Greegor wrote:
OK, I'm firmly convinced that for Win XP, DirectX 9.0c is the
latest installable DirectX module.

But I got a casual (easy) game collection CD for the holidays
that is for Windows XP, but requires DIRECTX 9.0
in the video card and didn't like the 9.0c SW module.

I also looked into video cards to possibly upgrade
enough to run W7 or W8 fairly well and noticed
that various video cards have DIRECTX 10 or ? in them.

Apparently this opens the door to having Direct X 10 or 11
on a Windows XP computer.

No, it does not.

The door remains firmly shut on WinXP users.

They get DirectX 9.0c, as their named standard.

DirectX 10 and 11 are an architectural change. As to
which element does what when it comes to graphics. The
WinXP OS is not prepared for this (and, it was done
on purpose, just to stick a knife in the ribs of
WinXP users).

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2116/2

"Virtual Memory

Microsoft is taking tighter control of graphics memory
with it's new driver model, and thus is able to provide
virtual memory support for the graphics memory subsystem.
What this means is that games no longer need to worry
about running out of graphics memory.
"

WinXP doesn't know anything about that.


Why would DIRECTX 9.0 in a vid card work better
than the DirectX 9.0c software module for a game?

Is there a lot of other software that runs on WinXP
but can even use DIRECTX 10 (in video hardware)?

It's not like these are slow computers where
software DirectX runs slow or anything...

Is hardware DIRECTX 10 or 11 fairly common
for on board video in newer mother boards?

Enjoy your WinXP. Enjoy your DirectX 9.0c for as long
as drivers are offered to make it possible with modern
video cards.

Once WinXP is off life support, the video card manufacturers
will not feel inclined to continue DirectX 9.0c support.
It costs them money to continue to regression test that
everything still works in WinXP, so the day after WinXP support
is dropped by Microsoft, ATI and NVidia will be "dancing in
the streets" as they eject WinXP support from their buildings.

If you like your old DirectX 9.0c video games, make sure
you've bought a card (by now) to play them with.

Paul