DirectX 9c

[Áedán]

Microsoft appear to have released DirectX 9c. Whilst it should enable all those funky new features on the newest graphics card, I've no idea what it'll do for existing graphics cards.

What are your experiences with DirectX 9c?

[Razorfish]

Can anyone download it, or will it be included in SP2?

[Áedán]

Yup, anyone can download it from Microsoft.

Microsoft don't generally include DirectX in their service packs as a rule. Many companies that use the service packs don't use DirectX.

[Razorfish]

Thanks, you tried it?, im abit nervous about installing it, cause you cant go back..can you?

[danrok]

I like a gamble - I may give it a spin later on...

[karbon86]

i just installed it and broke my unbreakable score of 7k in 3Dmark03, with DX9.0b the closest i could come was 6960 so i had a 50 point increase in performance but the 3d03 test stopped due to "window lost focus during test" message but i still got my score. I aso went from 48K auquamark to 49K but don't expect much of an increase in performance.

[cadaveca]

the benfit of having 2 drives and only keeping windows files on one and everything else on the other means that reinstalling your OS is no big deal....hey, you can even extract a wizard that will create a disk that will install itself! i'll take the plunge and run some benches anyway.
the biggest thin g in performace that has made a differnce for me is the order that i install drivers.....usually i'll do windows, updates and directx, chipset drivers, vid drivers....and then anything else with the sound card last....so reinstalling directx for me means i might as well do a fresh install anyway....will post results!

[cadaveca]

btw, if you create a sytem restore point you can get rid of this version of directx...maybe that's why it's 9c and not 10

[Razorfish]

cadaveca: id love to hear about the results that you get in the benchmarks, please let me know when you get an idea, this could be my chance to get a nose past my mate aquamark score. Thanks.

[Pitch]

I can't get farcry to work on it....

[Daniel ~]

Running it now Pitch, on my 8RDA+. I didn't see any difference. 6800 GT Graphics. 2000Pro 2500M 1 gig PC 3700 Ram.

[cadaveca]

6036 to 6048 3dmarks
commit charge 100/2018
asus 9800 pro 398/365 org bios
axmhfqq4c @ 11x200 1.58v

noticeable differences:
1st game test:
1 screen with only one plane went from 702 high fps to 720 fps..got the same high by going to xt bios @ same settings
3rd game test:
temporal AA now seems to work...gone are the big black outlines and back is the smoothness. troll's detail and shadowing are blended much better with 9xc
Pixel shader2.0
gone are the "fuzzy"spots between high detail areas and mid detail areas. can't even tell a differnce now with my eyes 2 inches away from the screen.
sound test 2 and 3 had more bass...and less static. it is only in this specific part of 3dmark03 have i ever experinced static of any sort on this card, period. no other application has this effect.
otherwise the munbers are quite close... after 3 runs of each all's well....no issues with far cry for me either.

[Daniel ~]

Did you update to ver.1.1?
Hate to mention it but it may be your ATI cards...

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Did you update to ver.1.1?
Hate to mention it but it may be your ATI cards...

of course, daniel!
the last version of dx favored ati way more the nvidia...this is well known. As well, your 6800 has solved the problems of the previous versions and thier missing registers....i'd like to hear from a 5900u or 5950 owner the diff.
not much difference in score, but there are such noticable improvements VISUALLY that i don't care about points....besides....my newest upgrade was just for a system that plays HL2 decently...S940 and a ASUS x800 PE are next for me!

[Daniel ~]

And so?

[cadaveca]

the code for nvidia's card are almost exaclty backwards....because of the achetecture....remember my thread earlier about it....
i said wait for the new dx9...
and now it's here.
the new dx takes into account the card you are using much more and has been slightly optmized for nvidia achetechture... most were aware that this was xoming... but because microsoft decided to go with ati's achetechture first, alot of people were pissed.
you've also got to remember that the major reasons for this shift in everything is highly due to pci-x....if you've been following the technology of pci-x as closely as i have, you'd be quite amazed....they are only about 3 weeks behind schedule...

by this version of dx the card you are using is not supposed to be the issue....and it was nvidia's cards that had problems, not ati's...

far cry's 1.1 does not catch upto date with dx9c....so most like ly it would not be farcry...probably he didn't reinstall all his driver's after dx

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

And so?

i don't know.lol
i'm excited because maybe i can buy a blue video card now...it just might make it now that i can buy the nvidcards and not worry that i just wasted my money

[dolanenwindrift]

It's far from a waste of money to buy an nVidia card, especially now that the performance difference is so small. The real question is how the 6800 will run under 9c with games that support it - Far Cry with patches does this yes?

[Daniel ~]

There are mixed reports concerning PCI-X.

[Daniel ~]

Originally Posted by dolanenwindrift

It's far from a waste of money to buy an nVidia card, especially now that the performance difference is so small. The real question is how the 6800 will run under 9c with games that support it - Far Cry with patches does this yes?

Yes, it runs very well for me, but I'm still very near the beginning of the game, about 6 check-points in.