Whether you put a value on those features or not, the first reason for buying a pricey 3D card is speed.
This latest update to Windows’ DirectX programming model came with Vista Service Pack one ( if you installed SP1, you have DirectX 10.1 ), and enabled a few graphics tweaks for game developers. By the point Windows seven hits, you should expect both AMD and Nvidia will have compatible hardware. And even if there’s only rare game support for DirectX eleven at launch ( as with DirectX ten and Vista ), the subsequent full-fledged version of DirectX will receive broader game-developer interest in the long run than a short-lived, incremental update like DirectX 10.1.
Therefore , buying an AMD card for its support of DirectX 10.1 would be very short-sighted. This movement is still in its early days, and we do not expect it to reach a critical mass till DirectX eleven, an element being intended to provide developers with a neutral, broadly adopted standard for the purpose.
You may hear more about parallel computing ( as it’s known ) as each graphics-card seller amps up its promotional efforts leading in to the launch of Windows seven ( Nvidia’s “Visual Computing” campaign is well in progress ), but as with PhysX and DirectX 10.1 support, bringing parallel computing to the graphics processor will not receive broad software support, and so shouldn’t be a first purchasing consideration for most consumers for quite a long time.
