Conclusion

Our opinion about hardware and software support of the new API has changed somewhat since the previous test session. We used to talk about formal support of DirectX 10, but releases of such games as PT Boats: Knights of the Sea and, especially, BioShock change the situation considerably. In the latter game the DirectX 10 mode indeed raises the quality of such a traditionally complex scene element as a water surface to a whole new level. Hopefully, DirectX 10 based special effects will be used widely in upcoming games. Otherwise the promotion of the new API makes no sense at all.

There are also certain changes concerning performance of modern DirectX 10 compatibles. High-end solutions have delivered acceptable performance in BioShock and PT Boats at the maximum level of detail. Graphics cards priced at $299-599 also did well in the add-on to the popular strategy Company of Heroes.

• Thus, if support for DirectX 10 is implemented properly in the game, modern desktop graphics cards of a high enough class can ensure a comfortable or near-comfortable level of performance. It doesn’t mean they are future-proof, though. We’ll only see that in next-generation games such as Crysis.
• It should be noted that even high-end solutions often cannot cope with full-screen antialiasing in DirectX 10 games
• The arrival of the ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro into the mainstream sector has extended your choice among rather inexpensive graphics cards, but mainstream solutions are generally not a good choice for playing DirectX 10 games and offer no reserve for the future.
• Entry-level graphics cards are still hardly suitable for playing new games.

Concerning the problem of choice when buying a modern graphics card today, the absolute leader among single high-end solutions is Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX but purchasing it may be a serious hit on your financial situation.

• The ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 1GB isn’t yet worth of the considerable difference in price with the classic ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB. We recommend it only for those people who are not limited in their budget and are planning to build an ultra-fast CrossFire graphics subsystem. We didn’t benchmark performance of multi-GPU systems in this review, but will do that in an upcoming review.
• Choosing between the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB and the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB, it all depends on the particular game, yet the Nvidia card seems preferable overall.
• The ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro looks like the best offer among mainstream solutions currently. The Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB is more expensive and, as our tests showed, has problems, at least with the current version of ForceWare.
• Performance of ATI Radeon HD 2000 and Nvidia GeForce 8x00 cards depends largely on the driver, so it is virtually impossible to declare one side the absolute and definite winner.

Soon we’ll see a number of new graphics cards with support for DirectX 10, but we don’t expect any revelations from them since they will hardly differ from the current generation of DirectX 10 compatibles architecturally. As for image quality and realism, these parameters are all in the game developer’s hands now.