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Rumour control: Nvidia to add DirectX 10.1 support in 2009
Leaked roadmap shows that Nvidia won’t be supporting DirectX 10.1 until it launches its next generation of GPUs, although GDDR5 support could come this year
While ATI was quick to jump onto the DirectX 10.1 bandwagon with the Radeon HD 3000 series of GPUs last year, Nvidia still doesn’t think it warrants looking at for now. In fact, according to a leaked presentation slide, the dominant beast of desktop PC graphics has no plans to introduce DirectX 10.1 support until next year.
The guys over at TG Daily claim to have seen a leaked roadmap (but haven’t published it to protect their source), which shows that DirectX 10.1 support isn’t planned until the next generation of GPUs, which will either be in late 2008 or early 2009. As well as this, the site also claims that Nvidia will be adding support for GDDR5 memory by the end of this year.
Although DirectX 10.1 promises a lot of new features, including virtual ray tracing through Global Illumination, as well as standardised anti-aliasing patterns, the industry has yet to fully embrace it. So far, Assassin’s Creed is the only game that’s supported it, although the DirectX 10.1 features were later removed via a patch. Diablo III is also rumoured to support DirectX 10.1, although this hasn’t been officially confirmed yet.
Both ATI and S3 have released DirectX 10.1 graphics chips so far, but without game support it’s nothing but an extra tick-box with no practical use. However, once Nvidia is onboard, we’re likely to see much more in the way of games that use DirectX 10.1. Is DirectX 10.1 an important factor in your decision making process when buying a graphics card? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Nvidia are clever, they have alot of fingers in alot of pies. how many games have an nvidia splash at the start?? all of those will work fully with dx10 and nvidia cards. dx10.1 will probably wait for them. will we get any dx10 games?? the consoles are only dx9 so i think that will be hanging around for a while.
Comment by TBallS at 9:43pm 6th July 2008
It takes a few years to develop a decent game, and a bit longer if it's using a new architecture (DX10). I can understand why no true DX10 game has been released yet, and I do look forward to it, but I'm not holding my breath too much. I've got my Vista key and 64bit dvd ready and waiting, but it'll still be a little while before I install it and a while longer before I have it as my primary boot. Good things come to those who wait.
Comment by TWeaKoR at 8:19pm 4th July 2008
Nvidia have made a decision thst will make it easier for us poor devils(like me), who have only been on dual core for less thsn a year to have an eaier decison on picking video cards. I hyave two 2600 pros, but they're crap at rendering battlefiled 2142 at high res(nothe: they don't). So, I am looking at getting a geforce 9600gt, or a 4850 if the price is right. IU know both tghyese cards have future prrof features, was seriously considering a gs card, but now i know they're crap, will be steering clear. I think that until now nvidia have been an intel inn overload, they have been flooding the market with marketing tosh, and making too many vid cards that had no performance, but were masde to fill the bugget sectors. Mostly previous 86xx cards, but also 9xxx(some. Ati have done it too, A review a year ago in apcmag.com said that the 2600s " have good games performance", but i think they were trying to be diplomatic. Let's face it the only previous gen card(previous previous) that was worth it was 2900xt. I should have gone by cpc's advice. But now, the game has changed, but I hope that my choice will be easier to make no.w
Comment by wasimsouk at 7:51pm 4th July 2008
the performance hits on dx 10 versions of games are far more likely to be down to the fact that most of the code will be a butchered version of thew original dx 9 code. Effectively its the same as a console port, which always turn out poorly. We haven't even seen a proper directx 10 game yet, so I reckon Nvidia is probably spot on with support in 2009
Comment by NewParadigm at 5:17pm 4th July 2008
and continuing from what Cogwulf said... not just coding it twice, but designing and devolping the game twice using a complete different architecture. Besides once games developers release pure DX10 games, that will trigger a mass move to Vista and DX10, leaving DX9 for the draggers and the people who can't afford to upgrade, but most gamers will make the move meaning that the developers would fail to recover the cost of the DX9 version.
Comment by PokerMuppet at 4:37pm 4th July 2008
because giving a game both dx9 and dx10 effectively means the game will have to be programmed twice
Comment by Cogwulf at 4:02pm 4th July 2008
I'm not sure why game developers don't just create games with dx9 and dx10/10.1 modes, that way their games would be available to almost everyone in the games market, be compatible with almost all hardware, and (most importantly) it would mean devlopers can tell manufacturers to shut up, stop telling them how to make their games and get back to making hardware to run their games on and having pickering politics among themselves. That way, we'd all be happier and the lesser-spotted badger newt would be saved from certain extinction.
Comment by EdArch at 2:30pm 4th July 2008
As I recently posted in a previous topic, all DX10 or DX10.1 usage is just to give a slight graphical edge over DX9 versions with the game designed around DX9. Until there is a further mass movement away from DX9 based XP companies will continue to design around that platform. I appreciate nVidia concentrating on getting best out of todays games and not wasting time releasing support for technology that is not being used properly. I predict that the move to Vista and DX10 won't happen until the first DX10 based games are finally released and that doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.
Comment by PokerMuppet at 1:50pm 4th July 2008
It's just a shame that limited as it is, DX10.1 did offer improved AA performance on Ati cards, until Nvidia threw their weight around to get it removed from Assassins Creed. The one reason why i won't be buying the game anytime soon. At least the new generation of cards from Ati have forced Nvidia to re-think their pricing strategy and whatever flavour of card you buy should be a lot cheaper as a result. I'd just like to see software developers use the tools that are there to make good games, rather than be involved in a constant round of "whose hardware do we optimise for this time".
Comment by frontline at 1:07pm 4th July 2008
going to be completely honest here... we all know the HUGE performance hits of DX10 gaming over dx9, and at the end of the day, between lack of support from developers, and the fact nvidia's 280 chips vastly outperform the 9series, and have utterly no comparison to the 8series chips, i dont mind nvidia dragging their heels over dx10.1, i think it's a nice thought to have DX10 at this point, but the chips still havent reached the level where they can handle it, i feel it's better for the likes of NVIDIA, and ATI, and soon INTEL, to learn what works best for the optimum DX10 performance... and in a years time, or possibly two years, DX10.1 or 10.2 will become the mainstay, and budget chips could well give us the same performance as my 8800 currently does with DX10...
Comment by xioxenna at 1:04pm 4th July 2008
i think what nvidia maybe doing is letting AMD throw loads of money at a new standard, and then using it once it shows gains over a previous standard. while AMD have an expensive, but ultimately not much better product, nvidia show up a little late and get a cheaper, more refined product, or skip the standard altogether. this may be why nvidia never went to GDDR4, because their cheaper GDDR3 was pushing similar clock speeds at the time, and why they are delaying adding GDDR5 to their cards. as for DX10.1, DX10 is hardly out the door yet, so whats the point in supporting an unused format when you can squeeze more money by adding to more expensive cards later?
Comment by soddit113 at 12:37pm 4th July 2008
I think it is purely down to that ATI cant beat nVidia on performance at the moment but they are trying to make sure that they at least tick all the boxes. Overall a good strategy for anyone who will be buying a gfx card and intend to keep it for a year or so. So I think ATI hoping that they will sell at least a few more cards based on that nVidia on the other hand, dont need to "waste" money on future functionality that arent needed immediately and "relax" a bit more and plan ahead so when the games get released with 10.1 they can then release the cards when it makes most commercial sense to do so
Comment by jonisaksson at 12:32pm 4th July 2008
This could be an extra upper on the nvidia, by waiting it out they'll be able to save a lot of time and money by only using it when it's fully needed (Or wanted) but in the same sense, it does give ATI and extra wow factor over nvidia, but a useless wow factor at that.
Comment by JoeLiles at 12:18pm 4th July 2008
I do have a touch of concern here that they are turning up to the party late, be that fashionably late. Ati have had a year or so time to work and develope the DX 10.1 and used GDDR5. This will give them an edge but as the article mentions, games developed to use DX 10.1 have been patched to downgrade and there is a feel in the industry that DX10.1 was kind of rushed out.
Comment by crazyceo at 12:09pm 4th July 2008
Nvidia are clever. They dont use expensive GDDR4 or 5 until its needed. They dont support Directx10.1 because theres no suitable reason too, (mainly because what software do we know utilises it?) As the review says, nvidia works on performance for present and near future uses, not something that might happen 5 years down the road. Directx10.1 should to everyone buying and building a pc mean nothing, and shouldnt be aimed for because it supports something thats not even used yet. Diablo III wont be directx10.1. I cant see that happening when most of the market has only caught up with directx10. Which to my eyes is nothing but a con by microsoft to get everyone onto the vista bandwagon for that reason. Nvidia's marketing teams have it spot on so far. Whether people for or against the company disagree, you cant disregard the fact the company is worth millions and is probably the best known and best graphical hardware and chipset company to date.
Comment by Lightning_Pete at 11:39am 4th July 2008
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