Though Sandy Bridge doesn't have a DirectX 11-capable GPU on die, there's one on the way.

Intel Fellow and key part of the team integrating the GPU onto the Sandy Bridge die, Tom Piazza, told us today that Intel "wont be far behind" in terms of bringing an integrated DX11-capable GPU to market.

Sandy Bridge is one of the key focuses of this year's IDF in San Francisco, as we've heard in the opening keynote speech, but there's one thing that Intel's new 'fusion' chip can't do and that's run DirectX 11.

In a panel discussion with the Sandy Bridge micro-architecture team, Tom Piazza spoke about the lack of DX11 support in the new chip.

"There are no exclusive DirectX 11 games out yet," Piazza says. "In fact most people skipped over DirectX 10 and most of the games fall all the way back to DirectX 9. I don't see the issue right now specifically about DirectX 11"

So far so damning for the API, indeed he said later on that the tessellation functionality was the only impressive thing about Microsoft's DX11.

But going forward it's still going to be an important part of the graphics jigsaw, especially with AMD's Fusion APUs on the way sporting its own DX11 architecture.

Piazza wouldn't give any specifics, but did go on to say "DirectX 11, shall we say, is around the corner on Intel products as well." He followed that up by saying that it wouldn't be "far behind" in terms of bringing that functionality to its own integrated graphics.


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I'd struggle to play games from 5 years ago on my desktop PC

It's pretty poor that Sandy Bridge isn't DX11. It's not as if it's a new API.

And how long did it take nVidia to come out with a DX11 chip? That is more disappointing, as they are making gaming chipsets.

Intel make mainstream graphics chipsets, which accounts for somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of the graphics market. The majority of people need the graphics chip to render the Windows 7 desktop and play the odd bit of HD video, both of which the current generation of Intel integrated graphics can do without breaking a sweat.

Until Windows itself, or key business or multimedia applications, need DX11, it isn't a must-have tick on the box for Intel. Stability and low power consumption are much more important than DX11. And, if you are going to need DX11, chances are no integrated graphics chip is going to be man enough to do the game justice, you will probably still need a discrete card.

My 3 month old laptop, with nVidia chipset only supports DX10, no DX11 support. To be honest, it was a shame it wasn't a tick on the box, but it doesn't bother me one way or the other.

I dont see the point in DX11 on chip / integrated. It will never be good enough to run the latest DX11 games and as Dave said you dont need it for HD video and Aero.