DirectX 10 - Do you have the power?

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Did you know that DirectX 10 is only for Windows Vista? So unless you are happy with windows XP using DirectX 9, your probably going to want to get a decent affordable video card. For those who have using XP with DirectX 9 in Windows XP keep in mind that DirectX 10 is a rewrite from the ground up.

Since Windows Vista only has support for it, if you install older DirectX 9 games
Once You Know, You NeweggVista has a DirectX 9 subsystem that interfaces with DirectX 10 to allow games using previous versions of DirectX to work. However running older games in Vista means it will take additional CPU horsepower.

This is the argument then, is it worth upgrading the Vista then? If you plan to use Vista or not, if your in the market for a new PC or new video card my recommendation is try not to buy a motherboard with an integrated video card if possible.

Get a motherboard that allows you to purchase an independent video card. Plan to cool and ventilate the video card with additional fans within the case since these new generation cards are known to be power hungry and heat up.

My picks for a DirectX 10 supported video cards at this time would be an Nvidia GeForce 9 Series graphics chips card such as the affordable new GeForce 9600 GT. This is the first release of NVIDIA's GeForce 9 series that we’re taking a look at today. Typically, when NVIDIA launches a new lineup of graphics cards, we see a high-end component released first, which blows away previous benchmarks and instantly makes your current graphics card worthless. However, with the GeForce 9 lineup, we’re seeing NVIDIA take a drastically different approach, releasing a mid-range card first. The first (and only) member of the GeForce 9 series is, at the moment, available at a sub-$200 price point.

If you are looking for generation 8 cards the GeForce 8600 Series card is a good choice aswell. However pay attention to additional modifiers at the end of the model#, such as GT, GTS, GTX, XT, and XTX, since they often reveal important shader and clock-speed information. Rule of thumb you can never get enough speed and memory, since pc hardware gets outdated so fast in about 6 months time, so get as much as you can afford now. Here is an example of what I mean. Looking at these two types of Nvidia Geforce cards there is a noticeable difference in the clock speeds, this shows the GTS's clock speeds are more than just a little bit faster than those of the GT—core and stream processor clocks are up between 22% and 25%, and memory speeds have been boosted significantly giving you a that faster smooth frame rate while keeping vibrant graphics at higher display resolutions.

 GeForce 9600 GT GeForce 8800 GT GeForce 8800 GTS 512 GeForce 8800 GTX
GPU Clock Speed 650 MHz 600 MHz 650 MHz 575 MHz
Shader Clock Speed 1625 MHz 1500 MHz 1625 MHz 1350 MHz
Stream Processors 64 112 128 128
Manufacturing Process 65nm 65nm 65nm 90nm
Memory Clock Speed 1800 MHz 1800 MHz 1940 MHz 1800 MHz
Memory Interface 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit 384-bit
Memory Bandwidth 57.6 GB/s 57.6 GB/s 62.1 GB/s 86.4 GB/s

ATI also carries a great line of video cards which are coming down in price such as the X1950 Pro which is worth looking at aswell for the price its a real winner. But dont get me wrong if you can aford to buy the latest and greatest, then please do and buy my dream card, the Geforce 8800 card it can handle the most demanding, current DirectX 9 titles at resolutions, antialiasing and eye-candy settings that leaves previous generation cards gasping for breath. Visual quality is simply superb. Also the Geforce 8800 card is ready for those highly anticipated DirectX 10 game titles like Crysis and Alan Awake under Windows Vista, which bring visuals that are even more incredible.

However like I said, you can never be fully upto date with your PC hardware, Nvidia now with the G94 graphics processor at a stock clock of 650 MHz for the GPU along with 1625 MHz for the shader clock and top it with 512 MB of GDDR-3 memory makes it the front runner.
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