Even With DirectX 11 On The Horizon....

The truth is that the largest impediment for end users to take advantage of the new graphics technology integrated in the Windows platform is third-party hardware. DirectX 10.1 is just starting to gain traction with gaming developers at approximately half a year since its introduction. The fact that Vista shipped in excess of 180 million copies by mid-2008, certainly helps create a gaming market sufficiently mature for game builders to look beyond Windows XP.

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Later Ted

There's a good article here which sets out the changes envisaged in Directx 11. Of specific interest here is the comment "This version runs on Windows Vista as well as future versions of Windows, and it will work on your Direct3D 10-class and 10.1-class hardware, while exposing the new features of DirectX 11-class hardware. Many of the features are intended to make developer's lives easier while enabling opportunities for new functionality and performance gains. Look forward to a community tech preview in the November 2008 release of the DirectX SDK and start working with this next step in the evolution of graphics technology."
Gamasutra - Sponsored Feature: Introducing DirectX 11

I guess most of us replace our Graphics cards every couple of years to keep up with new games, programs etc. so I dont think the need to upgrade to benefit from DirectX 11 will be a problem, especially since it will be a few years before programs and games will be written to access it's new features.

eggyuk said:

Although MS have said Windows 7 won't require an overhaul of your system like Vista (arguably) did, DirectX 11 will require you to buy a DirectX 11 graphics card. It's a bit annoying since I'm currently planning my new Windows 7 build but now I don't know whether to hold off until ATI releases its DX11 cards (rumoured 2009 sometime) or to just go ahead a buy one of the current 10.1 cards. I wonder whether most people would rather the DX11 cards come out before W7 and therefore have an aspect of the card they cant take advantage of yet or get the new cards when W7 is released. Personally i would rather have them in advance so everything is built, stable and ready to go on the day W7 is released.

What are the implications of running a DirectX10.1 graphics card on a DirectX 11 OS??