VanS said:
Checking the system requirements for Win Vista, it shows-for the HOme
Premium/Business/Ultimate-that support for DirectX 9 graphics is required,
specifically: WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory, Pixel Shader 2.0 in
hardware, and 32 bits per pixel.
Is all of this really necessary? How do I check my system to see if each
item is present?
You're talking about the specifications of your graphics card (or
motherboard, if the graphics interface is built in to it). You can look
them up to find out if yours measures up.
Pixel Shader 2.0 is necessary only if you want to use the Aero interface
(not for the Vista Basic display scheme) -- and optional but nice for many
modern games. If you're not a gamer, you could live without it. But if
your graphics card doesn't support at least DX9, you may have problems using
some newer video codecs or programs. Finally, while 128MB and 32-bit color
is pretty standard (and 128MB is probably the minimum that you can get
nowadays), your card should have a driver for Vista (if Vista doesn't
already have one). However, I have gotten a couple of old 64MB pre-DX9 ATI
chipset cards to work using Vista's "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" driver.
The fact is, Vista requires a significant hardware upgrade for the
processor, memory, and graphics over XP and older operating systems. Spend
the money if you want Vista. Otherwise, you'll be disappointed.
Or, you can upgrade to modern hardware, keep XP, and watch it ZOOM!