Hi there, as some of you may know Assassin's Creed has support for DirectX 10. It doesn't change much but it's there, so if you have a Dx10 compatible graphics card and Windows Vista or newer you should go with that one.

At the same time I'm posting a question though. The DX9 and DX10 versions have separate executables. One is called "AssassinsCreed_Dx9.exe", the other one obviously "AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe". However, there is also a smaller third one called "AssassinsCreed_Game.exe" which is the one the GOG version launches by default.

My question is this: does anybody know whether "AssassinsCreed_Game.exe" will automatically launch the Dx10 version if the system meets the requirements for that? I read in one guide that AC will never run the Dx10 version by default and that you have to manually run the executable that says "Dx10" but my guess is that this third executable has the purpose of launching the best one for the current system. I was trying to do comparisons to get confirmation for my theory but the differences between the two versions are so marginal that I'm just not sure (especially with the dynamic weather making the game appear slightly different all the time).

So does anyone know for sure?

I have an nVidia GeForce GT 630M which supports up to DX11, and I was wondering about this myself, so I launched AC using the third, smaller executable. Apparently it was supposed to be a launcher, but it automatically launches the DX10 version for me.

My card is at best average and would probably run the game better at DX9, but it still launches it at DX10 so there's that.

How did you determine that? As I said, I have trouble telling which version is running because the visual differences are so tiny and the performance doesn't change notably either, at least on my system. Well, from what I can tell your graphics card is actually pretty powerful, at least compared to what kind of hardware the game was developed for (I remember playing the DX9 version with full details on a GeForce 8600 without any issues). I don't see any reason why you should choose to run the DX9 version, can't imagine that the performance suffers at all from the DX10 mode on your card.

Yes, it will. Unless you're running under Windows XP, on which will run the DX9 version.

Well, some games play nicer on DX9, some better on DX10/11 modes, like some THQ games, my experience really varies. On this game, it runs only a bit faster on DX9 so I still just run it on DX10 and deal with the slight hiccups now and then. Mind you this is a mobile card and still lags behind even the desktop equivalent.

Anyway, I just checked the Task Manager on which executable it ran after selecting the AssassinsCreed_Game.exe one.

The system requirements of the game include XP.

And you're welcome.

I meant for Dx10. Dx10 isn't officially supported on XP so Windows Vista or newer would be as much part of the requirements for Dx10 as a graphics card that supports it.

Oh, misread your post. But yes, that how that third launcher works. If you got XP and or a graphics card which doesn't support DX10, it will automatically launch the DX9 exe.