Do I need a new card to take advantage of DirectX 11?

Mugsy

Posts: 772   +203
Simple question:

I have two cards Crossfired together, a Radeon 3870 x2 in my primary 16x slot, and a standard 3870 in the second 16x slot (running at 8x). They are Direct X10 cards (manufactured in 2007).

I know they "work" with Dx11, but do I need NEW cards to take advantage of the new features of Direct X 11, or can my old cards produce the same results?
 
You'll need new cards - AMD cards in the 5xxx series or nVidia cards in the GTX4xx series. Honestly though, the graphical differences are going to be hardly noticeable between DX10 and DX11 games except where tessellation is involved - and most of those games are too rough even on the current DX11 capable cards. One more thing - the game has to support DX11 features - there aren't too many of those around yet and Dirt 2 (which does) looks great even on older cards not capable of DX11.
 
If your considering getting new graphics card/cards then by all means get dx11 compatible cards. But LNC is correct.
 
DX11 seems to be on a much faster and complete adoption path than DX10 and there is a slew of games coming out over the next year. this comparison may help you decide. Keep in mind that this bench was made to show off DX11 and is heavily tessellated, but it is where the design of games is headed.
note the stone walk and the shingles on the houses etc..If that does anything for you, you may want to go with DX11.
Hope it helps :)
 

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