DirectX 7, 8 and 9 visual quality comparison

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dick Trace
  • Start date Start date
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Dick Trace

I have a dx7 capable videocard.

Will i be losing too much eye candy when playing dx8 or the newer dx9
games?

Has anyone compared the visual differences in real-world games that
support dx7 up to dx9? Screenshots?

Is OpenGL visual quality (eye candy) the same on DX7-DX9 cards?

Thanks.
 
Has anyone compared the visual differences in real-world games that
support dx7 up to dx9? Screenshots?
Click to expand...
The water in Morrowind when it is raining is stunning on a DX8 card.
There aren't a lot of games that use DX8 or 9 extensively yet though.
I personally upgrade my graphics card regularly for performance
reasons and so I can run with FSAA, it is an added bonus when the more
advanced features of my 9700 are utilised.
 
Dick said:
Is OpenGL visual quality (eye candy) the same on DX7-DX9 cards?
Click to expand...

There are two main 3D renderers : OpenGL and Direct2D (which is part of
DirectX).
Provided you get the latest OpenGL library, your video card can perform
very well. (I try and use OpenGL whenever I can because it appears
prettier for my eyes).
 
Dick said:
I have a dx7 capable videocard.

Will i be losing too much eye candy when playing dx8 or the newer dx9
games?
Click to expand...

I don;t think you can use Pxiel and vertex shaders which seems to be the
route of many newer games.

"Too much" is your judgement.
Has anyone compared the visual differences in real-world games that
support dx7 up to dx9? Screenshots?
Click to expand...

Well... it difficult to compare, since the features supported for each
generation of cards is game-specific, rather then technology specific.
Is OpenGL visual quality (eye candy) the same on DX7-DX9 cards?
Click to expand...


OpenGL and Direct3D provide similar functionality. I have not found a table
anywhere that describes which features are supported in which versions.

There's some stuff here but it's out of date:
http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/d3d-vs-opengl.html

Direct3D is up to version 9 and OpenGL to 1.4

Ben
 
What card do you have now and what games are you going to want to play.
Games like Halflife 2 and Doom III may not even be playable. HL2 I
understand can be run with eye candy off, but whats the point. I believe
HL2 is a dx9 game and Doom III 8.1. Either way, if you wand to play some of
the newer titles, a system upgrade, let alone a vid card upgrade, may be in
order.
 
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