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Let's take a look at some results of that comparison. Company of Heroes, patched for Direct X 10, at 1,280 x 1,024 with no anti aliasing or anisotropic filtering, on an 8600 GT, gets 35.9fps in Direct X 9, (playable) but a mere 13.7fps under DX10 (not playable). To run the game at high res, (1,600 x 1,200 with filtering), you'll need the power of a GeForce 8800 GTX - so that's at least £320 sucked from your wallet and you'll still only get 32fps - still not outstanding. Take a look at the results for Call of Juarez and Lost Planet, also patched for Direct X 10 and you'll see similar poor performance under DirectX 10. You know what, I think most people would rather spend the same, and get an Xbox 360 with Gears of War.

Now I put this directly to the UK PR manager for nVidia, who pointed out that the games Ed tested with were merely patched for Direct X 10, whereas Bioshock was designed with DX10 enhancements built in from the start - and indeed the results are a lot more encouraging - with a 8600 GT getting a playable average of 30.9fps and a 2600 XT doing even better with 42.8fps. But then that brings me back to my first point - the differences are marginal. Of course, once I've realised what they were I wouldn't want to not have them and I'm glad I have the luxury of a quad-core and 8800 GTS setup so I can enjoy them - but unfortunately that's not the reality for the vast majority.

Now there are those that might be jumping up and down, screaming, Crysis!, Crysis! - the much hyped game that's been wowing gamers with its super high detail textures, cool motion blur effects, and interactive terrain. Could this be the saviour of DirectX 10 and thereby Vista? I would love to think so, but Crysis will of course cater for the vast majority with Direct X 9 cards, and anyway it could prove to be underwhelming, if the actual gameplay doesn't improve on the early beta that the bit-Tech guys wrote about a few weeks ago.

I do hope that Crysis is the game that does invigorate PC gaming, because, despite its foibles, I've always loved the PC as a gaming platform. I want there to be PC titles that really pushes the graphics boundaries on a regular basis. I know that it'll happen, but I don't want to wait for Xbox 720, or PlayStation 4, for these titles to arrive.

As it is though, I think I'm going to be disappointed on that score. I think the reality is that we'll see a few extra DX10 bells and whistles being added to PC games as DX10 hardware improves and becomes more widespread, as the installed base of Vista starts to creep up and as developers get more comfortable with the technology - but no more than that. I guess now I've accepted that, I can move on. I'll just have to console myself (how ironic) with the cool DX10 water affects in Bioshock. In fact, I think I'll go do that right now. Oooh, pretty.

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