Do I need a video card that supports DirectX 11 to get the full advantage of DirectX 11?
by JaDi85 on January 3, 2010Q: I’m new to PC gaming. I have Windows 7 and I know it comes with DirectX 11. Do I need a video card that supports DirectX 11 to get the full advantage of DirectX 11?

Yes. Check out the ATI 5700 and ATI 5800 series of cards which support Direct X 11. At this point Direct X 11 isn’t that big of a deal, only one or two games really even support it: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/dirt-2-performance-benchmark,2508.html
So if you already have a video card with solid performance I’d say stick with it, but if you don’t have anything it’s worth a serious consideration. Today at least, raw performance is going to be more important to you than owning a video card with DirectX 11 support. Use Tom’s hardware’s video card charts to compare performance: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/
Here are a few favorite websites to help you get started:
http://www.anandtech.com/
http://hardforum.com/
http://www.maximumpc.com/
http://www.tomshardware.com/us/
Mark (Uber Geek) says: on January 3, 2010 at 12:10 pm