DirectX 10.1 Won't Require New Hardware

But you might want it though

Published on August 17, 2007 By Island Dog In WinCustomize News

There have been quite a few rumors on forums over the past week that DirectX 10.1 will require users to purchase a new DX10 hardware. Obviously this rumor got many people upset and got some people to believe they will have to purchase another piece of hardware to use with Vista.

During a recent interview with Next-gen, Microsoft stated:

"DirectX 10.1 fully supports DirectX 10 hardware. No hardware support is being removed. It's strictly a superset. It's basically an update to DirectX 10 that extends the hardware functionality slightly."

There will be some new features with 10.1, so if you want those abilities, then you will need the new hardware. However, there is no need to upgrade your current setup otherwise.

Comments

mittens

on Aug 17, 2007

Well, yeah.

One of the main goals with DirectX 10 was the complete overhaul of the API in such a way as to have the core API never to leave the programmer in doubt about the user's hardware capabilities. So while new features may be added, they won't be added to the "core API" in such a way as to make all DX10-capable hardware completely incapable of rendering something "hot" and "new." This was the motivation behind the DXGI (DirectX Graphics Infrastructure) component of DirectX 10. It's, basically, a very low-level set of functionality that may change from version-to-version but, for the most part, is not something a programmer has to worry about. The DXGI is essentially just one level above the graphics driver in terms of abstraction.

There, NOW YOU KNOW! And knowing is half the battle.

And you should feel like more of a nerd just for reading this.

MaxBlade

on Aug 17, 2007

lol I think its a little more than that. Nice try though.

Astyanax

on Aug 18, 2007

lol I think its a little more than that. Nice try though.

Uhm... no?

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!