Information : Information: More SLI Fixes Coming in Vista SP1
Score: 0)Posted by: Posted by semperfi on Thursday, August 16 @ 21:56:35 MDT
Vista users will be glad to know that M$ has heard our crys for better SLI support. Recently Microsoft announced the new Service Pack 1 for Vista will include a number of SLI hotfixes along with other memory management fixes in hopes to drive more gamers to the new Operating System.
This hotfix is still currently unavailable on the M$ site but the TF Squad is working on finding a version for the Tweakers. More info on this coming soon...
Information : Information: Direct-X 10.1 Needs New Hardware
Score: 4)Posted by: Posted by semperfi on Saturday, August 11 @ 20:11:26 MDT
Sources claim the new Direct-X 10.1 Software due to be released Q1 2008 will need to new hardware to take advantage of new features. Enough news to send most G-80 and X2900 users to a boiling riot like the streets of L.A. have never seen. But what new features can DX10.1 bring to the table to make G-80 users want to upgrade? Not much according to the Inquirer, Read on...
Representatives from the almighty Vole have been speaking at
Siggraph over the last few days, and what they've said hasn't exactly
lowered the blood pressure of many attendees.
Microserfs were there to espouse the greatness of DirectX 10.1, the
next revision to the DX graphics spec, which is due to arrive with
Windows Vista SP1.
Here's the thing. DX10 hardware - such as the GeForce 8800 or
the Radeon 2900 - won't work with the new 10.1 features. The 0.1
revision requires completely new hardware for support, thus royally
cheesing off many gamers who paid top whack for their new hardware over
the last few months on the basis of future game compatibility.
But these gamers shouldn't fret too much - 10.1 adds virtually
nothing that they will care about and, more to the point, adds almost
nothing that developers are likely to care about. The spec revision
basically makes a number of things that are optional in DX10 compulsory
under the new standard - such as 32-bit floating point filtering, as
opposed to the 16-bit current. 4xAA is a compulsory standard to support
in 10.1, whereas graphics vendors can pick and choose their
anti-aliasing support currently.
We suspect that the spec is likely to be ill-received. Not only
does it require brand new hardware, immediately creating a miniscule
sub-set of DX10 owners, but it also requires Vista SP1, and also
requires developer implementation.
With developers struggling to justify including DX10 features in their
games (see the recent comments by John Carmack and Mark Rein), they're
going to be about as likely to further limit their product's market as
they are to start developing NES games again. This is especially true
given the incredibly limited benefits 10.1 is bringing to the party.
