DX 10.1 specs leaked plus more about HD3800

[hell_of_doom227]

http://www.teamati.com/DirectX%2010_1%20White%20Paper%20v0.4.pdf

Interesting read.

[shabby]

If crysis is any indication of dx10 titles then dx10.1 is pretty pointless until gpu's are at least twice as fast. Dx10.1 wont be a deciding factor for me between the g92/rv670.

[callistostg]

Meh. Most of those 10.1 specifications are incremental upgrades at best, or "why the hell would I bother with that?" at worst. And the "tighter specifications" section is a laugh, too, as pretty much all DX10 level cards already do that voluntarily--they're just making it mandatory now.

It also seems stupid to release a new API when we have yet to even see any native DX10 applications, but what are you gonna do?

[AthlonXP1800]

There are no point upgrade to DirectX 10.1 while here are none of new games today took full advantage of DirectX 10 features and Shader Model 4. Games like Crysis only used a few DirectX 10 features and still used Shader Model 3!

[duffy_chucky]

There are no point upgrade to DirectX 10.1 while here are none of new games today took full advantage of DirectX 10 features and Shader Model 4. Games like Crysis only used a few DirectX 10 features and still used Shader Model 3!


transition to DX10.1 might be faster than DX9 to DX10.0 .especially with shader 4 and tesselator advantage...

[AirRaid]

I haven't been keeping up... is Radeon HD 3800 the R670 (or other R6xx) or the R700 ?

[SH64]

I haven't been keeping up... is Radeon HD 3800 the R670 (or other R6xx) or the R700 ?
R670.

Neat features , but first we need the GPUs that run DX10.0 properly.

[CaptNKILL]

DirectX10 has eliminated any interest I'll ever have in a new graphics API.

It performs worse and offers better image quality.

So whats new? :|

[mullet]

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=472

RV670 and a New Process

The AMD RV670 is built on a new 55nm process technology from TSMC and has turned out to be the move that AMD was looking for the entire time. If you remember back at the HD 2600 launch, when the 2600/2400 GPUs used the 65nm technology while the HD 2900 used the 80nm process technology, we theorized that if they could get the HD 2900 architecture to the small process technology and lower power consumption that it could be a hell of a part. It looks like AMD skipped the 65nm process and went with 55nm and got it spot on.

One of the most impressive parts of this GPU from AMD is the fact that this is Rev A hardware that they are going to be launching with. That means that the very first version of the chip was near-flawless and didn't require a lot of tinkering or work to get right. That leads me to believe that the GPU performance and power consumption is going to be very impressive.

RV670 Adds Quad GPU Support

Another note on the slides we saw confirmed the coming of Quad-GPU CrossFire configurations for AMD's RV670 part. Since the card will likely be a single slot cooler, the move to quad graphics cards is more feasible that it might initially appear. Coupling the RV670 with the also upcoming RD790 chipset will provide a compelling platform for gamers if the performance of the GPU lives up to the claims.

AMD is also indicating that they have optimized the RD790 chipset or multi-GPU configurations including 2-way, 3-way and 4-way setups.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6824&Itemid=2

Microsoft's DirectX lead program manager has set the record straight on reports that DX10.1 will render the current crop of DX10-compatible hardware "obsolete."

Microsoft's Sam Glassenberg told Next-Gen in a phone interview, "DX10.1 fully supports DX10 hardware. No hardware support is being removed....It's strictly a superset. It's basically an update to DX10 that extends the hardware functionality slightly."

He said that the update is similar to what Microsoft did with DX9. "We did make updates to [DX9] that extended the supported feature set.

"All the hardware is still supported, all the games still run, all the features are still there, we've just simply extended the feature set and the lifetime of the API," he said.

At last week's Siggraph graphics conference, Microsoft detailed the Windows Vista-exclusive API (application programming interface) DX10.1.

Reports spread across the web following the DX10.1 announcement, claiming the current array of DX10 graphics cards will become "obsolete" with the introduction of DX10.1.

Glassenberg conceded that "There will be new features [with DX10.1], and those features may be exposed on new hardware, but this is similar to the model that we had with DX9...[except] with DX10.1, we're saying [to developers], 'if you want to support the new features, you have to support all of them [including original DX10 features].'"

Even though DX10.1 will support current DX10 graphics hardware, today's DX10 hardware will not be able to support all of the features of DX10.1, which includes incremental improvements to 3D rendering quality.

But Glassenberg stated, "It's a minor update, so we don't expect any developers to say, 'oh, this game is DX10.1 only.'

"All off the games that are coming out in the next few years will take better and better advantage of current DX10 hardware."

He said Microsoft is simply planning to support upcoming generations of graphics hardware. Glassenberg added that he "has no timeframe" on when this new hardware that supports DX10.1 will be available.

The DX10.1 beta SDK is available to developers despite the fact that there are no DX10.1 cards available yet. The final version of DX10.1 is expected to ship with Vista SP1.

Glassenberg also addressed rumors that DX10--currently exclusive to Vista--would be coming to Microsoft's Windows XP. It seems that DX10's Vista exclusivity is unlikely to change.

"DX10 is built on the new, updated Vista driver model," he said, adding that DX10 takes advantage of the "virtualization and robustness" features of Vista.

[fivefeet8]

transition to DX10.1 might be faster than DX9 to DX10.0 .especially with shader 4 and tesselator advantage...

The G8x architecture actually surpasses SM4 specifications somewhat. ;) The tesselator is also not part of any Shader Model spec yet which pretty much limits it to a hardware proprietary feature for now.

The transition isn't going to be fast because the SM4.1 spec doesn't add anything radically new to the APi. It mainly added some more functionality to shader AA to increase flexibility and made a few features that were optional in previous APi's, mandatory. ie. 4xAA is a mandatory feature for SM4.1 compliance.

The differences from SM4.0 to SM4.1 is much smaller than it was for SM2.x to SM3.