选购一款适合自己的显卡系列之2：Who Should Care About Good 3D?

原链：http://www.computershopper.com/feature/the-right-gpu-for-you2

Wondering exactly where 3D performance matters? Well, in games, of course. Unless you stick to classic 2D games and older 3D games from the bargain bin, you need some serious 3D-processing power to get smooth game play, high-resolution display, and top-notch image quality with today's 3D games. Without decent 3D performance, games such as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Half-Life 2, and Quake 4 can run too slow to play at all.

You'll find full-blown 3D used in some non-gaming applications, as well. On the consumer side, many popular video-editing programs (such as Pinnacle Studio) use 3D to render transitions and special effects. CAD is the best-known business application that's 3D-intensive, and a variety of custom applications created for the workplace use 3D heavily, such as medical-visualization applications, training programs, and 3D-design apps.

Vista special effects such as Flip 3D require a certain level of 3D-graphics performance.

And, as we mentioned, the advent of Vista means 3D performance suddenly matters on the Windows desktop, too. In earlier versions of Windows, the desktop was purely an easily rendered 2D environment. Windows Vista's Aero theme takes advantage of a computer's 3D capabilities (if present) to create semi-transparent window frames, Flip 3D task-switching previews, and a variety of other desktop special effects. (Note that Windows Vista Home Basic doesn't support the Aero interface, but all higher editions do.) The new Vista photo slide show, Windows DVD Maker, and other Vista components also use 3D.

The basic requirement for Windows Vista's 3D-enabled features is a graphics card that supports DirectX 9 (DX9) or greater. Simply having DX9 isn't a guarantee that all Vista display features will work, however. Using the Windows Experience Index (WEI) performance-rating tool in the Control Panel, your video chip has to score at least a 3.0 in the Graphics test for Aero to activate. Also, you'll need a 3.1 or better to enable certain special effects, such as 3D slide-show themes.