Vista - Directx10...Worth it?

I currently have a MSI Nvidia 7900GS OC 512MB video card. I got this card before DX10 came out and when I was running on XP Pro. Since I have upgraded to vista within the last 2 months, I was thinking of upgrading to a DX10 card. Do you think it would be really worth it? I've found a few nice cards for under $100.

Thanks!

Actually, in this sort of a question, the answer is very subjective - the key question is if it is going to be worth it for you.

As you planning on playing brand new games such as the upcoming GTA IV, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, etc? any current games that make use of Dx10 will benefit from a new card - and so with your WEI. However, if you're sticking to older games that make no use of Dx10 then unless you just feel like spending the money, I'd save it and wait a bit for some spectacular deals after Thanksgiving....

Microdude, fill out your system spec.
If we know the rest of your hardware we will be able to advise you on the course of action we would take in your situation.
If you have an old computer and do not play alot of new games as john said then no, dont bother to upgrade.
If you have a newish computer and are going to play new games then yes I would upgrade. How much you spend is up to you but remember that you get what you pay for.

A bit off a "Busrt your Bubble" kinda thing video cards are... read this taken from a site:



As a Single Player Gamer and one that only Plays FPS games (First Person Shooters), I can honestly tell you that I have not seen a lot of differences between playing a game in DX9 and or DX10. I played Crysis on my XP Pro OS and I also played Crysis on my Vista x64 OS and with the 64 exe + DX10 and well... I saw no significant changes.

Now, this is only my opinion and it could be that my rig is not a good one for benchmarking and/or I am just to old to notice the subtle differences.

Being said that, I just pulled the pin on a new EVGA GTX260 (coming from a ECS 8800GT) just because I want to see if I can play my games maxed out. Something I can't do right now with my card.

"Directx10...Worth it?"

That would depend on your Hardware (and most importantly, video card), Game, Patches, Drivers

The answer is very subjective. Some people say they haven't noticed a difference between DX9 and DX10, but do notice a performance drop when running games under DX10.

Do note that only DX10 games can use DX10. However you can also run them under DX9 as well, in Vista.

My examples,

Crysis: It ran fairly well in DX10 on semi high settings till the last level, where I got massive stuttering and had to switch to DX9 mode to finish the game. Did I notice a difference in visuals? Not enough to make me wish I could finish the game in DX10.

On the other hand, Lost Planet: Colonies Edition, yeah, I did notice a difference in visuals between DX9 and 10. DX10 seemed to be more vibrant and details like the character’s fur stuck out. I was able to play that game without any problems all the way through.

Crysis Warhead, I played it all the way through the end under DX10 with little problems under "Gamer" settings. Nice visuals

Bioshock - didn't notice a difference either way, and I played that game all the way through twice. In fact the first time I played the game I played it with a DX9 only card (Radeon x1650Pro). So when I got my Radeon HD 3870 DX10 card, the first game I wanted to play was Bioshock as I was looking forward to the "added DX10 visuals" ....well, I didn't see them, especially in the water and oil spills, to me they looked the same. So...

So...If you have Vista and a DX10 card with a DX10 game, play in DX10, but if you have frame rate or stuttering problems, switch to DX9 mode. You may or may not notice a visual difference, but you'll probably notice a frame rate increase.

So...the question now becomes... frame rates or visuals?

Just my opinion,

…and by the way, I am a visuals type of guy

The topic is "Directx10...Worth it?" and your thought is listed above.

You are not talking about the same thing in these two sentences.

The answer I will give you however, is the one you really want: A newer video card, like a 8800GT, will run MUCH faster than your 7900GS. Note that I am not specifying DX10 here. It will run faster in EVERYTHING. If you absolutely never, EVER use DX10 EVER for ANYTHING, you will STILL end up with a better gaming experience.

Times the experience by 10 if you do use DX10

In the case of the original Crysis, the difference between DX9 and DX10 at least with the initial launch was marginal. A slight difference in lighting/shadows as far as I know. And maybe shaders. I started playing the game on XP with my current set up because it wasnt until last christmas my fiance got my Vista Ultimate . I have gone back and played since then and while I do play it in DX10 mode now under vista and have got used to the features it offers going back to DX9 is a little hard. I can tell the difference after prolonged exposure to DX10 such as smoke/flares/trails/water/shadows and even general lighting. All very minor details and when it comes down to it unless you're pushing the frames to keep it at a good level of performance with visual quality XP is really a better option. I reccomend at least experiancing the DX10 version if possible though as Crysis really is the flagship game for it since Age of Conan (I dont know about everyone else) but I stopped playing that WAAYY before the DX10 version came out.

As far as Bioshock goes, I've done a little research into the differences as well between DX10 vs DX9. Again they're very slight, though in a different way that Crysis because whereas almost EVERYONE will report a degrade in FPS with Crysis DX10, Bioshock uses a much more tolerant engine. Basically the shadows, water effects and I believe a few other slight changes like smoke are the only differences. And I can say this from experiance standpoint because the same thing goes that I played this game before I had vista and after. Basically though to notice the differences, you have to be shown them side by side or you might honestly never notice them. But once you do, you will begin to notice them in actual gameplay. Perhaps even come to be like me and shrug off a little tsk tsk when playing DX9 games where you see the things they could have had with DX10. Example being Oblivion, if only it had been another year in development it might still be pushing some of the best graphics out there without needing texture remapping programs. (In my strong opinion for its genre it still captures its enviroment superior to a lot of more recent games)

Crysis Warhead I have only played under Vista using DX10 and can say that it does run slightly better than the original but not nearly as much as I feel they hyped it to. Im sure under DX9 it still runs better though I can not for certain say because I have not tried myself. Nor do I really intend to. I find myself whenever I do occasionally have the need to boot up my XP installation constantly going "eeww look at that big over sized blue start button".

Oh and by the way as far as I know other than maybe the water reflections, Fallout 3 has absolutly no DX10 features if even that. I know it used the oblivion engine which was strictly DX9. Though I have only played it on Vista so I cant say for certain. If someone could confirm/deny this I would appreciate it. Regardless even on Vista I was able to get flawless frames with pretty much any settings I threw at it as long as I kept the outdoor shadows slider halfway and water to only the "high setting with non-full reflections".

As everyone has said though when it comes to DirectX 10 its a very touchy subjective topic. One that only you can decide on after you've made the purchase unfortunately or find a friend who has already "been there done that" who will allow you to sort of test drive it out on their system. I will say that as someone mentioned above upgrading your card does not directly have only to do with DirectX 10 as your performance with everything from basic Vista usage to gaming to HD video/Blu-Ray playback will greatly increase in performance with a new video card.

Good luck on your decision and if I were you I'd be looking at an 8800GTX or the Geforce 9 Series equivalent. The 2xx series is getting mixed reviews right now and the others will get your a definite improvement over your current card and cost a lot less. Unless you have the cash then go all out and get a 280 1g . Oh or if you prefer to go the ATI route I believe its 4860-70 cards are where its at or something. I'm not sure. I like Nvidias driver support over ATIs, though I will not deny that ATI has come a long way with performance otherwise. I rocked a 9800 128MB card until it died on me so I am not an nvidia fan boy or anything I just go where the FPS/Stability goes .

Or a Radeon 4850. We don't want to leave the other guys out

Either of these cards can be had for under a $200 (US) dollars; probably less.

...and yes, way better gaming experience over your 7900GS

@ Xandori,

I can't disagree with your assessment, and as i've said in my post, if you can play in DX10, do so, especially if you have a good video card.

As for me, I upgrded to a 4850 after my 3870 crapped out. Really nice card for the money, especially if your native resolution is 1280x1024.

Did a nice job with Crysis (except for that last level) under DX10, though I haven't touched the game since about 4 video card driver updates. Crysis Warhead played really well with it under DX10 as well.

So again, if you have Vista and a DX10 video card and game, then you really should try DX10.

As far as "is DirectX10 worth it", that's more of an OS upgrade question I suppose, since Vista has higher hardware requirements, and you'd most likely get a DX10 video card anyway.