Perhaps the most touted, and certainly the most noticeable, aspect of Vista is the appearance of the new "Aero" interface. Most commentators find it to be much prettier than the interface in Windows XP. There are also new animation and 3-D effects.The desktop and other parts of the Vista interface are created in a different way from previous Windows versions. Vector methods and Microsoft's proprietary DirectX techniques are used extensively. It all leads to what many feel is a smoother and more pleasant experience. Others regard it all as just a lot of "eye candy". Like anything involving esthetics, the observer's reaction is quite subjective. In any event, you will see none of this unless you have enough graphical processing power.
Required graphical processor
Although a computer that has a motherboard with an integrated graphics processor may be able to display Aero if there is at least 1 GB of system RAM, a separate graphics card is highly recommended. Microsoft specifies a minimum of 128 MB of graphics memory but most observers say that 256 MB is really the minimum and that 512 MB is not too much. There are also some additional requirements that the graphical processor must meet. These are quite technical and you should check carefully with the vendor before buying a system or a video card. The detailed specifications that are given by Microsoft are given below:
- DirectX 9-class GPU
- A WDDM Driver (WDDM means "Windows Driver Display Model" )
- Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
- 32 bits per pixel
- Graphics memory bandwidth of at least 1,600 MB per second
A Microsoft list of GPUs that support WDDM can be found here. PCs that bear the tag "Windows Vista Premium Ready" are supposed to meet at least the minimum requirements.
Flip 3-D
An example of the type of 3-D effects that the system is capable of is given by what Microsoft calls "Flip 3-D". Not much software outside of games exists at this writing that can take advantage of the 3-D capabilities so Flip 3-D is sort of the present poster child for this effect. It allows you to shuffle through a bunch of open windows like a deck of cards. The figure below gives some idea of the effect.
Glass and other effects
If you look carefully at the top of the front window in the figure above, you can see the transparency effect called "Glass". This effect is shown more clearly in the next figure, where the top edge of an open window illustrates the transparency.
Effects such as glowing buttons, sliding windows and others won't be illustrated here but you can view a Microsoft video discussing and showing the new interface.
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