Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rubers 
Vista could use DX11. There goes the "only the newest OS can run the newest DX" argument.
And what makes current benchmarks untrustable given they're with current games. Out now. Currently. You know, the kind of games that gamers are currently playing? Would they be the BEST kind of benchmarks to rely on? OR are we off into La La Land again?
There is literally 0/0 reasons why Windows 7 can't run DX11.1. There were MANY reasons why Windows XP could not and never did run DX11. But this? Different.
I'm not sure if you remember correctly, but Vista was given DirectX 11 only for one major reason. Windows Live Messenger. To run WLM 2011 you had to have ribbon support that is only available in DirectX 11. So Microsoft made a hotfix for Vista to enable DirectX 11 so it could run WLM properly. Otherwise Vista might as well of never seen the light of day. So im pretty sure my point is still valid. Sure current benchmarks are fine, they have proven so far that the difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8 is really minuscule. Current generation games are good to go on either platform. Tho I think I speak for all developers here, that we could see a major difference in how games run under full DirectX 11.1 support (internal DirectX performance improvements). Also I think the argument that DirectX 11.1 could be made possible on previous generations is not a strong one. DirectX 11.1 is tied around the Windows 8 platform (WDDM 1.2). Everything from bitmaps, to fonts, to transitions are all accelerated through the DirectX API on Windows 8. It would take a quite bit of work to redesign the DX11.1 API for previous generations (new drivers etc). If you want to get any real interesting news, compile a DirectX 11 benchmark (spinning triangle or whatever with FPS) and then compile it with DirectX 11.1 support. You should then see if there is truly any performance changes from the Windows 7 platform, to the Windows 8 platform. Keep in mind DirectX is a core component of Windows, so DirectX 11.1 could play a big benefactor here in Windows 8 gaming (maybe not for current gen games, but future of Windows gaming).