Make sure you do this:
1. uninstall nvidia drivers
2. boot in safe mode, and use 'Driver Cleaner' for your nVidia Drivers
3. reboot in regular, and install new drivers (even if they're the same ones)
4. reboot after install...
This is the ONLY sure fire way to avoid bad installs and errors or driver corruption.
You really don't need to do this. Nvidia uninstaller is absolutely painless and Driver Cleaner can do more damage than good.... I really like ppl talking about things they appearently just heard somewhere else and passing on such a crap.
No you don't need a 64 bit processor to support DX10 games, infact you could have a rather crappy processor and still run games fairly well because you have a really good graphics card. When it comes to games your graphics card is the main factor. I would recomend you get 32 bit (x86) vista. Vista x64 is faster than x86 however because it's still kinda new many programs don't support it, but it is a lot faster than x86. I think that the performance increase is not worth the extra struggles which is why i'm installing vista x86 tonight cause x64 is piddling me off with this rubbish. And Microsoft wants companies which use some kind of code thing to pay $500 a year to work on vista x64, otherwise the program won't open. Main problem i have had this with is a program called core temp used for monitoring CPU temps and also a lot of keygens (if nobody is offended here), both being freeware why would they pay $500 (but im not 100% sure on that bit so yea).
Please, don't confuse things. First, you will really need a good cpu for todays and later games. Bunch of polys and physics here these days. Sempron 3000+ and 7800GS is a nice example of wasted GPU power
Well, I would suggest u use x64. A few reasons. It's more secure just because of code signing. Most drivers are of the same quality for both, x64 and x86. Although, there still is not much of x64 software, there are some nice pieces and why not use them if they are here?
No "normal" software developer has to pay 500$ for their program to work in Vista x64. This fee is only paid for software which needs to "touch" kernel, like drivers... And no, it doesn't have anything to do with WHQL. It's a good idea i think. This fee can prevent many malware to not appear in x64, simply they will not be willing to pay it just to cause some trouble to other ppl. Btw, once the software is signed for x64, it's also automaticaly signed for x86
OK. So let me just get this straight:
1. Does the DX10 has all the DX9 files too, so when a game doesn't support DX10 it switches to DX9?
or
2. Do I have to install DX9 and then each game chooses it's corresponding DX version?
Sorry for the maybe stupid sounding questions, but I'm really new to Vista so I don't know how it works and that's why I came here. Thanks again to everyone for their replies.
Well, it depends. Mostly, you will be able to run DX10 and DX9 out of the box. But with some games, that need new .dlls (d3d9_33.dll etc.), you'll need to update dx. Simply run web update of dx, which will install necessary files.
Also, rumour has it (i'm pretty confident this is true) that XP SP3, yes i said SERVICE PACK 3 will support DX10 or even DX10.1
I seriously doubt that. The reason that DX10 is in Vista only is NOT because MS want their Vista being sold more. Not only MS, but aslo some developers stated, that although it's possible for XP to have DX10, it would be very difficult to implement. DX10 is completely different when it comes to drivers , memory management etc. So, possible, but hard to do. I'm not a developer, but i trust them
Eventually, we will see.
Update: About DX10 from official source. He is "
Community Manager at Microsoft's Game Technology Group." DirectX 10 for Windows XP? Repeat after me: No. No. No. - Let's Kill Dave!
