Windows Vista and GPUs: Were we mislead?
Greater Alemannia
15-06-2006, 09:51
I admit that I don't know as much about this as I should, but I've heard many people say that Windows Vista would be unrunnable without a DirectX 10 card, such as the upcoming NVIDIA 8xxx cards. But now, NVIDIA has released a list of Vista-ready cards. This list includes:
GeForce 7950 GX2 GPUs
GeForce 7900 GPUs
GeForce 7800 GPUs
GeForce 7600 GPUs
GeForce 7300 GPUs
GeForce 6800 GPUs
GeForce 6600 GPUs
GeForce 6500 GPUs
GeForce 6200 GPUs
GeForce 6100/6150 GPUs
GeForce FX 5900 GPUs
GeForce FX 5700 GPUs
GeForce FX 5600 GPUs
GeForce FX 5500 GPUs
GeForce FX 5200 GPUs
GeForce PCX GPUs
So, where did the idea of Vista needing a DX10 card come from?
Greater Alemannia
15-06-2006, 10:10
... Bump?
Pure Metal
15-06-2006, 10:26
maybe nvidia have updated the drivers for all those cards to be DX10 compatible?
or maybe MS are making DX10 backwards-compatible or something?
I admit that I don't know as much about this as I should, but I've heard many people say that Windows Vista would be unrunnable without a DirectX 10 card, A small look around the net shows that there's no mention of Vista needing DX10. However there is mention thet DX10 isn't backwards compatible with DX9 and lower. So you may have trouble running older games, unless somehow you have both DX versions. You only really need it for graphic intensive games anyway.
Greater Alemannia
15-06-2006, 10:37
A small look around the net shows that there's no mention of Vista needing DX10. However there is mention thet DX10 isn't backwards compatible with DX9 and lower. So you may have trouble running older games, unless somehow you have both DX versions. You only really need it for graphic intensive games anyway.
But I think Vista comes packed with DX10. Does that mean the those cards can use DX10? Or will a newer card be required?
But I think Vista comes packed with DX10. Does that mean the those cards can use DX10? Or will a newer card be required?I think a new card would be required if you want to use the full features of DX10.
Without a DX10 compatible card, the CPU will have to do extra work to tell the graphics card how to do what DX10 wants. At least I think that's how it usually works.
(It's like in one case you can tell the card "draw a triangle between points x, y, z" and in the other case it has to say "draw a line from x to y, draw a line from y to z, draw a line from z to x")
Jeruselem
15-06-2006, 12:29
Well, I have to wait for the ATI list but from the looks of the nVidia one, the X700 is sure to be there.
Anyway I need an excuse to get an nVidia 7950 card ...
Anarchic Christians
15-06-2006, 12:33
Modern GFX cards can run DX10 games but not as well as a fully DX10 compatible one.
Same as I can run some hyperdetailed (well, they would be if I were running a good card...) games on my Radeon 9700, I just have to turn off all the really cool features/effects.
Jeruselem
15-06-2006, 12:37
Modern GFX cards can run DX10 games but not as well as a fully DX10 compatible one.
Same as I can run some hyperdetailed (well, they would be if I were running a good card...) games on my Radeon 9700, I just have to turn off all the really cool features/effects.
Actually the ATI 9700/9800 are still pretty good (apart from the lack of VRAM). I'd ditch anything less powerful, and the slowest nVidia is the 5200FX.
Anarchic Christians
15-06-2006, 12:51
Actually the ATI 9700/9800 are still pretty good (apart from the lack of VRAM). I'd ditch anything less powerful, and the slowest nVidia is the 5200FX.
It's not bad as such. The 'gaming' machine in this house uses a Geforce 5600. It's just got practically no memory (which is a problem of my machine in general).
Jeruselem
15-06-2006, 13:02
It's not bad as such. The 'gaming' machine in this house uses a Geforce 5600. It's just got practically no memory (which is a problem of my machine in general).
You'd need more memory to run Vista anyway. Windows XP is OK on 256Mb, and great on 1Gb. With Vista, different thing again.
You could go back to Win98 ... :p