DX versions

Actually it is often true.

1) Pieces of code which weren''t previously earmarked for optimsation get optimised once there''s a chance. This has definately happened with D3DX and some with D3D

2) When they''re designing the API they don''t know exactly how people will use it and abuse it - once some games come out, MS can analyse the most commonly used code paths those are using. This means that the most commonly used case tends to get faster, sometimes at the cost of the less commonly used paths.

3) The same thing happens at the device driver level - as the spec allows new things and hardware manufacturers get used to making things like shaders, they expose new, more optimal ways of accessing their devices.

Don''t expect an automatic across the board performance boost. Though you can often expect a bit of a boost for the commonly used, "average" features.

The much larger boost tends to come from hardware things exposed by newer versions of the API, e.g. occlusion queries, scissor test etc.


--
Simon O''Connor
Creative Asylum Ltd
www.creative-asylum.com