DirectX 10 (and some of 9)

[Tox1cThreat]

Im not sure if this belongs in SW or HW, but I figured this will do fine..

Ive been reading up on a lot of DX10, which I understand will be Vista-only. From what I understand it will have less headroom and therefore process more 'real' data per cycle, resulting in better fps, adn quality, etc..

DX10 will also NOT be backwards compatible with DX9,8,7, adn will include Shader Model 4.0..

I receintly purchsed a Sapphire X1600XT graphics card which uses 9.0c and has Shader Model 3.0..


I was wondering if the card will be able to be flashed (eventually) to Shader Model 4, and possible DX10, or will I have to buy a new card sooner than I thought?

I hope that makes sense, and TIA for all help...

 

[The General]

You will need a new card.

The GPU will need to be able to process DX10 instructions and your current one cannot.

 

[Tox1cThreat]

hmm, you cant flash the card to handle the new programming?

 

[KSoD]

No. There will be a whole new set of cards released that will be DX10. The current cards will NOT be able to be flashed at all.

Also DX10 will do DX9. Just not natively. It wil Emulate it.

 

[killians45]

Pretty much what above said. Just make sure you realize that its the cards that are not backwards compatible, it will still run old dx9 games. What happens (they mean not directly supported) is that it will be a virtual emulation (like stated above) by mapping the calls on to dx9.

 

[Tox1cThreat]

Ok, Thanks..

I already have the card, I mean DX10 cards are still really expensive and I wasnt looking to spend 400 on a card..

Whatever, Im sure everything will work out just fine.

Thanks again.

 

[KSoD]

DX10 cards even on the market yet. M$ hasnt even finished fully developing it yet. So the cards that claim they are DX10 are full of it.