Shader Model 5

I'm just wondering if a card has shadermodel 4 how long would it last until shadermodel 5 comes out.

DX5 is a part of DX11. I'm not expecting these cards out until end 2009/Early 2010 and any games that really take advantage of it until 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DX11#Direct3D_11

Never hold off to get a graphics card just because it's going to support the next DX version because you'll still be waiting for a game that "needs" that feature.

The main reason to wait would be say for a drop to 40nm for better performance per Watt. Graphics cards are improving fast.

It's not like you "must have Shader 5" or your game won't run. PC game designers aren't going to optimize for only the very latest card. How long has DX10 been out? Ever seen a game that only runs in DX10 mode? No.

As long as the xbox360 and the ps3 get games there will be ports for dx9 so shader model 3 will stay a while.

Based on ATI roadmap, The DX 11 and Shader Model 5 will be release within only 3 months or Late July 2009 or possibly Q3 2009. ATI could be the first one to launch DX 11 graphic cards before NVIDIA.

And NVIDIA roadmap says Q4 2009 for NVIDIA DX 11 graphic cards.

Don't be so sure of that, apparently any dx10, or dx10.1 game already in production can easily be made to use the dx11 features due to it being the ame model as dx10 so you do not need to write a whole new game and AFAIK it won't be the same as just tacking on like with some dx10 stuff onto a dx9 game.

They did patch for Multi core usage in some games, so maybe it could be widely used