DX10 Card.

[kadean]

Hey guys I bought a new PC last winter with a DX9 card, and now Im in the market for a DX10 card that I will be purchasing later in the year, closer to christmas. I just wanted your guys' opinions on the best card to get, better ones coming out in that time frame and if Ill need to upgrade my other PC parts to prevent any of my current hardware from bottlenecking the new GPU that Ill be getting. Heres what I have now:

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16813127014
HD:http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16822144701
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16817194003
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16820145098
CPU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115004
Current GPU: NVidia Geforce 7950GT

Thanks for any and all replies!

 

[Piuc2020]

Closer to Christmas nvidia should release their new generation of cards, possibly (and most likely) dubbed 9800. Ask that same question then.

 

[kadean]

Any idea how much those will cost? I dont really want to dump too much money on a card, im looking for a lot of bang for my buck. I wouldnt mind buying the older gen DX10 cards that were cheaper and the performance wasnt too much less if the new gen will be super expensive. Also, if i were to buy the 9800 when it comes out, would I have to upgrade the other parts of my system?

 

[ashishmishra]

As far cost of these new gen cards go, your guess is as good as ours. In my frank opinion, if you overclock your cpu then you shouldn't have a noticible system level bottle-neck at all, if overclocking is not your thing then may be a CPU upgrade might be a good idea if you have the money to do both. As far as my experience goes, CPU speed makes a big difference in max fps, good difference in avg fps, but not so much in min fps in most regular games, it is the min fps that will define your gaming comfort level, when min fps drop below say 40fps, it is mostly the GPU which is holding performance back not the CPU, so a CPU upgrade won't do you any good in that situation. On the flip-side in games like Supreme Commander, Flight Simulator X, CPU speed is nearly as important as having a fast GPU, so it really depends on the apps which you would be using. After upgrading to my new card I noticed a massive difference in my gameplay experience, in GPU limited titles like Rainbow Six Vegas, Test Drive Unlimited, and DiRT, even though I have a comparatively older system. Even though my max and avg fps will be lower than C2D setups but I'm more sensitive towards min fps which are almost always dictated by GPU.

Now if you had a netburst based processor on the other hand especially the celly kind /joke

 

[Piuc2020]

I would guess their price would be around 400-500 for the GTS version and 500-crazy prices through Christmas for the GTX version as it has always been recently with card releases.

They are supposed to be pretty good and they will make prices for the 8800s cards lower so everyone wins.

 

[cmdrdredd]

*double post*

 

[cmdrdredd]

Does anyone else find it odd that there have been DX10 cards out so long without any DX10 titles? I mean we're already talking about the next gen of DX10 hardware and no games. There are some games like Lost Planet that use soem DX10 features, but the performance takes a huge nose dive when they are enabled.

Does anyone else think that the current DX10 hardware can't handle the software? I mean if FPS tanks on titles using parts of DX10 I hate to see what a real DX10 game will do.

 

[Piuc2020]

It is not that strange, the DX9 specification was completed in 2002, the first DX9 cards didn't appear until 2003 with the 9800 series and the first meaningful DX9 games didn't not arrive until Far Cry, UT2004, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 burst into the scene in 2004.

Compare that to DX10, it was released in 2006, the first cards came in 2006 as well and its not until 2007 that we are going to see the first meaningful DX10 games such as Crysis, Alan Wake, UT2007 and many others on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...ith_DirectX_10_support

Plus its not like there is zero DX10 content right now, few games have gotten some patches and others support DX10 right out of the box and sure we'll only be getting the first meaningful DX10 games a year after the first cards were out but... the same happened with DirectX9, its not easy working with a new API.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
It is not that strange, the DX9 specification was completed in 2002, the first DX9 cards didn't appear until 2003 with the 9800 series and the first meaningful DX9 games didn't not arrive until Far Cry, UT2004, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 burst into the scene in 2004.

Compare that to DX10, it was released in 2006, the first cards came in 2006 as well and its not until 2007 that we are going to see the first meaningful DX10 games such as Crysis, Alan Wake, UT2007 and many others on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...ith_DirectX_10_support

Plus its not like there is zero DX10 content right now, few games have gotten some patches and others support DX10 right out of the box and sure we'll only be getting the first meaningful DX10 games a year after the first cards were out but... the same happened with DirectX9, its not easy working with a new API.

You sure it took that long with DX9?

I'm more questioning the performance drop off when using DX10 at all. Did DX9 do that too? It has been so long I don't even remember. What I'm getting at is I was going to buy an 8800GTS 640 but the FPS dropoff is a bit much with DX10 isn't it?

What do you think?

 

[Piuc2020]

The thing is, if you were to render the exact same scene with DX9 and DX10 then its likely the DX10 render would be faster. But new DirectX releases usually offer more than just speed and instead offer many features that, while technically possible to achieve on DX9, it would take a far too high hit on performance for it to be practical as compared to DX10. See where I am going?

So yeah, the same thing happened with DX9, Far Cry, UT2004 and Half Life 2 offered DX8 fallback modes that made the game much speedier even on 9800 Pro cards but DX9 looked a lot better... this hasn't exactly happened yet with DX10 but it will once the real deal DX10 games come out in a few months.

If not try it on your X1900XT, if you have F.E.A.R., choose DX8 shaders and then measure performance and image quality as compared to using DX9 shaders and then you'll see what I mean. DX8 will be faster but crummier looking and DX9 will be prettier but will perform slightly worse.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
The thing is, if you were to render the exact same scene with DX9 and DX10 then its likely the DX10 render would be faster. But new DirectX releases usually offer more than just speed and instead offer many features that, while technically possible to achieve on DX9, it would take a far too high hit on performance for it to be practical as compared to DX10. See where I am going?

So yeah, the same thing happened with DX9, Far Cry, UT2004 and Half Life 2 offered DX8 fallback modes that made the game much speedier even on 9800 Pro cards but DX9 looked a lot better... this hasn't exactly happened yet with DX10 but it will once the real deal DX10 games come out in a few months.

If not try it on your X1900XT, if you have F.E.A.R., choose DX8 shaders and then measure performance and image quality as compared to using DX9 shaders and then you'll see what I mean. DX8 will be faster but crummier looking and DX9 will be prettier but will perform slightly worse.

I guess I just need someone to tell me to either buy an 8800gts or sit on what I have heh.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
It is not that strange, the DX9 specification was completed in 2002, the first DX9 cards didn't appear until 2003 with the 9800 series and the first meaningful DX9 games didn't not arrive until Far Cry, UT2004, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 burst into the scene in 2004.

Compare that to DX10, it was released in 2006, the first cards came in 2006 as well and its not until 2007 that we are going to see the first meaningful DX10 games such as Crysis, Alan Wake, UT2007 and many others on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...ith_DirectX_10_support

Plus its not like there is zero DX10 content right now, few games have gotten some patches and others support DX10 right out of the box and sure we'll only be getting the first meaningful DX10 games a year after the first cards were out but... the same happened with DirectX9, its not easy working with a new API.

wrong....very wrong.

The first DX9 cards appeared in August 2002 with the mighty 9700Pro it was followed a few months later by the 9500 and 9500Pro.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Anyway I have 2 choices... 1) get a Q6600 or 2) get an 8800gts but I can't decide which would be better right now.

I'm still unsure of how DX10 titles will perform and if I wait longer prices will drop or I can buy a higher end card then. *head hurts*

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
Anyway I have 2 choices... 1) get a Q6600 or 2) get an 8800gts but I can't decide which would be better right now.

I'm still unsure of how DX10 titles will perform and if I wait longer prices will drop or I can buy a higher end card then. *head hurts*

go for the GTS first, then the Quad core later on.

 

[cmdrdredd]

alrighty then

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
It is not that strange, the DX9 specification was completed in 2002, the first DX9 cards didn't appear until 2003 with the 9800 series and the first meaningful DX9 games didn't not arrive until Far Cry, UT2004, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 burst into the scene in 2004.

Compare that to DX10, it was released in 2006, the first cards came in 2006 as well and its not until 2007 that we are going to see the first meaningful DX10 games such as Crysis, Alan Wake, UT2007 and many others on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...ith_DirectX_10_support

Plus its not like there is zero DX10 content right now, few games have gotten some patches and others support DX10 right out of the box and sure we'll only be getting the first meaningful DX10 games a year after the first cards were out but... the same happened with DirectX9, its not easy working with a new API.

wrong....very wrong.

The first DX9 cards appeared in August 2002 with the mighty 9700Pro it was followed a few months later by the 9500 and 9500Pro.

Oh yeah sorry you are completely right. However my point still stands.

 

[Stumps]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020

Originally posted by: Stumps

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
It is not that strange, the DX9 specification was completed in 2002, the first DX9 cards didn't appear until 2003 with the 9800 series and the first meaningful DX9 games didn't not arrive until Far Cry, UT2004, Doom 3 and Half Life 2 burst into the scene in 2004.

Compare that to DX10, it was released in 2006, the first cards came in 2006 as well and its not until 2007 that we are going to see the first meaningful DX10 games such as Crysis, Alan Wake, UT2007 and many others on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...ith_DirectX_10_support

Plus its not like there is zero DX10 content right now, few games have gotten some patches and others support DX10 right out of the box and sure we'll only be getting the first meaningful DX10 games a year after the first cards were out but... the same happened with DirectX9, its not easy working with a new API.

wrong....very wrong.

The first DX9 cards appeared in August 2002 with the mighty 9700Pro it was followed a few months later by the 9500 and 9500Pro.

Oh yeah sorry you are completely right. However my point still stands.

Yeah, I had no critsism of the point you were making...just the video cards facts thats all....I'm a bit picky like that.