Support For DirectX 10.1

Simply put, higher numbers in this department are better, even if it's only for bragging rights. Even NVIDIA's latest graphics cards only support DirectX 10.

So, what's the deal with the extra 0.1. Well, DirectX 10.1 ditches the use of FP16 and moves on to FP32 for HDR rendering. With more floating point numbers, you get better accuracy. This results in better and more accurate rendering, as well as better performance for some cards.

Superior anti-aliasing in DirectX 10.1 also comes with the ability to control pixel mask coverage. This means games can now control where, when and how it wishes to apply anti-aliasing. It also gives these cards further room for AA optimizations, potentially producing better performance and better image quality.

Also included are further optimizations to multi-core support, and like the driver-based vertex calculation offloading of a few months back, the API is set to give games a pretty good boost in performance. Shadow filtering has also improved with better quality, which is obviously a good thing. Geometry shader and displacement mapping also make an arrival, with the R600 rumoured to have 50% better faster geometry shaders than the NVIDIA G80.

What Does This Mean To Us?

It's still too early to tell, but there's potential for better performance and better image quality in the long run. Definitely good if you are want some future proofing.

You Won't Need A Case The Size Of Godzilla

Even though power consumption is through the roof, the card will actually be smaller than the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX. Really, I'm not kidding. All the pre-release photographs show that the R600 graphics card to be shorter than a Radeon X1800 XT. If that's really the case, then ATI will have done a great job in shrinking this beast.

It's a really good thing too. My NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 is a really hard card to fit inside my casing. Even with my large case, it still partially blocks some of my motherboard's SATA ports. It would be a really great help if the R600 cards are all shorter than that.

Many people have been screaming with indignation after viewing a picture of the OEM version of the R600 card. Do note that those were made for OEM manufacturers and will not be sold retail. The actual retail cards will be much shorter.

What Does This Mean To Us?

No need to contend with Xbox Heug graphics cards and find specialized casings that can actually fit them. Good thing too, since not everyone can afford a giant Lian Li or Silverstone tower case.

You Might Need Noise-Cancelling Headphones

From Gizmodo.com

From what I can see, ATI brought back their infamous blower cooler which is just really noisy! Didn't they learn anything from R520?

Well, hopefully it isn't as loud as that infamous cooler used with the Radeon X1800 XT that gave me so many sleepless nights.

For ATI's sake, I hope that the R600's cooler will not become the same noise monster that the Radeon X1800 XT and X1900 XT were.

I don't know why they didn't choose to use the cooler on the Radeon X1950 XTX instead.

Still, I'll reserve final judgment until I get some Sone or dB SPL figures. However, I'll admit I'm not very optimistic in this department.

What Does This Mean To Us?

The noise figures don't look too optimistic for now. Cover your ears or get a pair of noise-cancelling headphones!