i guess i dont' understand

I guess i don't understand something about directx 8.x and 9.x, i have read some very interesting articles on both. Basically from what i understand, direct x 9.x will just add more movie like effects, to what those effects are i don't know.

Any way, i decided to do some experimenting and testing on two practically identical machines. (mine and my friends)


my system
xp 2400
80 gig wd 8meg 7200 rpm HD
Ti4200 8x 128 meg card
MSI kt3v Board
512meg pc2700

friends system
xp 2600
80 gig wd 8meg 7200rpm HD
ATI 9700 Pro 128 meg
asus a7n8x Board
512meg pc2700 ram

so we installed directx 9.x and ran some benchmarks, games mostly and all i have to say is it shot frame rates to sh**. Games tried were SOF II, Quake III, BF1942, Unreal Tournement ect.

I guess i just don't get what the big deal is, if it runs like this now, its not really going to matter if you have a super duper card that is directx 9.x compatible or enabled for that matter. Seems like 9.x is just to much of resource hog, and most cards today (even the best ones) can barly handle it.

Just my 2 cents

You should try to reinstall drivers after installing DX. The change in performance between DX8 to DX9 are rather insignificant.