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Top 11 Reasons for DirectX 11

Windows® 7 is just around the corner. Is your PC ready to take full advantage of the new operating system?

Top 11 reasons why you should get a Microsoft DirectX® 11-compliant graphics card for your PC running the Windows® 7 operating system

11. Shader Model 5.0

• How it works: Latest compute and shading language developed by Microsoft, comes equipped with a new, more flexible instruction set, and also supports an object-oriented programming model that simplifies code development.
• Benefit: Thanks to its ease-of-use, developers are transitioning directly from DirectX 9 to DirectX 11, with numerous DirectX 11 titles or engines already announced to-date.

10. Faster Frame rates

• How it works: Features such as DirectCompute 11, texture compression and tessellation enable faster gameplay on DirectX 11-compliant hardware.
• Benefit: Faster game play. For example, performance of the game BattleForge increases by up to 30% just by going from DirectX 10.1 to DirectX 11!

9. Tessellation

• How it works: Divides large polygons into a large number of smaller ones for more detailed images.
• Benefit: Smoother, more lifelike characters and more organic-looking objects in games.

8. DirectCompute 11 for game applications

• How it works: DirectCompute11 enables new graphical techniques such as Image Process & Filtering, Order-Independent Transparency (OIT), Shadow Rendering, Physics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Ray-tracing, and also allows game developers to easily move workload from the CPU to the GPU.
• Benefit: More realistic 3D effects, such as transparency, fire, smoke, hair, foilage, etc. More reactive and dynamic environments for a more compelling gameplay experience.

7. DirectCompute 11 for accelerating everyday tasks

• How it works: DirectCompute 11 under Windows 7 enables GPU-powered acceleration of a wide variety of applications, allowing them to tap into the massive parallel computing array offered by GPUs.
• Benefit: Enables faster conversion of digital media files to different sizes and formats (i.e. transcode) under Windows 7 than under previous versions of the Windows operating system.

6. Multithreading

• What is it: With built-in multithreading support, DirectX 11 enables games running on Windows 7 to distribute their workload over multiple CPU cores and GPUs for simultaneous execution, leveraging the compute power available from a balanced CPU and GPU platform.
• Benefit: Higher frame rates and more realistic gameplay.

5. Texture Compression

• How it works: DirectX 11 includes a new technique for compressing and decompressing texture data, including high dynamic range data, to minimize data size and memory bandwidth consumption.
• Benefit: Faster, smoother performance thanks to reduced memory requirements, or more visual detail without increasing your graphics memory footprint.

4. Render Post Processing

• How it works: Post-processing, a term that refers to image manipulation once 3D rendering has been completed, refers to an array of effects that improve the realism of a 3D scene.
• Benefit: Gives your 3D scene more photorealism than ever before. You have to see it to believe it.

3. Unified Driver Support

• How it works: For maximum simplicity, ATI Catalyst^TM drivers are designed to deliver a single, unified driver installation for both the Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems.
• Benefit: Rock-solid stability and enhanced game performance under Windows 7.

2. DirectX 11 Games

• How it works: Top-tier AAA developers have already started announcing DirectX 11 support at this early stage of the DirectX 11 lifecycle, witharound 20titlesin development. Titles announced to-date include:
  • BattleForge (EA Phenomic)
  • S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (GSC Gameworld)
  • Dirt2 (Codemasters)
  • Lord of the Rings Online (Turbine)
  • Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited (Turbine)
  • Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion)
  • Genghis Khan (Kylin)
• Benefit: A more immersive gaming experience and faster frame rates with an ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series graphics card, DirectX 11 and Windows 7.

1. Only DirectX 11 unleashes the full potential of Windows 7!

• Incredible speed and performance
• Amazing image quality
• Rock solid stability

• DirectX 11