What future holds for me(us)?

Hello guys. First, I want to express my gratitude to everybody because I learned so much from this forum last 24 hours. Thanks a lot!!!!

But while browsing and reading post I've seen that some users have concerns about New Microsoft Vista, DX10 and with there compatibility with current video cards.

The thing is, I want to change my old laptop (HP nx6110, 1,6Ghz, 760MB RAM, 128 MB Intel IGA900 video card) to new one(something 2Ghz, 2GB RAM, 256 MB ATI x1600 video card). My rush to buy new laptop related to the not distant future relases of Company of Heroes(very promising) and Medieval II: Total war. (best strategic franchise in the history of game industry).

But one thing makes me to hesitate. What is going to happen when DX10 and Mic Vista come out? Will my video card be obsolete with that event and I will have to buy new notebook? Will I able to play games which is going to require DX10?

Thank you very much in advance

PS. Sorry if I have mistakes in writing. English is not my native language.

 

As for DX10, its gonna be a while for it's release. You will probably be able to play most games on that card for a year or so. I really don't know, it's hard to tell what comes at you in the future.

 

You know...even if English isn't your first language...it's pretty good. Better than a lot of the people here who's first language is English to boot lol.

Even when DX10 is out, I'm pretty sure many games will still have a DX9 version out...just lowered in visual quality of course. No, your DX9 will not "go to waste" anytime soon.

 

At the moment only two games are confirmed as Vista//DX10 only, Alan Wakes and Halo 2. It'll be some time before DX10 starts to become a standard when game playing, if Pixel Shader 2 is anyting to go by you're looking at two years at least until we start getting a steady supply of games that fully take advantage of DX10. And by the time those games come around, any DX10 launch card (ie. Nvidia 8 series) will probably not be powerful enough to play those games at decent detail levels anyway.

 

i hope this means my new ati x1600 will be good for another 3-4 years? or is that statement a stretch?

 

No current single video card will be "good" for 3-4 years, not even a 7900GTX.

 

false, "good enough" is different for everyone.

 

True, my 1.5 year old 6800 go still gets decent framerates, which is great for me.

 

I never said "good enough" but its all relative. Anyone who is buying a 7900GS is going to be a gamer demanding, at the very least, decent performance and is not going to be someone that will settle for 640x480 and the lowest settings. If we take an objective look at it, I doubt you'd ever be able to call something like a Geforce 4 4600 (which was top of the tree about 4 years ago) good nowadays and considering that the speed at which system requirements are increasing is getting faster by the minute, you're not even going to get that sort of performance in 4 years.

 

I think you can't compare the best laptops of those years with the best laptops right now. The laptops of todays are more compareable with the desktops.

 

That's a desktop card I'm talking about (which was top of the line as well) and as you can see even then the comparison doesn't come off very favourably.

 

To add to the milieu, most first-gen DX10 cards will only technically run DX10. They probably won't be stellar performers at it. And FYI, I got an eMachines m6805 3 years ago as of December. It had a Radeon Mobility 9600 card in it. Would a Radeon 9600 card be a decent card now? You be the judge A 7900GS will still be a pretty good card in 3 years. It won't run top of the line games at 100fps, but it won't be a slouch by any means.
My point is that if you want/need a laptop now, it's very rare that there's actually a "bad" time to buy. Only the future can tell us if we'll get lucky and catch the industry at a high point heading into a low-progress phase.