worth a DX11 card?
 

a quick question. will it be worth it to buy a DX11 video card? what do you think? any sims coming along that would really benefit from DX11 over DX10?
thanks
Flyby out

Oleg says that Storm of War will use DX9, DX10 and DX11 rendering capabilities. That sounds pretty fantastic to me. There are some great possibilities included there.

Personally I'll be waiting to see what all comes of it and maybe in a couple of years I'll build a new system. I wouldn't rush out to buy one of the early DX11 cards just yet.

On the other hand if you just have to have the best thing running right now... then go nuts :D

As I understand it, some of the early dx 11 games with early cards, slow down a lot compared to dx 9 (and maybe dx10) on the same cards and games. Whether that will change when programmers get more used to dx 11 I don't know, it could be the difference will change due to drivers, or that later cards will be better optimised for dx 11.

I wish Oleg would drop a clue. I wonder if SoW will be a whole new experience in DX11 versus DX10, or just a few small enhancements here and there. Some say even tessellation won't be in great content in SoW. The reason for my question is the dropping price of the GTX285. But maybe the 5850 is still the better buy. I don't know.
Flyby out

Some are saying the ATI cards are way ahead of even the absolute latest nVidia cards. I've see-sawed back and forth between the two but it's worth looking at both camps right now too.

I just wonder if DX11 is too slow for the current batch and that the next batch will be just fine. It's like my old Radeon 9700Pro with DX9 features that it did well but was at the very cutting edge.

I think the situation at the moment is just "not enough information". That will hopefully sort itself out in a couple of months.

i suspect it will come down to the first buyers/reviewers doing fpsec comparisons in dx9, 10, 11, and seeing which gives the best compromise between speed and quality

but i agree, some indication from oleg on what version of dx he is aiming at optimizing for would be helpful. with the current changes in combining various different versions of the game engine elements (see most recent comments from oleg today), he might not know yet himself

I found the test of DX11 to be interesting. [H]ardOCP tests the title "Metro 2033". Interesting: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/...rformance_iq/1
for the low-down you can go directly to the "conclusion" page in the drop-down menu.
Flyby out

To answer your question...is it worth it to buy a DX11 card right now? The easy answer is ...no.

First, there simply isn't much done (or even in the pipeline) right now that is DX11 based. Second, as is typical, the early hardware that is released to use the most recent version of DirectX usually only does it well enough to run it...not make it sing. (remember DX10?).

Regardless of what Oleg's answer is regarding DX versions and their relation to SoW, I wouldn't bother with any of them right now. At least wait for a refresh in a few months or wait until something you really want to play is using DX11, then the value of your purchase is better realized anyway.

Well I think it depends what you want and can afford. I do have to disagree on the point on performance. I have two 5870's in Crossfire, but even when I disable Crossfire, Metro2033 and AvP3 are smooth as butter at 1920*1200, even Crysis runs well on enthusiast settings at full res on one card, but Crossfire is much better.

But if your on a budget and want to upgrade just for flight sims / SoW, I'd wait. Wait for a wider range of Fermi cards to hit the market and for some SoW / DX11 benchmarks to hit this site. Even now the ATI cards are starting to come down in price.