Windows 7 will run DX10 on CPU

Robert Hallock 2 Dec, 2008 at 11:27am ET Article published in Tech

Rather than avoid a second Vista-capable debacle by mandating superior GPU requirements, Microsoft has written an advanced software rasterizer known as WARP 10 which will execute DX10.1 code on the CPU.

The Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform conforms to both feature and precision requirements of the DX10.1 specification. Including optional texture rendering formats, the WARP 10 engine also supports 8xAA and anisotropic filtering techniques in line with major GPUs.

While executing DX10.1 code on the CPU will not win any records, the solution proved 50% better than Intel’s onboard DX10 solutions under Crysis at 800×600.

Comments

2 Dec 2008 ~ 11:38am kryyst That's the best piece of news I've seen yet. Not only will it run it on the CPU but it'll optimize it for whatever hardware you have in there.
2 Dec 2008 ~ 11:40am primesuspect This is actually pretty damned cool.
2 Dec 2008 ~ 11:59am MiracleManS Sounds like having the engineers and developers have a say in what goes on has given us something cool.
2 Dec 2008 ~ 12:29pm Snarkasm Sounds like Microsoft is doing what they can to not have performance rely solely on devices and drivers. Glad to hear it, too, since poor driver performance at the beginning is what killed Vista.
2 Dec 2008 ~ 12:41pm shwaip warp 10 is unpossible.
2 Dec 2008 ~ 1:04pm Thrax This rasterization engine will be rendering everywhere at once.
2 Dec 2008 ~ 2:21pm GHoosdum This will make notebook graphical performance a bit snappier. It may even mean low-end games can actually run on laptops with the X3100 chipset in the future.
2 Dec 2008 ~ 5:40pm Garg You can go Warp 13 if you add a third nacelle and grow a beard.