1 reply to this topic

[Nvyseal]

images/news/windows.jpgWe've already heard that Microsoft plans to make use of GPU acceleration in Windows 7, but it looks like the company is also going to be doing its part for the GPU-less out there, with the OS's new so-called WARP system promising to allow for DirectX 10 acceleration using nothing more than a plain old CPU. Among other things, that's apparently being done to avoid a recurrance of the Vista-capable debacle that happend last time around, when some systems that were said to be capable of running the OS were, in fact, anything but. According to Microsoft, WARP (or Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) will work with as little as an 800MHz CPU, although it says it'll work better on multi-core processors with SSE 4.1. To really put it to the test, Microsoft apparently even went so far as to run a few Crysis benchmarks with the system, and managed to clock in a blistering 7.36 fps frame rate at 800 x 600 on a Core i7-equipped PC, which is actually slightly better than what Intel's current integrated graphics were able to eek out.

CustomPC

[m.oreilly]

i don't know re your experience w/w 7, but i think MS will think twice before pulling that "vista ready" stuff, and make the os run on a lighter setup. i am not going to buy the latest HW to run it "as it's meant to be played". i just got done trialing server 7. it rocks the house on my rig. i expect 7 to be an all around winner with most windows users, without doing a major HW upgrade. our hardware has been ahead of the loop for quite some time. it's about now that an os/software gets with the program, so to speak...