forced to move over to DX10.

So as my current Vista rig is a lowly dual core Pentium D and I'm only running a resolution of 1440x900, should I stick with a reasonable DX9 card such as the ageing X1950 and wait for the next gen of cards or plump for a DX10 now?

If I decide to get a DX10 card the AMD/ATI 3870's are within budget and at a stretch I could get the 8800gt. However, at my resolution would the 3850's be a better? (Certainly cheaper.)

Any thoughts would be appreciated, corrections (as I'm not really up to date) or advice. Thanks in advance.

Regards Chris
 
Hi thanks for the prompt replies,

I thought though that with VISTA I didn't have a choice as such. If I get a DX10 card, Vista would use DX10 by default. Is this not the case?

Is DX9 not as fast on Vista as on XP - I only have Vista as an operating system - other than Linux and those boxes don't count!
 
Oh, and DredNik, are you saying that if I want a DX10 card... don't go for an Nvidia?
 
Unfortunately, an upgrade to my graphics card is almost a necessity at the moment. It is really quite bad.

However, being able to switch between DX9/10 is good news. I think I may go for a 512mb version of the 3850s.

Thanks for helping me make my mind up quickly.
 
Well, due to moving into a shell of a house some 4 months ago and it needing major renovation, I'll be sticking with my 1440x900 widescreen monitor for some time. A new graphics card in necessary at the moment. As a temporary fix I have a second hand X800gt card that was donated to me. I didn't even think they made them in PCIe variety!
It's rubbish. It struggles with almost everything.
 
I can resist clicking the 'buy button' a while longer. Perhaps I need to be finishing off network of the house.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom