worth a DX11 card?

[Thunderbolt56]

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.

[Codex]

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.

[whatnot]

And another thing I haven't seen an answer to is that how will the performance balance be between CPU and GPU.

I'm planning on investing on a new cpu to accompany my GTX285 for FSX, but it pisses me off that I can't find anything that would clock high without OC'ing them regardless of how much I'd invest.
So do I have to put my propeller hat on and go SubZero on my cooling arrangements with SOW or can I rely on decent CPU accompanied by high end GPU?

I don't need any specs at this moment, but general thoughts on the matter would be nice.

[lbuchele]

I think I agree with Codex.New generation of VGA are so powerful that we are probably in one of the rare points where hardware surpasses current software.
I suspect that we will be able to run fine SOW with the current hardware ( the very best of it, of course)

[AKA_Tenn]

So far, all the dx11 games i've tried don't look a lot different in dx10, but the difference between dx9 and dx11 is quite a bit, i think games that don't just add dx10 and dx11 layers onto an existing dx9 base, but actually make full use of dx11, u might see a bigger difference... but so far, all games have been is dx9, but with a few features from dx10/11 added after the fact.

it'd be nice to see a game where it was specifically designed to work with directx 11, and won't work without... but it'll probly be directx 15 coming out before dx11 becomes standard... if it ever does...

[Codex]

And another thing I haven't seen an answer to is that how will the performance balance be between CPU and GPU.

There is no balance yet, almost all games are limited by the GPU when pushed to their limits. You'll get very little difference in frame rates when comparing a budget processor to an extreme processor while using the same video card.

What's really important IMO is memory bandwidth, especially on Vista / Win7 as the OS sees all memory (RAM, VRAM and Page File) as one chunck of addressed space. Hence Fast VRAM, RAM and HDD speed is important.

it'd be nice to see a game where it was specifically designed to work with directx 11

The DX11 title really only indicates that the current version of the DirectX API has had additional features added. While SoW will use DX11 functions, it will most likely also use other DX functions that are from earlier revisions, e.g. " IDirectInput8::EnumDevices() " is a DX8 function that allows you to setup and use joysticks, and is still current in the API.

[AKA_Tenn]

Originally Posted by Codex

The DX11 title really only indicates that the current version of the DirectX API has had additional features added. While SoW will use DX11 functions, it will most likely also use other DX functions that are from earlier revisions, e.g. " IDirectInput8::EnumDevices() " is a DX8 function that allows you to setup and use joysticks, and is still current in the API.

i realize this... but what im trying to get at is...

its like the reason why consoles will never beat PC's in graphics... and why games designed for a console (mainly the xbox360) will always have inferior graphics, even if ported to the PC...
the xbox360 is getting old, its way slower than modern PC's... so...

lessay a company makes a game to work on the xbox360, then they port the game to PC's (that can have insanely better specs)... the PC users are now stuck with the crappy graphics cause the game was designed to run on a slow assed machine.. but if they design a game to work on a super high end machine, then turn stuff off/lower some texture sizes so it works on that lower end machine, tho it would cost a lot more, us enthusiast PC owners might actually get to see what our machines can do....

so far most of the directx11 games were ported from console, then they slapped a few dx11 features on top...

[Slechtvalk]

Dx11 would be great for flight sims.

Dx9


Dx11


Maybe in later updates, they support it.. I read somewhere you won't see any difference when using dx9/10 or 11 with SOW/BOB.

[whatnot]

Originally Posted by Codex

There is no balance yet, almost all games are limited by the GPU when pushed to their limits. You'll get very little difference in frame rates when comparing a budget processor to an extreme processor while using the same video card.

That's true for FPS's etc, but I'll have to disagree with you on that with simulations. IL-2, DCS, FSX etc are pretty much CPU frequency driven. Whether that is due to their old architechture or not I don't know. But I hope SoW will be different.

[zakkandrachoff]

whit my xfx 5850 black edition and windows 7 64 i play so many games in very detail and 1400 resolution. but the AA in middle.
Hope will dont have so dificult roblems to play SOW in some future. anyway, i have a silencer 750w. i buy another 5850 and i can do a SLI- ( i think)