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Old January 17th 04, 05:33 AM
The Black Wibble
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"Bobby" wrote in message ...
Does a good graphics card only improve graphics performance in games? What
about other PC applications. I guess that DVD playback is improved but what
about other apps like MediaPlayer, Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc?


Yes. MediaPlayer utilises the graphics hardware through DirectX to decode mpgs, and avi, and wmv files. Even
when rendering windows on to the desktop and dragging them about, the Windows OS makes use of the graphics
hardware provided it is equipped to do the necessary operations. Otherwise DirectX's hardware emulation layer
(HEL) is used, which means operations are done in software.

If I understand correctly, the FX range of cards directly supports DirectX
v9 in hardware? If so, doesn't this improve overall system performance?

Bobby


They do support dx9, but unless the software makes use of the extra functionality dx9 provides then it won't
improve system performance.

Tony.

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