Wednesday, December 5th 2007
DirectX 10.1 will be the Final Update for DirectX 10
AMD has revealed that Microsoft will not be releasing several versions of DirectX this time round, as was the case with DirectX 9, instead it will focus on DirectX 11 after the 10.1 update for DirectX 10 is released. With DirectX 9, Microsoft released major updates a number of times to allow for different shader models (2.0, 2.0a, 2.0b and 3.0). However, Microsoft looks set to encourage graphics companies like ATI and NVIDIA to focus on increasing performance rather than adding more features for the next few years, at least until the launch of DirectX 11. This could potentially pave the way for NVIDIA and ATI to work on multi-GPU graphics cards without the need to keep adding functionality. Microsoft will almost certainly continue to provide minor updates for DirectX, just with no major changes integrated.
Source:
X-bit labs
18 Comments on DirectX 10.1 will be the Final Update for DirectX 10
Well, at least you don't have to worry about your DirectX revision going out of date. I suppose people are still going to ditch their perfectly fine formerly-cutting-edge 8800's and 3870's for upgraded models with higher clock speeds and new features, are they not?
Also Why is AMD "revealing" this. If it came from Microsoft directly it would give it more credibility, instead its coming from a GPU manufacturer/developer which has obvious financial stakes in the matter.
It makes me Angry.
If AMD did fabricate this info, or stretch the truth, I sure hope this isn't signs to come of their marketing campaigns. They'd stand likely to lose quite a few customers to mud-slinging and falsifications.
-DX10 games like Crysis can play the same IQ settings in DX9 at higher frame rates
-Developers like John Carmack, Gabe Newell, etc are hesitant to use DX10
-Games like Halo 2 and Alan Wake (so far) are Vista only, not DX10 only
-poor performance using DX10 with no discernable IQ improvements to accommodate the frame rate drop
-etcetera, etcetera
In all it's fool hardy to imply that DX10 is fine as is. It also makes you wonder why Nvidia implement code for DX10.1 in their D8E series (rumored) and Geforce 9 series :rolleyes: Weren't they the ones who downplayed it to begin with? :wtf:
I know you see the irony of it...
-DX10.1 downplayed
-GT released to public, then sold out and sporadic ever since
-GTS released to public at higher price point
-D8E released and rumored to use DX10.1
-Geforce 9 Series uses DX10.1
Come on!
but, MS still hasn't said one way or the other between nVidia's "10.1 is not that important" to AMD's "10.1 is FIN-AL!"
either way, I could care less. 10.1 compliant hardware is at the bottom of my 'upgrade' list right now. Besides, I'm perfectly happy running my still relevant 1950PRO.
There has been no other news about DX10.X. Lets face it, DX10.1 is not new, it was talked about when Vista was released.
The new "DX" sound implementation is little more than a driver running on hardware, more like what the 9X enviroment was, and it has some of the same issues, but at least MS has stepped out of the way and allowed driver makers to fall on their face.
This is obvious on Crysis, Crysis is DX9, I don't have any doubts about this, and that is why you can play it on XP with all the features on. The DX10 version is a "DX9 coding made under DX10 API", and by no means uses all the new features DX10 has to offer. They themselves said DX10 would be used only for performance improvements (now there is the irony). Remember when MS said DX10 could give 6x the performance of DX9 in the same hardware? Well that wasn't exact. In reality DX10 doesn't give better performance with same features as DX9, but more features at the same performance level. In an attempt to justify DX10 Crytek made Very High only posible under DX10, but they got owned.
So we still have to wait until real DX10 games come out. And if current top cards can't even handle Crysis at Very High (wich is no other thing than DX9.0c fully utiliced), what's the point of releasing DX10.1 cards now? There isn't any.
By the time DX10.1 is out and developers start making games that fully utilice it's features 8800 and HD3000 are going to be considered budget cards. Who cares if 6600, 6800, or even 7600 all have SM3.0? In order to enable SM3 on games you have to use highest settings in most of them, and with those cards you can't, because they don't have the performance.
But now, on Nvidia 9 series with a claimed 2x-3x 8800Ultra performance or in Amd's R700 it makes more sense, because when DX10.1 arrives they should be at least midrange cards.
Hope it's clearer for you why they downplayed DX10.1.
BTW do you think that MS would say "DX10.1 is an incremental update that won’t affect any games or gamers in the near future" if it wasn't true? It's their product and the strongest (?) selling point of Vista...
You acted as if you thought Nvidia paid MS to say that, which is stupid.
I'd guess mid 2009 though.. I dont see it coming out in 1 year from now.