[CD]

Windows 98/98SE/ME

Windows 2000

 

[Zerthr]

what's better about it?

 

[Zell]

Better use of the resorces , more speed !

 

[CD]

Mostly a release to cover all the new effects of the new Radeon, but there's other things which have changed as well.

Windows 95 support being dropped is one of them.

 

[Zerthr]

er... so is that a good thing or....

 

[Zell]

Yes , for those how have a new Radeon card !

 

[Prafull]

I am not going to try it right now.Until unless I am sure there is a tool by which you can safely return to your previous version of direct x.
Somewhere I read on that page it cant be uninstalled so I am keeping my fingers crossed.Let others try it first and then I will get it.

 

[Zerthr]

i installed it, i dont see any difference... (i dont have a radeon)

 

[Fr0g]

there's no big difference between 8.0 and 8.1
the real changes are seen in big updates (ex. 8.0 > 9.0)

 

[fivefeet8]

Well.. The directx dialog display tests are a lot faster than in dx8.0 That's about it so far..

 

[Zephon]

Hey, people: is it really worth the download? I have a slow connection, so I don't wanna spend some hours connected to get a 11.5MB file that doesn't change anything.

 

[NickK]

I downloaded the DX8.1 SDK. It looks mostly the same as the DX8.0a SDK except for the changes which most users cannot see, and some cool new demo programs as well as an updated version of the D3DX utility library

 

[Prafull]

Originally posted by Zephon
Hey, people: is it really worth the download? I have a slow connection, so I don't wanna spend some hours connected to get a 11.5MB file that doesn't change anything.

Same here.But I am sure not to download that thing.If it turns out to be good i would rather purchase a computer magzine(havent done it in a while) and almost all the necessary things like latest versions of media player,real player,winzip,Directx and almost all other necessary softwares will be there.

 

[expert464]

I reccomend against it. I got the first version of 8.1 back in the summer, and its labelled as a beta release, which I didnt know at the time, but it expires after 3 months or so. It expired at halloween a couple weeks ago, and I had to download a newer version, or live with a "download newer version" popup every time my computer accessed DirectX (its a lot more than you think). So I downloaded the newest SDK thing, and now it seems I'll have until February before this one expires. Hopefully by then they'll be close to a 9.0 release.

Its upto you if you want the absolute newest version, If I had a choice, I'd go back and keep the 8.0.

 

[Raziel]

Ahem,expert464,this is the final release,not a beta anymorenso it won't expire.
Also,I'm running WinXP so it has DX8.1 and so far I haven't seen any problem with it,anyway,if I were still under WinME,I would have downloaded it cause i always prefer to have the latest version of the softwares I use.

 

[Enigma1982]

I won't download it.I surely it will come with the game when it need.

 

[Fr0g]

I haven't seen changes but it's always good to have everything up to date on the pc... after all, they wouldn't release a new version worse than the old one! makes no sense...

 

[Nightmare]

just installed directx 8.1 and updated my mobo bios, got about 30 points more in 3dmark2001, but i dont know whether it is the directx or mobo bios that helped me to get the extra marks.

 

[dn]

There isn't much point in downloading DX8.1 unless you have VERY new, up-to-date software that ca support it. If a game or what needs DX8.1, then it will, or definately SHOULD have it on the cd (unless you have an illegal copy, but I doublt that ). The only real reason for downloading it is if you need it for an emu, or you are running something pre-8.0. If it does wonders for the new Radeon, then the new Radeon should come accompanied with it

 

[Zephon]

I was just wondering if it requires more resources than the previous version. I have a slow pc with little memory, so I wouldn't like to have slowdowns because the new version is consuming more resources.