Building The Ultimate Vista PC

[nmX.Memnoch]

@ nmX.Memnoch

"And also, if the hardware doesn't support DX10 features no amount of driver magic is going to add that. So yes, it is all hardware. The drivers are just the operating systems interface to the hardware."

You are wrong on that, drivers can simulate features that isn’t supported by the hardware it self. Look at the DirectX 8.1 cards that run DirectX 9.0 games for example .

Wrong. Some (not all) DX9 games have workarounds so that DX8.1 cards can run them. These cards do not run the game in DX9 mode. Again, if the hardware doesn't support the features required the drivers cannot add it. Doing it in software would be much too slow. This is why there is a requirement for hardware acceleration.

Edited April 24, 2006 by nmX.Memnoch

[puntoMX]

Suite your self, let´s say we both are wrong and rigth and call it a draw , not everything can be emulated that´s true, but most of it can... just think about it, ask ATI or nVidia engineers directly if you have the change.

[nmX.Memnoch]

There's no need to ask. A GeForce 3 (DX8 part) or GeForce 4 (DX8.1 part) cannot be made to support features that a GeForce 5x00/6x00/7x00 (DX9 parts) supports. This would require retooling the GPU...in hardware.

Basically what you're saying is that a driver update could make a DX8.1 part support a feature such as Shader Model 3.0. If that was the case then why would anyone ever purchase a new graphics card?

The parts of the specification that aren't emulated are the DX8.1 commands. What they're not emulating are the DX9 specific parts of the DirectX specification. This is physically impossible because the GPU doesn't support the features necessary to process the information. Attempting to emulate it would be way too slow, making the effort to add the support via drivers useless. And I say "useless" because the game would run so slow that it would most definitely be unusable.

So yes, a DX8.1 GPU can run most "DX9" games (provided the developer codes in workarounds)...it just can't/won't run the DX9 effects.

Edited April 25, 2006 by nmX.Memnoch

[puntoMX]

To slow doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work . Like I told you; We are both wrong and right, it’s just from what point of view you look at it. Marketing is also an issue, if you could upgrade the drivers and it would support more, less people would buy new hardware .

So, DirectX 10 hardware will be out soon, all those x1900 and 7900 just support 9.0c (dec. rel.) so you need to emulate or workaround to get those DX 10 features, making indeed the computer to slow just to run a d*mn OS . but, like XP, there are settings to disable those DX10 features, if you can enable it at all...

let’s wait and see...

Edited April 25, 2006 by puntoMX

[nmX.Memnoch]

To slow doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work .

I think you missed the work "if" in every statement I made.

It's physically impossible to add this support via drivers. The workarounds in games use DX8.1 features in an attempt to get the same output as a DX9 card. Sometimes there is no way to get that output (newer lighting/shading features) so the result doesn't look as good.

That's why it was such an issue when NVIDIA came out with the 6 Series cards with support for Shader Model 3.0 (true DX9c) while the ATI Xx00 line only supported up to Shader Model 2.0. The support couldn't be added to the Xx00 because the GPU wasn't designed to process those commands.

BTW, there's a Feb06 release of DX9c.

Also, believe what you will about Vista and DX10...but you won't require a DX10 card to run Vista. It'll have work arounds so DX9 cards can run most of the Aero Glass interface, but you can disable that interface all together if you don't like it.

[puntoMX]

As far as I can see we almost agree witch each other, except just for just one point. Let’s blame it on my poor English .

A January release, nice, thanks for the tip .