Buy'n New Card, DX11 Important?

[Tsuchi]

Hey all,

I'm building a new computer because mine hates me and decieded to go caputs. I'm looking at video cards and I'm noticing that it seems only the high end Radeon cards come with the DX11 support. Is it worth spending the extra to get one of those cards, or will I not notice the difference. Will the Nvidia cards get the software upgrades to carry it?

Any input apprecaited as usual.

Thanks,
Tsuchi

 

[SergeC]

Is it worth it? not really.

Will nvidia cards get upgrades? No, it's a hardware thing.

 

[dguy6789]

DX11 isn't really important right now. That said, it's worth it to get one of those cards because they're really, really fast.

 

[akugami]

The new DX11 cards, of which only ATI has any publicly released, are more powerful video cards than previous video cards. In that sense, yes, if you can afford it, buy the new DX11 video cards.

If you're talking about buying a card purely for DX11 support, that's probably not such a good idea at the moment. The ATI Radeon 5xxx series is scarce and Fermi is nowhere to be found. Due to various economical conditions the new cards likely won't drop in cards any time soon. New and high end cards always command a premium over mid range or lower cards. Not to mention the scarcity of DX11 games at the moment. Any new games in the next year that utilizes DX11 will more likely than not support DX9 and DX10 anyways.

 

[Fox5]

The Alien Versus Predator game coming out makes very impressive use of DX11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nru4mhPF-oo
Take a look at this video, the difference in the alien's polygon mesh with and without tessellation. DX11 provides the ability to scale an order of magnitude polygon differences with little effort, so I think it'll show bigger improvements in games than dx10 did.

 

[HeXploiT]

DX11 isn't really important right now. That said, it's worth it to get one of those cards because they're really, really fast.

Isn't important to whom? It's important to me. Just ordered a 5870 and I'm absolutely ecstatic that I'll get to use the features of DX11 before 99% of the population.
So in a nutshell if you're a bleeding edge freak...then it just might matter.

 

[v8envy]

For an entry level card, no, DX11 is not very important. You will probably be replacing it (6-12 months from now) if you plan to play the kind of games including DX11 support -- cutting edge games are intended to be enjoyed on enthusiast hardware, not $50 bargain basement stuff.

For a midrange card DX11 is a nice to have, but I would opt for higher performance today over the potential of DX11 in the future. In other words, I'd pick a 4890 over a 5770 at the same price point.

For a high end card (read: $300+) there is absolutely no way I'd settle for DX10. High end cards will be useful long enough to enjoy plenty of DX11 eye candy in the coming year(s). Look at the 8800GTX -- it's a viable gaming card today, more than 3 years after its introduciton. The DX9 only 1950XT from the same era is a long forgotten relic.

For people who sell hardware to subsidize newer hardware the higher resale value (or, more correctly, lower resale value of cards w/o DX11) should be important as well.

TL;DR -- it's highly important to enthusiasts, tossup for casual gamers, and utterly unimportant to the integrated or lowest end users.

 

[Andrmgic]

If budget is your primary concern and you don't need the fastest cards currently available, a mid-range like a 4870 or a GTX 260 or 275 will serve you well for a while.

I bought a 5870 because I was interested in eyefinity and because the performance in today's games is absolutely incredible. The last reason I had is a silly one.. the 5850 was out of stock everywhere.. but they had a 5870..

The purchase of that card prompted me to overclock my aging core 2 duo, in order to do so effectively I transferred the guts of the machine to a Silverstone Raven RV02 case from the HTPC case I was using.. and it ultimately led to the purchase of 3 monitors and a racing wheel..

whether or not you jump in, you need to think about what you expect from it and how long you expect you'll wait before your next upgrade.

 

[nemesismk2]

It's best to get a video card with DX11 like the 5870/5850 not just because they are DX11 although that is a major plus point but because they are very quick. If your buying high end then it makes no sense buying anything DX10 just buy the 5970 and be very happy!

 

[BernardP]

Great summary v8envy !

 

[nemesismk2]

Great summary v8envy !

Yeah what v8envy said was spot on.

 

[solofly]

Hey all,

Is it worth spending the extra to get one of those cards,

You tell us...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR40GwRtFyw

 

[happy medium]

Yeah what v8envy said was spot on.

Yes, well said

 

[Rezist]

Get a 9600GSO faster then a 5870 in physx games!