DirectX 11 detailed; Vista and DX 10 / 10.1 hardware supported
 

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/22/di...are-supported/

At its GamesFest event in Redmond today, Microsoft shared the first details of DirectX 11 – the numerically superior successor to DirectX 10.1 – which will feature full support for Windows Vista, as well as future versions of the popular operating system. Worried about hardware? DirectX 11 won't just ignore your fancy DirectX 10 or 10.1 cards – nope, it offers support for both of those standards, as well as for new DirectX 11 hardware.

But what's new and exciting about DirectX 11, you ask incredulously. How about a "new compute shader technology" that gets your GPU ready to do more than just boring old 3D graphics – instead "developers can take advantage of the graphics card as a parallel processor"? Not doing it for you? How about "multi-threaded resource handling that will allow games to better take advantage of multi-core machines" since, y'know, most every computer nowadays has multiple cores? Or "support for tessellation" which allows "developers to refine models to be smoother and more attractive when seen up close"? Something in there has to tickle your fancy.

What it probably means for most of you is this: as hardware manufacturers develop new chipsets to take advantage of DirectX 11's new features, you should be able to snag some of that older 10.1 gear for a song.

:) Wonder when they are going to release the Windows 7 beta. :|

omg should I just wait until dx11 cards come out b4 i buy my new rig? how far away is DX11's release?

Would be nice if it could also be for XP, but it's obvious as to why that's the case.

Speaking of DirectX I heard there's a DX10 for XP. Dunno if it's from MS or if it's third-party - better do a Google search, hehe.

Thanks for the heads up Steve.

chrispy i would not even try to get Directx 10 or 11 install into Windows Xp, its buggy and you would need a Video card that is made to work with DX10, DX10.1, Dx11

you get all type of error and games locking up.

older Video cards can't handle DirectX 10 above that was made for DX: 7,8,9c.
you would have to have a video card that was made for DX10

he Divided the HD into two parts one for Windows Xp the other part he install Windows Vista, all the game were install into Windows XP and his Video card software were install into Vista part, when he ran the game inside Xp they use DX10 without any trouble.

but its a real headaches to get it work in Windows XP
1.) need a Video card made for DX10 and above a "Must have"
2.) get it to work in Windows Xp copy and past 3d Dlls them into system32 folder! will not always work 100%, game will lockup and get error's it be really buggy

better off buying Windows vista to use DX10 and above

True what william said, the card has to support DX10.

I think mine does. :|