As a developer beginning the core design of a new 3d game based on DirectX, where can I obtains accurate statistics on the typical capabilities of 3d accelerator cards currently installed in the general population. This is essential information for determining what our target specifications are and how much development time should be spent on optimizing down-level functionality for lower spec video cards. Things that the statistics should include (for example) are, %age of cards installed with shader model 2, and 3 support, distribution curves regarding video card memory capacities, etc etc. Thank you very much!

Quote: Original post by nimble99
where can I obtains accurate statistics on the typical capabilities of 3d accelerator cards currently installed in the general population.

General population? Which general population? The population of 70 year olds running Windows 95 boxes? The population of hardcore gamers?

And 'accurate' translates to 'expensive'. Accurate market research is not cheap. Doing it yourself (assuming you know enough statistics to figure out how many samples you need to get a +/- 3% accuracy) is time consuming.

Quote: Original post by nimble99
Things that the statistics should include (for example) are, %age of cards installed with shader model 2, and 3 support, distribution curves regarding video card memory capacities, etc etc.

The 'age of cards' isn't really too hard.

2001 - Shaders introduced
2002 - v1.1 vertex, v1.3 pixel
2003 - v2.0
2004 - v3.0

Memory is going to follow similar dates, starting around 32MB and ending up at today's 512MB.