How Well will 7950GTX run DX10 Games?

I am not sure if this question can be answered, but how well will the
nvidia 7950 GTX paired with a T720 run DX10 games such as the upcoming Cryis and Unreal Tournament 2007. Will it handle it at good FPS?
To my understanding Crysis and Unreal were both running on non DX10 GPUs before the 8800 came out. Is this correct? If so, I would assume it should run it quite well.
How well do you guys think the 7950 GTX will hold against any mobile DX10 GPU that may come out, and what's different about the DX10, or to make it more clearer what makes it better? Will the 7950 become pretty much severely outdated as its a jump from dx9 to dx10 unlike the jump from 6xxx to 7xxx?
I know those are alotof questions and I can understand if you can only guess or estimate, but any feedback or thoughts are appreciated.
Thank You.

 

Yes, it will handle it at good FPS.
However, it will not be able to run with any of the DX10 eye candy.
The thing with the Geforce 8 series is that it uses a totally different architecture. For example, instead of having seperate pipelines like in previous cards, the Geforce 8 series has shared pipelines. This new architecture meant that the new stream of GPUs were much more efficient at handling complex graphix are thereby provide better performance.
I'm not sure about other Geforce 8 series cards, but the higher end ones, the 8800 series, seriously outperform the 7950GTX.

 

As Budding has said, the game should run quite well. But the extra features of Dx10 will not be present. You have to remember, that the Go 7950 GTX is still a very strong graphics card, and it will live on for many years to come. If you compare it to some of the DX10 cards that are planned, it will quite easily beat them on raw power, except for the Go 8800. That card, however, hasn't been announced yet, so we don't know the specifications, however, it should be based on the current G80, with many power optisisations made to it.

As a result, the flagship model should outperform the Go 7950 GTX, but not massively, as alot of tweaks need to be made to reduce power consumption, and heat output. It is also thought that the 384-bit bus currently used in the 8800 GTX, will be scaled back to 256-bit, to save on cost and card size.

 

Thanks for your thorough and quick answers. I now feel a lot better about my gtx now.

 

Your good for years on your 7950gtx. (On DX9 mode of course)

 

wait link1313, your comment sparked my interest.

does that mean that future dx10 games (say a year from now) will all run on current generation dx9 cards? (as long as its in dx9 mode)?

will there be games that will have ONLY dx10 mode then? if so, when do you think that'll be? i mean when will dx10 games be totally mainstream and all over the shelves?

im looking at a go 7700 with an asus G1 and dont know if i should get that for college (hopefully all 4 yrs without switching another laptop)

 

Well a direct x hasn't not been backwards compatible for a long time. But i believe this one is not backwards compatible, therefore if direct x10 features are used I don't see how a GPU without the technology to handle them will be able to =/

Nobody can really answer that, but i know I can still play games in direct x7 mode if i wanted to.

 

so pretty much anyone who buys a laptop now is screwed for the next few years and cannot play any next gen games?

thats so lame, why do they even bother selling laptops then

 

I didn't say that, in fact nobody here knows.
You can play next generation games (i.e. crysis etc). Just like people with older GPUs that were designed for past versions can play on newer versions.
But they did say dx10 is not backwards compatible so (I have no clue) but i'm guessing you will have to select an option in-game for dx9 mode. But you can still play it obviously because companies want to make money and your still playing the game itself.

 

errr what?
lol
you really confused me
so if i get an Asus G1 with the go7700 right now, i WILL be able to play dx10 games in the future? (just not at the amazing dx10 graphics?im ok with that btw)

 

Quoting here,

"Aside from a handful of Windows Vista DX10 launch games, most PC games shipping in the next year will be DirectX 9 titles. Since the number of Windows XP DX9 video card system owners will dwarf the Windows Vista DX10 video card installation base for quite some time, we'd have to guess that the DX10 game developers will create DX9-compatible fallback versions of their games to make them playable on current hardware.


We're going to see games developed for DX9 but written with the understanding that DX10 is coming. The transition isn't going to be too difficult, according to Epic's Tim Sweeney: "DirectX 10 is a nice incremental step up from DirectX 9, so games currently in development on Windows XP/DirectX 9 will be able to move to DirectX 10 with minimal hassle." Smartly architected DX9 games can be rewritten to incorporate DX10 fairly easily, but we can expect many of those initial ports to use the faster DX10 API to only improve performance because artists and programmers will need extra time to design and implement completely new DX10-powered effects."

James Yu - Game Spot

 

and this 'year' refers to 07 right?
err
still not too convincing for me !
i guess i'll wait til summer and see what happens then

 

Yeah thats what I decided to do too, no point to get a DX9 card when we're on the verge of DX10 cards coming out. Especially not if you're dropping a few grand on something that will soon be obsolete (or not cutting edge).

 

but something's still bothering me
when they say its not backward compatible, is that from a software or hardware point of view? or is it a developer or a user point of view?

like, abyss, if we wait it out and buy the dx10 card during summer time, and it turns out the dx10 cards cant run dx9, im going to be PISSED!

 

Nope I already asked some guys here that and they said that DX10 cards can run all DX9 games and stuff. I'd say your safe, but you can find my thread, or just a sec I'll get it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=101364

I pretty much decided to wait.

 

yeh i too decided to wait.....but then what of this whole 'not backward compatible' issue then?

 

I have a 7900GTX with only 256MB ram on that Gpu. @stock i get 4500+ 3dmark06 and 7800+ 3dmark05 scores. Can my GPU handle crysis well at high settings and a res of 1440*900?

 

the nvidia 8800 series currently out can play DX9 and older games. the cards have been out for several months but Vista's offical launch was like yesterday or something. nvid a would not release a card that nobody could use for several months.

 

well that card has about the same 3dmark05 score as my desktop 7800GT, and my GT cannot handle FEAR maxed out at 1280X1024. I am going to have to say no, your are going to be looking at medium settings at best and possible a lower resolution.

 

Actually I think Crysis is heavily optimized, I think you will be able to play it on full settings. Just like Far Cry was very heavily optimized and ran flawlessly even on a X800. So don't worry the game won't run on your go 7900GTX. The 3Dmark scores has nothing to do how your card performs in games. If you who had a 7800GT desktop couldn't run F.E.A.R in high settings but scored equally to his 7900GTX go, then I would say his 7900GTX beats your 7800GT.

Me myself who own a M170 with a 7800GTX can play F.E.A.R with all high settings, except soft shadows and AA at 1920x1200 at very good framerates. Who needs AA anyway in such a high resolution?

 

i dont like this obsolete thing
i really want a laptop now! been eyeing the G1 for quite some time, and now just because of dx10 , i am not getting it.... noo!

 

Seriously I hardly think this is a matter of concern. Fact of the matter is if you had a 7950gtx you couldn't possibly be disappointed....

Secondly gaming software companies want to make money. So until direct x10 is the only thing that will ever be used by the vast majority of the population games will still be coded to run with everything.

 

so the go 7700 will run dx10 games for atleast 4 more years? lol

 

No but many game makers are saying they will continue to support DX9 until 2009 at which time a 2 year old notebook would struggle to play modern games anyway, whether its GPU Is DX10 or DX9.

 

aww
my mom is super mad at me when i told her i want to buy another laptop 2 years into college (im a senior and my college tuition will be well over 40k a year).

so now shes refusing to get me the G1 unless i promise i wont switch until after college!!!

 

LOL, you lucky kid at least she is buying a laptop for you. I have to buy my own, although the college I am going to provides tablet notebooks for all of their students. So I will probably make a good desktop so I can game a little.

 

ah
see i currently actually own a laptop already from last year but when we bought it, we didn't buy it wiht gaming in mind, so in theory, i could get a desktop and bring this laptop over too to lectures/ if needed...
but meh i duno

 

Ok, only just skimmed this thread, but didn't seem anyone had a really clear answer.

No, your GPU will never be able to run DX10 games. Not a single one. Tough luck. DX10 is not backwards compatible in any way, and any DX10 game requires a DX10 GPU.

However: Game developers aren't stupid. Right now, maybe 2% of all gamers have a DX10 GPU. In a year or two, it may be 20%, at most.

So anyone who made a game that ran in DX10 exclusively would be committing commercial suicide.

Every game currently under development will run in DX9 mode as well, and your GPU will be able to handle those quite well.

Of course, sooner or later, games will run under DX10 *only*. But that's still years away. For comparison, it's only in the last year or so that most games have even started requiring shader capabilities on the GPU at all. Until Oblivion, pretty much every game could run without.

However, shaders originally came with DirectX 8.
So until a year or so ago, all games supported hardware as far back as DirectX 7!
Windows XP shipped with DirectX 9, and that was 6 years ago. So you do the math on how old DirectX 7 was when it finally became obsolete last year... At this rate, it'll take at least 6-8 years before a DX10 GPU will be *needed*.

 

OH
so a G1 will definitely be useful for 4 more years even with new games coming out?

 

There's nothing definite about it. I agree with Jalf in that the majority of people are not going to have DirectX 10 for years to come - it's logical. The Asus G1 is a great notebook right now; in four years, it's really hard to say what it will be like; almost impossible. You'll just have to buy the computer when you need it, and when you buy, buy the best one you can afford and hope it rides the technology wave for long enough that you can get ample enjoyment out of it.

 

it'd really be a better choice to use your 1 year old non gaming laptop and get a desktop with an 8800

then you'd be future proofed and have a really powerful gpu

cause the g1 in 4 years, as powerful as it is, will struggle to handle games at med.

think about games 4 years ago and ask yourself "if a gpu in a laptop that struggles to run the highest demanding game at high then", how well will it run today's games?

then ask the same question for a desktop and you will see the difference

 

And if you wait a year, and get something with a 8800, then that will struggle 4 years later. In effect, you've gained nothing. It won't last longer. You just buy it later, and it'll get obsolete later. But it still has the same useful lifespan.

 

Indeed. There is no staying ahead of the curve when it comes to PC gaming. My laptop now won't max out every game, why would 4 years from now?

 

Honestly I cannot even remember what GPU was out 4 years ago... Oh yea wasn't it the Geoforce 4 or something? Anyway I doubt that would play any modern games at even med settings now. I was doing a little research on some of the older games and apparently Halo and Morrowind were considered like some of the most demanding games out. Hehe now they play well on a GMA950.

So basically at 2 years a comp is feeling its age, at 3 years its almost ready to retire and at 4 years, well you can do word processing on it. Now this is a really big generalization, but you will find that it applies to all but the most advanced notebooks. Of course desktops are a different story, at 4 years they still can play most games at high settings-with a few upgrades-since their main components are fairly upgradeable.

 

sigh, thats terrible

 

Its not too bad, I understand it all, the thing is that I think by waiting 3 (or so) months for a DX10 card and the Santa Rosa processor that I can get a laptop that will out perform a laptop I buy now by more then 3 (or so) months. You guys get it?

If I get a laptop now it will be obsolete N months from now, I think that if I get a laptop 3 months from now it will be obsolete more then N+3 months from now. If that's any clearer lol.

Maybe I'm on the right track?

 

Hmm that's strange: When i play @1440*900 i use 1 to 2% less pixels than you, but i can play FEAR maxxed out @30/60 fps In 10% of the whole game i get fps below 30 (i use also Vertical synchronisation, 4xAA and 16x AF).

 

There's more than just the pixel count involved though. That might not be the limiting factor then.

 

how do you mean?

 

I don´t get it..and Santa Rosa is NOT the name of an processor!!

 

yeah. its a technology... or watever the hell that is lol
so anyone wanna carefully explain what santa rosa is? or centrino while we're at that

 

We have a lot of articles and threads on that; use the site search in the top right corner of the page to find info.

 

It's Intel marketing-speak for "Buy a lot of our products".

Centrino simply means "A notebook with an Intel mobile processor, Intel motherboard, Intel wireless and Intel integrated GPU".
Usually, that also means the components are decent quality and work well together. But on the most basic level, it means only that Intel is making a lot of money off you, an piggybacking their less popular hardware on the really good stuff, forcing you to buy the entire bundle.

 

lol i know that much
but the whole integration thing... nvmm

 

I didn't think "centrino" required you to use a Intel GPU or motherboard, just an Intel chipset. I believe you can still add on a dedicated GPU and still label it as centrino, so long as the CPU, chipset and wireless card are all Intel.

 

No, it doesn't, but some of Intels chipsets have integrated graphics cores, so you are forced into using their GPU. The stanard thing for the Centrino package is an Intel Mobile processor, Intel chipset, and Intel wireless adapter. Those core three things constitue the Centrino brand, like Jalf said.

 

yea you only need a 7600gt to run crysis... and you dont even need a 7600 to run unreal 3 so your set for a while as long as you dont mind running things in dx9 mode

 

Isn't Unreal Tourney OpenGL? I thought it used to be...oh wellz