extreme n00b questions..

hey, i want to get a dell e1705 notebook with a core duo 2 2.00 667mhz and don't know much about video cards. i want one for gaming among other things, so a card that will run most games is what i want.
question 1) i am looking at the 256 mb nvidia 7900. i will be buying in june/july of 07. will this notebook have a dx 10 card avaliable by then? and will it cost alot more, and is it worth it?
2) what can a dx 10 card do that a dx 9 cant?
3) can the 7900 run a game like rainbow six vegas?
4) will games for XP OS run on vista?
i'm sure these are extremly basic, but i don't know so they are complicated to me.....thanks for any info.

 

1. They just might. People have been saying they're getting a model refresh in June.

2. DirectX 10 apparently has more bells and whistles. Not really an expert on that topic though

3. Yes the 7900 should run it and run it well.

4. Not necessarily. Maybe, maybe not.


Hope that helps.

 

1) Possible, though we don't know for sure.
2) Additional eye-candy techniques that artists might take advantage of in order to increase their quality. What can DX9 cards do that DX7 cards cannot? The answers will be similar. DX10 is supposed to make things very realistic with advanced shading and lighting techniques, but there may be more I'm unaware of.
3) The 7900GS is the 2nd or 3rd most powerful card on the market. You'll have zero trouble with current games.
4) Yes, in most circumstances. If it doesn't work, there are always ways to get around that problem. But you really should not have a problem there either.

 

I can answer 2 and 3 mainly

2.) Dx 10 is just a more powerful card that is rediculusly expensive.
3.) I have no trouble running Rainbow Six Vegas, so there would be no reason that you would.

 

Yes it's more expensive but the games do also look better since you can have 16xAA. Of course the DX10 version of games will look better than the DX9 counterpart.

Zero trouble running games today on a 7900gs was a little exaggerating, it depends on what games you run and at what resolution.

A card that has zero troubles running games today is the 8800 desktop series. I have a 8800GTX myself, that is one helluva card using unified shaders.

Actually it's funny all these notebook graphics cards are not so fast if you think of it. Sure they are fast for a notebook, but if you take a look at for example go 7950GTX it is not even faster than the desktop 7900GTX.

 

Not entirely true! I had an x1600 in my desktop before I upgraded it to an
X1950xt, and I ran numerous comparisons of my x1600 laptop. The laptop's
x1600 ran nearly everything better, from CS:S to Prey!

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1) Most likey, they say the Ge force GO 8600 is to be released next month
This card should perform better than the 7900 and cost less! with better battery life.

2) DX10 cards are said to take a massive amount of load off of your CPU when running a DX10 game. and the lighting on DX10 games is AmaZinG.

3) YES, If my x1600 laptop can run R6-Vegas, then I'm shure a 7900 can run it great.

4) YES,

If you want to see all of the games that I have run on vista then look at the gaming history of my xfire profile. unkn
And yes, EVERY game listed, runs fine on Vista. I have yet to come across a game that doesn't run!