DirectX Compliance

Posted By: Michael Thomas - 11:08:19 Sun, July 30, 2006

Short Version

The highest version of DirectX supported by the card.

Does It Matter?

Absolutely. This number gives you a very good big-picture view of a video cards capabilities. If you have any intention of playing games with your video card, you'll want to pay careful attention to this number when making a purchase.

Video card manufacturers typically release an entire range of cards supporting a given DirectX level. But there will be older cards on store shelves which won't support the latest and greatest. Be careful you don't get stuck with something missing the latest capabilities.

Long Version

DirectX is an API created and maintained by Microsoft for the purpose of programming 3D applications. With different versions of DirectX new capabilities are added, and the minimum requirements for support go up. For example, version 9 of DirectX introduced pixel shader version 2.0 support, so in order for a card to be DirectX 9 compliant, it would have to support PS 2.0 (as well as other requirements).

Game developers target their games to these DirectX levels. Often they'll create multiple different modes to support different versions of DirectX and thus different generations of video cards. Older cards which don't support the latest DirectX version often have to use downgraded visuals in order to get a game to play.

7 Comments

Sunday, April 08, 2007 10:41:12 PM

Sean
guest

So, is it worth it to get a DX10 card if you're only going to run XP?

Monday, May 28, 2007 1:49:58 PM

anonymous
guest

does this mean ati mobility radeon cards does not support directx9c since only directx9 are indicated?

Monday, May 28, 2007 6:26:44 PM

Mike
GPUReview Founder

@Sean, probably not, but they're still very fast in DX9.

@anonymous, some mobility radeons support dx 9.0c, others do not.

Monday, August 13, 2007 10:54:45 AM

anonymous
guest

there is mistake 2900XT supports DX 10.1

Wednesday, September 12, 2007 11:35:55 PM

anonymous
guest

if a card does not support directx 10, and windows and games I'm running says it's running in direct x10 mode, what's going on with that? I have a 7600gt, and windows vista says it's running direct x 10, and so does the game Bioshock.

Monday, November 26, 2007 9:08:34 PM

anonymous
guest

well I compare the X800XT that has far greater pixel rendering than the 6800GT but yet the XT is only directX 9.b versus 9.c and also earlier shader versions? I mean, should I be concerned about this??

Sunday, January 06, 2008 3:45:17 PM

anonymous
guest

Meh, to answer most of ur questions above^^^. IT depends on what game you run, some games require directx 9.0 (most of the latest games), i havnt seen many games that require 10.0 but i am sure there is someout there.

Radeon does have directx 9.0 (i am actually looking for one :P ) its ati radeon 9600 all have 9.0 or higher.

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