Recently we've been seeing the DX11 support label a lot on graphics card packaging and in lists of pluses for Windows 7.
What does the new DirectX mode bring in comparison to DirectX 9 or DirectX 10? Better looking, faster games?
Before beginning our visual analysis of performance in the three DirectX modes currently used for gaming, we need to define what DirectX is. According to Wikipedia, it's a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia. STOP! Reverse gear and we'll explain for you.
When it comes to programming there's no point in reinventing the wheel each time you turn your computer on. It's even very ill advised. Instead, the developer community makes available (in fact it's Microsoft that does this) libraries of functions that carry out given tasks and that you can integrate into your programs. This is exactly what the Direct3D (the gaming part of DirectX) API libraries are.
A tool box
The problem being that a tool used in the wrong way, however good it is, will never improve performance or quality. In theory a badly developed game which uses DX10 or DX11 could use far more resources than a well optimised DX9 game and be less impressive visually at the same time. In practice, fortunately, this isn't the case. In our tests, the "worst" cases involve an improvement in graphics quality to the detriment of performance.
Evaluation
We're going to concentrate on games that are compatible with DX9, DX10 and DX11 so as to evaluate graphics quality and performance from one mode to the next. Note that we carried out the tests with an NVIDIA card. The same tests with an ATI card and other drivers could give other results. You also need to take into account the experience curve and mastery of tools by developers. DX11 is still very recent and time is needed before its innovations can be mastered and optimally applied by the developer community.
What Windows for what DirectX mode?
Which version of DirectX should you use with your Windows OS? Here's the answer, given that you can use a previous version of DirectX as long as your Windows OS supports the following version.
DX10 and DX11 cards
DX10: ATI as of the Radeon HD 2000s and Nvidia as of the 8 series
DX 11: ATI as of the Radeon HD 5000s and Nvidia as of the 400 series
> Product Survey: Graphics Cards
For more information on Direct3D we invite you to read the following articles published on BeHardware.com:
> Direct3D 10 and GPUs
> Direct3D 11
When it comes to programming there's no point in reinventing the wheel each time you turn your computer on. It's even very ill advised. Instead, the developer community makes available (in fact it's Microsoft that does this) libraries of functions that carry out given tasks and that you can integrate into your programs. This is exactly what the Direct3D (the gaming part of DirectX) API libraries are.
A tool box
The problem being that a tool used in the wrong way, however good it is, will never improve performance or quality. In theory a badly developed game which uses DX10 or DX11 could use far more resources than a well optimised DX9 game and be less impressive visually at the same time. In practice, fortunately, this isn't the case. In our tests, the "worst" cases involve an improvement in graphics quality to the detriment of performance.
Evaluation
We're going to concentrate on games that are compatible with DX9, DX10 and DX11 so as to evaluate graphics quality and performance from one mode to the next. Note that we carried out the tests with an NVIDIA card. The same tests with an ATI card and other drivers could give other results. You also need to take into account the experience curve and mastery of tools by developers. DX11 is still very recent and time is needed before its innovations can be mastered and optimally applied by the developer community.
What Windows for what DirectX mode?
Which version of DirectX should you use with your Windows OS? Here's the answer, given that you can use a previous version of DirectX as long as your Windows OS supports the following version.
- Windows XP and prior: DirectX 9
- Windows Vista: DirectX 10, 10.1 and DirectX 11 (as long as you've installed SP2)
- Windows 7: DirectX 11
DX10 and DX11 cards
DX10: ATI as of the Radeon HD 2000s and Nvidia as of the 8 series
DX 11: ATI as of the Radeon HD 5000s and Nvidia as of the 400 series
> Product Survey: Graphics Cards
For more information on Direct3D we invite you to read the following articles published on BeHardware.com:
> Direct3D 10 and GPUs
> Direct3D 11
DigitalVersus on...