worth a DX11 card?

[zauii]

Originally Posted by Flyby

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

A whole new experience, no.
A better experience.. yes. DX10, DX11 doesn't give you an alternate game. The hype behind DX10 around the release of Crysis was one of the biggest bloopers, seeing as DX9 could do everything promised as Dx10 exclusive a long with the whole 64 vs 32 bit mishap. And yet today the difference between dx10,9 is slim, even more so between 10,11. We'll see eventually if the developers can utilize tessellation etc with dx11 a lot better.

I'd probably wait and see to be honest, Oleg haven't revealed much regarding this.

[KG26_Alpha]

Originally Posted by Flanker35M

S!

Alpha, you got a 480GTX? Which brand? I chose between Asus and PNY, the latter I favored because of previous good impression with my GeForce I had earlier.

Hi

I try to always buy MSI Nvidia cards for myself, the punters get what they have asked for usually the cheapest when building a Gamer PC

N480GTX-M2D15

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=pr...0&prod_no=2040

[Flanker35M]

S!

I had earlier before ATI this MSI 280GTX, was a nice card but damn noisy cooling fan. A friend of mine bought it off me when I went 5870HD. Ages ago my 9900GT GeForce was PNY and very nice.

[Flyby]

Originally Posted by zauii

A whole new experience, no.
A better experience.. yes. DX10, DX11 doesn't give you an alternate game. The hype behind DX10 around the release of Crysis was one of the biggest bloopers, seeing as DX9 could do everything promised as Dx10 exclusive a long with the whole 64 vs 32 bit mishap. And yet today the difference between dx10,9 is slim, even more so between 10,11. We'll see eventually if the developers can utilize tessellation etc with dx11 a lot better.

I'd probably wait and see to be honest, Oleg haven't revealed much regarding this.

I don't know that I'll be able to wait until SoW is released, unless it's released sometime before July. I hope to be well in building my new rig by then, It's been a long time coming. Besides, I've seen where the 5850 is as fast as the GTX285, and costs less. Then there's the GTX470. Might as well go with a DX11 card. No telling what fabulous air-combat sim might spring forth to take full advantage of DX11.
Flyby out

[baronWastelan]

Image Quality: DirectX 11 Vs. DirectX 9
2:00 AM - April 22, 2010 by Don Woligroski

Before I say anything else, I'm going to mention the experience I had in evaluating DiRT 2's DirectX 11 implementation: it turns out that people see what they expect to see. I'm as guilty of this as anyone, which is why we collect objective data like screenshots to support any conclusions we make. Despite the proof, you would not believe how many people have accused me of making a mistake when comparing DiRT 2's DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 visuals. Some folks assume that the difference is huge, and the mind tends to play tricks to convince its owner that expectations will be met. I've had discussions with readers claiming that the difference between DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 in DiRT 2 is like night and day, that it's incredibly obvious to them, and if the evidence doesn't support that opinion, then the evidence must be flawed. But the evidence shows that the differences are minor at best, and completely unnoticeable during gameplay at worst.

Why am I mentioning this? It's a pre-emptive strike, because Aliens vs. Predator falls in the same boat. Folks, it is almost impossible to tell if this game is running in DirectX 9 or DirectX 11 mode during actual play. Despite the impressive tessellated alien mesh on the previous page, I am convinced that there is no realistic way to tell if the game is running in DirectX 9 or 11 mode while playing it unless AA is enabled, assuming your style of gameplay doesn't involve spending time standing still and staring at alien corpses until they melt away.

While the potential for tessellation to improve the detail of a 3D model is undeniable, any noticeable increase in the final result depends on the difference between the appearance of the standard version vs. the tessellated version. The standard alien model is extremely well-detailed, and so meticulously crafted, in fact, that I don't think it's at all practical to assume anyone would see the difference while playing this game. Perhaps a player might notice something if they scrutinize a non-moving alien body, but while actually playing the game and fighting the aliens, it's completely unapparent.

What about high dynamic-range AO and DirectX 11-enhanced shadows? These features are even subtler than the tessellation effect. In a static screenshot comparison, you need to struggle to find any difference whatsoever.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rk,2606-4.html

[Flyby]

Well baron that's an interesting article,and it seems to support your POV. Thank you for the link. It was very informative. I surmise from this that buying a card which supports DX11 at this time, and with SoW_BoB in mind, is superfluous. Probably it's best for future-proofing, provided something or some sim comes along to take advantage of it. I noted that the article also let me know that I needn't worry about straining my CPU to overclock it to it's max (on air, that is). But I'd like to wait until SOW's requirements are released before making a final decision on how much to overclock my little i7-920.
Still, while a DX11 card may be useless for SoW, or any sim/game at present, I'll probably buy one since a card like the ATI5850 performs as well as the GTX285 and still costs less, last time I checked. It's a no-brainer. Oleg's sim will probably make use of more on-board memory, so I'm looking at the GTX470, if budget allows. It's not really that much of a step up from the 5850, but it has more memory. I doubt that Oleg's sim will make great use of tessellation (why? I don't know. I just think not) in an air-combat sim. Besides, I hope to be too busy trying to stay alive to notice the subtleties ("goodness those clouds look awesome...BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!! Great looking smoke!! Pretty FLAMES too!!!Over the side!)
Flyby out

[Novotny]

Thank you Baron, some sense for these troubled forums.


though worth mentioning - never take one site's reviews over another. Compare 5.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Flyby, there are also new updated 2Gb cards from ATI in 5xxx series. And a refresh is on it's way as well some time this year and next year, who knows Interesting article indeed.

[Flyby]

S~! Rgrt, Flanker35M. I'll check about and see what I can find per that info. I hope it's sooner rather than later. I'd hate to think I'd have to wait one more year for a memory-capable card to run SoW without stutters.
Flyby out
edit: found this: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...on-review.html

[Flyby]

oh, btw, if you follow the link to hardwarecanucks' review of the 2gb ATI 5870 jump straight to the conclusion for the bottom line on performance. SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

There is not much benefit to just adding another gig of memory to this card. That seems to be the essential truth of other reviews I've read of video cards that added that extra gig of memory. If nothing else in the architecture changes, then the results are minor at best. Now if the memory bus was opened to 348mb or 512mb we might see that extra memory put to good use, otherwise it seems a bit of a gimmick. I was hoping this time it would be different. Maybe it will be different in SoW, at least to possibly limit stutters.
Flyby out