Question about shaders

[Person]

I've been trying to see what shaders do and they don't seem to o anything. I've looked at examples that use shaders and they don't seem to do anything either. I looked at Werbad's 3D engine and at the beggining it said "Your graphics card does not support pixel shad 2.0, which is required to view this demo." Are there any shaders that I can use?

[ChrisB]

What graphics card do you have? No shaders will work unless your graphics card supports them. If you want to use them, you'll have to upgrade; any modern video card, even cheap ones and those integrated into laptops, support pixel shaders.

[MechatheSlag]

Yeah some graphic cards doesn't support pixelshaders

although I think they stopped making those in 1980

[Dynasoft]

The first cards supporting pixel shaders came out 5 years ago. The shader spec was revised to 3.0 3 years ago. This means that any new* system should support them. Older system's might not.

* even cheap systems using cheap parts from a couple of years ago

[BrandonC]

In fact, Pixel Shaders generally are not a bragged about feature anymore. Most of our budget cards today are the same price as the past generations best card, so naturally you wouldn't see any point for them to be released. They were released because they have new DirectX and Pixel Shader support.

[Person]

Ok, my graphics card is way too old. How much do newer grraphics cards cost?

[MechatheSlag]

Not much, but it varies. If you want a new one that can do the trick, but nothing more, I'd say around $60, but if you want one that can run pretty much any new games today and pretty much saves you from buying a new one 20 years ahead, I'd say around $320.

[ChrisB]

$60 is a bit much if all you want is 2D acceleration... think 1/3 that price e.g. Radeon X300SE. eBay is another option, especially if your computer is several years old. YMMV as always.

[Person]

ok, thanks!

[BrandonC]

$60 is a bit much if all you want is 2D acceleration... think 1/3 that price e.g. Radeon X300SE. eBay is another option, especially if your computer is several years old. YMMV as always.

A graphics card is usually an investment though. If you're willing to spend money, and you have enough of it, then there's really no reason why you shouldn't go for a decent card.
I see no reason to pay for minimum performance boost, just to get pixel shaders that will be slow as heck once you get them started. Just go for a nice $150 budget 3D accelerator card.