Are DirectX 10 Graphics Cards Compatible with Older Games on Windows 7?

[The_Absolute]

Hi, I was wondering if DirectX 10 graphics cards, such as the ATI Radeon HD4870 X2, and the NVidia GeForce GTX-280 are compatible with, and would be able to run DirectX 9 or lower applications. I play a lot of video games on my PC, such as Battlefield 2, and Diablo 2 expansion. With windows 7 coming out, I'd like to know if these older games would run on new hardware and operating systems. I know, I tried installing a windows 95 game on Windows XP, and it didn't work. Oh, and I was told that if I played Battlefield 2 on a multi-core CPU, I would first have to disable the other cores leaving only one operating in order to play it. Is that true? Would video games such as Battlefield 2, and other older programs utilize more than a single core? Or is it not in the game's programming to?

 

[Contrapositive]

Why do you need a 280 to run Diablo 2?

Anyway, the answer is maybe.

DirectX 10 cards are designed to be backwards compatible with games written in previous versions of DirectX. But there are no guarantees.

 

[benbrooks]

I'm running on a dual boot with Windows XP and then a linux distro, I can run Battlefield 2 fine on my Quad core without making any adjustments.

My Graphics card (8800GTX - DX10 Capable) also runs games at DX9
All current DX10 cards have full backwards compatibility down to at least DX8.
OpenGL will also run fine on them.

Hope that answered your question :)

 

[Enthalpy]

Don't infer anything from your bad experience with a Win95 game. The reason has nothing to do with DirectX.

Win95 still allowed programs to get direct access to hardware and even allowed Dos programs to run as they would in Dos. Especially games used these possibilities. Win Nt4-2k-Xp-2k3-V-2k8 prohibit both, so older games won't run there.

For a nephew who has such older games, I made a double boot, with a good W2k for normal use, and a Win ME for some games. ME costs about 3 euros on eBay. The main drawback is that W2k (or Xp or Vista) is less secure and stable then, because ME has access to it, and because you must format in FAT32.

By the way... Direct hardware access and unprotected DLL were the two reasons that made W95-98-98se-Me unstable (as well as Fat32), so the dual boot squanders much of the advantage of the Nt family.

About your W95 game: did you try the compatibility option in Xp?

 

[Lacp]

Hi,

I have a radeon hd 4870 1GB and would like to know if my graphic card that it's directx 10.1 is compatible with the windows 7.

 

[B. Elliott]

Hi,

I have a radeon hd 4870 1GB and would like to know if my graphic card that it's directx 10.1 is compatible with the windows 7.

The 4870's are compatible with Windows 7, 32 and 64-bit. ATI currently has Catalyst drivers which support them.

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series

Operating Systems Supported
The latest version of the Catalyst™ software suite is designed to support the following
Microsoft Windows platforms:
Windows 7 32-bit version
Windows 7 64-bit version
Windows Vista 32-bit version
Windows Vista 64-bit version

http://www2.ati.com/relnotes/Catalyst_98_release_notes.pdf