DX10 cant run DX9 games?

[-Blaze-]

a friend told me that microsoft said that DX10 VGAs will not be able to run DX9 games.

I was sure that its the other way around, that DX9 cards will not be able to run DX10 games.

is that true?

[Ominous Gamer]

a friend told me that microsoft said that DX10 VGAs will not be able to run DX9 games.

I know that part is wrong, Halo 2 is going to be DirectX 9 and is Vista only; Vista as we all know is going to suggest a DirectX 10 card.

[JuicE_]

IF that was true i dont think anyone would buy the cards..because i still love to play old games...even Q2/Q3

[einCe]

hah imagine that, having to swap between old and new vid cards to play specific games. it would turn the pc into a console of sorts

[theteamaqua]

i heard it can play DX 9 games and at increase performance

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

i dont know, didnt they run oblivion and other DX 9 games on Vista Beta 2 in extremetech??

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1969032,00.asp

but for some reason its actually slower , maybe when vista release Q1 2007, this will change

[ripken204]

vista can play anything. but vista is also the only os that will have dx10 as MS will not be making an update for xp. this is just another way of them ing with us and forcing us to buy vista

[andyisc00l]

vista can play anything. but vista is also the only os that will have dx10 as MS will not be making an update for xp. this is just another way of them ing with us and forcing us to buy vista

I doubt they did it to force vista they'd probably get in some kind of trouble if that was the case..I actually can't find the reason :-/ weird someone should find it

[ripken204]

oh that is the reason. its the same reason that halo 2 will only work on vista. MS could easily put dx10 into xp. all i know is that vista is gunna burn a whole in my pocket. i would want to get the 64bit ultimate edition and thats a good $500+. then a dx10 vid card, theres at least $300.

[Turok]

a friend told me that microsoft said that DX10 VGAs will not be able to run DX9 games.

I was sure that its the other way around, that DX9 cards will not be able to run DX10 games.

is that true?

Thats tottaly absurd.
Its like saying SM3 cards cant run SM2 games.
SM4 cards WILL be able to run SM3 games, SM2 games, and older.
The problem is that SM4's Unified Shader architecture causes a perfomance loss in the traditional SM3 and SM2 shader atchitecture. The performance penalty from running SM3 games with SM4 cards is around 20%.
Obviously you wont be able to run SM4 standards with SM3 and SM2 cards.

Regarding Halo2 for PC. The game will be forced to run on DirectX 10, which is the only way to really force it to run only on Windows Vista.
This probably means that a lot of the engine will be remade to run under the DirectX 10 API, since the Xbox version runs under SM2.
Halo2 is just used as a marketting gimmick to sell Windows Vista to Halo fans.
The Unreal Engine 3 and Crysis will be able to scale down to SM3 and probably SM2 or older by sacrificing a lot of eye candy.

BTW, if you're considering updating to a SM4 card to run Unreal Engine and Crysis engine games, dont buy the g80.
The g80 will most likely not support SM4, since the architecture doesnt use a true Unified Shader architecture.
If you want to play UT2k7 and Crysis with a nice performance, I would recommend the r600.

[TyroPyro]

I ran Starcraft (1998) just fine on Vista beta 2. Worry not.

[dinos22]

hah imagine that, having to swap between old and new vid cards to play specific games. it would turn the pc into a console of sorts

why swap between the cards .....have both in there in non-SLI....non-XF

[nn_step]

if it can run in Xp, it should run in Vista

[Hicks]

BTW, if you're considering updating to a SM4 card to run Unreal Engine and Crysis engine games, dont buy the g80.
The g80 will most likely not support SM4, since the architecture doesnt use a true Unified Shader architecture.
If you want to play UT2k7 and Crysis with a nice performance, I would recommend the r600.

But you don't even know the cards specs, let alone how well they peform, not to mention, those games you mentioned are due out in 2007, and Vista isn't out till next year, so IMO buying a DX10 card, when they first come out is pointless, if it's maninly for DX10 peformance, cause there is nothing there to use it.

[taemun]

But you don't even know the cards specs, let alone how well they peform, not to mention, those games you mentioned are due out in 2007, and Vista isn't out till next year, so IMO buying a DX10 card, when they first come out is pointless, if it's maninly for DX10 peformance, cause there is nothing there to use it.

QFT... I'll be waiting until the second revision at least (?may '07?)

t

[jkresh]

As others have said, I cant see dx10 cards not working with dx9, and even dx10 game should work fine with dx9 cards (just with some features moved), just like half life2 works with dx8 and dx7 (I think dx7) cards, just at much lower quality

[ripken204]

QFT... I'll be waiting until the second revision at least (?may '07?)

t

most likely sometime in 2008

[Vice]

Not making dx10 backwards compatible would be a huge mistake on microsofts parts, and would cost them millions.

[jkresh]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...1982044,00.asp
since Vista Aero glass uses dx9 I dont see how dx10 cards would have an issue with dx9 games (it woudl be silly for the only OS that supports dx10 cards not to be able to run its high end interface with a dx10 card).

[nn_step]

Double post there jkresh, please remove one.

[Stigma]

to OP:

Yes and no.

DX10 cannot be used to run DX9 because it is not backwards comptaible. However... all cards that support DX10 will also support DX9, and that means that you can play your old games withthe new cards witohut any problem. They will just fall back to DX9 mode. The only thing is that you won't be able to take advantage of DX10's performance optimizations when you run a DX9 game. That makes sense, since the whole reason DX10 is more efficient is because they didn't have to clutter iy up with backwards compatability.

-Stigma

[aintz]

not true. it should run all lower dx games.