DX11 the next generation - overall impressions

[phill1978]

i think it depends on what you move from.

ive gone from a 8600gs to a 5850, and that is simply a massive leap.

you could compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges but in the end you have to look at the relative performance gains on the whole from the bottom of the range in the previous gen to the top in the next gen

 

[Scania]

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!

I'm assuming your going slightly O/T with regard to Win 7 X64 being a superior O.S., I'd fully agree with that.

I was thinking more along the lines of DX11 being better than 10 or 9 etc.

In my case, yes I'm stuck with clunky old XP but it still suits my needs for gaming just fine, I currently play BFBC2 quite a lot as does a friend who's got a far better rig than mine (I have a GTX260, my friend a 5870) & Win 7 and there - to my eyes - is still no great graphical / visual improvement over XP.

Until a game comes out that does not support XP I still don't really feel the need to change.

Late reply, I work away.

 

[Faztastic]

god i miss the days of visual differences from direct x 7 days to direct x 8
then from direct x 9 (Voodoo cards)

it was jaw dropping but now direct x 9 to direct x 10/11 its just not the same.

This is obviously partly down to the consoles, we all know pc's can handle much much more powerfull games with decent frame rates, but we get stuck with dx9 console games that are ports, resulting in low frame rates.

If a developer made a game 100% for pc, using latest technology then we would be back to the days of visual awe like it was back in days of dx7 - dx8.

But hey.. this world unfortunatley spins around money and the consoles is where the money is at.

if im honest i dont think we even need this generation of graphics card yet, and i think crysis was poorly coded on purpose to push the pc users to buy new hardware. Obviously they had money for this.

 

[Tombo]

I think people have rose tinted glasses about DX9.

 

['Wes]

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.

Lol, the graphics on FC2 are a thousand times better than Fallout 3 and are actually better than Crysis imo.

 

[Relentless81]

I am still using a DX10 card and have started to figure out theres no point in upgrading to DX11 just now, consoles are holding the PC back and there not enough PC specific developed titles to justify the change

 

[spirits247]

Here are a list of upcoming exclusive PC games: http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/games-of-2010/

How many will see big DX11 improvements?

 

[MeMeMeMe]

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

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

Forget about gaming graphics, Win7 is enough of a reason to upgrade from XP. It's a superior OS - I'm very surprised to be as pleased with it.

 

[Cd0gz]

Hopefully shogun 2 total war and half life 3(rumoured its going to be announced at E3) will use dx11. I needed a new card anyway so for me dx11 is just a bonus.

 

[AMG]

Yeah it is those peesky consoles that are holding PCs back.

when we do get PC exclusive titles than we will soon see the PCs wrath...


the PC will always be a lot more powerful than console I mean who deigns the console games....PC/MAC ( I say mac to cover everything)

to be fair although I m tempted to sell my two DX10 cards and get a single DX11 card is great....as for changing OS....hmm no, there is nothing very wrong with vista atm, and i can't warrant paying £120 for win 7 yet. Also to add insult, I do believe vista can do DX11 as well with a SP pack

 

[hash70]

not impressed,

 

[Ryan111]

How can you tell if you are running DX10 or 11? Im on Win 7 64bit with crossfire 5770 so would guess im on DX11, but there are no options (that I have seen) to swap between...

 

[Cd0gz]

It usually detects what version of dx your card supports and runs it automatically. So you will be using dx11 for your 5770s.

 

[bells]

How many Dx11 games are out right now ?

 

[keyser]

I'd upgrade to 5850 coz it uses less idle watts And i5.

 

[Echo]

A novelty, much like DX10 was when I bought my last card (8800 GTS 640).

Everyone should get Windows 7 (x64) though - DX11 or not - brilliant OS. Despite being installed since October last year, I don't actually know what its STOP ERROR screen looks like, speaks volumes!

 

[manic_man]

It should also be pointed out that this "generational" model that MS sticks with for DirectX is a very good marketing tool. It certainly doesn't favour the developer, but it does make graphics hardware and games more easy to sell as something as simple as a new version of a software library can suddenly become a feature that can be used as a bullet point on a box and be given a nice flashy logo...

OpenGL for example, more or less keeps up with Direct3D (at least on features not necessarily on performance of implementation) with perhaps a 6-12 month lag, but because of their more standard numerical naming scheme (i.e. OpenGL 2.0, 2.1, 3.0 etc.) People pay less attention and assume the differences between the versions are minimal.

In reality the same can be said of DX10 to DX11, the added features for DX11 will be minimal, with tessellation support simply adding easier ways to do something that a good dev using DX10 could already do, lets not forget that while DX11 seems like the new magical step, DX9 is still being upgraded, they just retard its features to make DX10 and DX11 disparate products.

Being honest, I don't think its possible to get a really good insight into the whole thing unless you work with the libraries in question. If anything, from my point of view, this very stepped upgrade model of DX is a bit annoying. I can write OpenGL code and typically my code that worked with OpenGL 2.0 will still work, I just have access to more new functions with OpenGL 3.0+. The same can't be said of DX code, quite often they simply change the name of an interface within the code from "Direct3DX to Direct3DX+1" and i'd be *very* surprised if the underlying code in the new libraries has altered... but I have to go through and make changes to all of my code-base to make it work in exactly the same way with the Direct3DX+1 library...

I just wish OpenGL could get more of a foothold. But as long as it isn't commercially viable, it will remain a research tool and under-developed... and as long as it is a research tool, it is unlikely to be commercially viable...

Here's hoping Steam on the Mac has an effect! Imagine games written under Windows that can be ported to any platform without having to re-design the game engine itself... Carmack had the right idea from the start, it's just a shame the might of big industry has stunted what should have been the ultimate 3D library solution.

 

[harryohh]

People seem to believe that DX11 has had a good launch.But I don't see what's so good.

The only DX11 I've seen has been some last minute add ons to games, that really offer very little (If anything) to the game.

 

[unknownsock]

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

Metro yes, Far Cry, no.....
I personally think tesselation is a great tool. Really makes a difference although ideally it wants to be applied to every object/model.

Plus as much as i love my 5870, i think the jumps could be bigger in performance.

 

[Dutch Guy]

I think I will use my GTX280 for a long time, the only games I play on my PC these days are exclusives like STALKER

I have a dual boot system but mainly use XP unless a game is DX10 (and looks/plays better) I install it on my Win7 partition.