If you're thinking about jumping into the Direct X 10 graphics card world, you might want to check this out first. The guys over at HardOCP.com took the time to see what all the hoopla was all about by testing the PC version of 'Gears of War', and their findings are very interesting.
"We are not sure exactly what turning on DX10 does, but we do know it causes a large performance drop on every video card. In our testing we found absolutely no image quality differences by turning this to ‘On. The only benefit was being able to use “On/Antialiasing” for 4X AA, but you need a very fast video card to use that setting. If you have a GeForce 8800 GTX/Ultra level video card you can enjoy that setting. But on the GeForce 8800 GT/GTS and Radeon HD 2900 XT you will have to sacrifice other in-game options or resolutions in order to use 4X AA. It is rather a shame because we noticed that 4X AA does improve the visual quality of this game in a noticeable way."
I think this kind of says it all about DX 10. If your rig isn't up to serious speed, and not just on the graphics card side, you're going to lose performance on the system. I think that is just par for the course when dealing with anything developed for Windows Vista. So not only do I have to have a DX 10 card, but I have to have a very good (an expensive) one to notice a difference? And if I use the features that it has, I will lose game performance if my rig isn't top of the line?
It looks like I will be purchasing a Direct X 9 card, and saving my money.
Gears of War PC Performance and IQ [HardOCP via Crunchgear]
