Is it possible to play a pixel shader 2.0 game without a grapic card which supports it
Is it possible to play a pixel shader 2.0 game without a grapic card which supports it
Pixel shader is a type of graphics technology which is built into some video cards. While it is possible to emulate pixel shader technology with programs like swiftshader or 3danalyze, these programs simply shuffle the workload onto your CPU and unless you have a hugely powerful system with loads and loads of RAM (unlikely since youre using a 5+ year old video card) you are not likely to wind up with a playable game by using this workaround. Furthermore, these programs accomplish pixel shader emulation by altering drivers and other key OS files and using them may lead to system instability.
Long story short, if you need pixel shader technology and your computer system does not currently have it, you need to replace your video card with one which has native support for pixel shader.
Almost all current video cards have pixel shader built in. Even the most inexpensive cards on the market have this technology, and upgrading your video card will probably give you improved performance in other applications as well.