My wait is over. I finally picked up an EVGA 8800GT [Spec sheet: here at EVGA.com] and I am extremely happy with the product. Easy install, easy overclock with ntune, powerful, stable, and quiet. This card replaces a BFG 7950GT OC 512, a substantial upgrade to my current rig:

Enermax Chakra Case
Asus P5N-E SLI Nvidia 650i
E6600 Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 Ghz
OCZ Powerstream 600W PSU
EVGA 8800GT 512
4GB Corsair DDR2 PC6400 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12
400GB SATA Seagate HDD
500GB SATA Samsung HDD
80GB IDE Western Digital HDD
18X Samsung SATA DVD RW
40X TDK IDE CD RW
Gateway FPD1975W 19″ LCD @ 1440 x 900

So the 7950 is pouting over in the corner, and here I am trying to enjoy the majestic bounty that is the 8800GT. Now… my WoW framerates went up to an ungodly 100-200fps, and that’s even after overriding the game settings for the highest quality results. But that only goes so far before the novelty wears off- I want a swing at the big leagues…So where’s a DX 10-ready gamer to go?

I’m looking at the despairingly sparse list of DirectX 10 supported games wondering to myself what all the hubbub is about. We’ve barely had any takers, and DX10 is supposed to be the next standard? Didn’t the first release come out in ‘06?

I gave Lord of the Rings Online a try… that lasted about a half hour before my eyes started rolling back into my head. It just ain’t my cup. Crysis looks fantastic, though I did experience some slight artifacting at times throughout the demo- despite loading the latest drivers and updates. I would presume that the full-version game will have fixed some of those issues, but I haven’t explored it yet…never mind the fact that I’m sitting on six or seven games I have yet to finish. Bioshock, Gears? I’m taken care of on the XBOX with those titles… so now what?

I dig all the DX 9/10 side-by-side comparison shots, but I wonder how head-over-heals the rest of the community is - most of us are still absolutely content with the refined look of recent console games. Seriously people, take a look over at Soul Calibur for PS3 and Mass Effect on XBOX 360 - we can achieve an exemplary level of graphical detail without DX 10 right now, so it seems there’s a bit of pressure in the Microsoft court to stand forth and deliver.

I started to look for basic demos, applications, and screensavers- stopped short at their non-existence. NVIDIA offers their Cascades demo for DirectX 10- cool, but not as drool-worthy as the DX 9 Geoforms Demo. While both Cascades and Geoforms both look truly awesome on the 8800GT, Geoforms can be configured as a screensaver (*advantage*); moreover, I prefer the organic nature of Geoforms’ eternally-in-flux amorphous blobness. There’s probably a better description out there on the ol’ interwebs, but I implore you to give either of the demos a whirl.

Back to my original point, I hope to see a plethora of new DX 10 titles in 2008, but I am turned off by the lack of buzz surrounding the medium. Somewhere around a third or half the titles mentioned in the above article haven’t been released yet, which implies developers are announcing their plans to support DX 10 well in advance- does this mean that the list is drastically incomplete, or that the roll call of supporters is looking somewhat anorexic?

Damn you, Vista- if you screw me over with your lack of sales by swaying developer interest in DX 10, I’m going to upgrade to XP Pro! Chalk this one up as another victim to the Microsoft hype machine…