Want to know how capable your DirectX 11 video card is? Futuremark is releasing a new version of their 3DMark benchmarking tool to help you do exactly that.

Fire Strike is this year's real-time rendering test, optimized for DirectX 11 and Windows 8. Fire Strike will be one of three benchmarking tools released in the upcoming 3DMark, which should be released before the end of the year. The other two tests are Cloud Gate for notebook PCs, and Ice Storm for Android and iOS devices.

Watch: Tesselation, particle illumination and more »

We're on the precipice of a new generation of graphics in games. PC gamers have already equipped their rigs with powerful new DirectX 11 cards--but so far, very few games actually take advantage of that power. Futuremark, developers of 3DMark, has announced a new DirectX 11 benchmark will be available later this year. An accompanying video shows off what we can expect when we start testing our rigs.

Watch: Tessellation, real-time light scattering, and swirling fire embers »

The dark days of dire DirectX 11 performance in Batman: Arkham City on PC are at an end, thanks to a new patch. Unless you're running a 32-bit version of Windows 7 or Vista, that is, in which case developer Rocksteady suggests you continue to avoid DX 11 entirely until another patch is released.

Read more: The patch notes »

With the console editions of Batman: Arkham City out the Bat-door, publisher Warner Bros. has announced that the delayed PC version will follow on November 15. In celebration, graphics card manufacturer Nvidia is showing off the shiny PhysX and DirectX 11 effects exclusive to PC.

Watch: The PhysX Bat-particle Bat-effects »

Square Enix's Japanese technology division is working on a brand new multi-platform engine, one that's fully compliant with DirectX 11, and is currently compatible with PS3, Xbox 360, and of course PC. The "Luminous Studio" engine is inspired by the crystals from Final Fantasy, and is likely to replace the current generation Crystal Tool engine.

Read more: AI and animation improvements »

Free-to-play games were once distinctly low-fidelity affairs, typically looking far less pretty than their retail counterparts. But as the model gains popularity, the graphics are improving too. Between new F2P offerings like World of Tanks and retail-turned-F2P games like Team Fortress 2, free's looking very good indeed. Blacklight Retribution lays claim to a visual first for the model--the first F2P FPS with DirectX11-enhanced graphics--and is showing off its wares in new screenshots and a trailer.

Read more »

As promised, Crysis 2's "Ultra Upgrade" is available today. But before you can start enabling all the new graphical effects on your high-end PC, you'll need to patch your game to version 1.9. Thankfully, you can grab that right here. Once that's done, you'll want to do grab the High-Res Texture Pack, and the Ultra Pack, of course.

The "Ultra Upgrade" offers gamers the ability to replay Crysis 2 with a number of enhanced visual effects including tessellation, water rendering improvements, high quality HDR motion blur, and more. There's also an optional high-res texture pack you can install, if you so wish. But, maybe you need to see if the upgrade is worth it before downloading the gigs and gigs of updates? Don't worry, Crytek has released a video highlighting many of the visual treats awaiting high-end PC gamers: Read more »

While the original Crysis has long represented the benchmark of PC gaming, its successor hasn't garnered quite the same reputation. Crysis 2 shipped without support for DirectX 11, making the initial launch of the game not quite as cutting-edge as PC enthusiasts would have liked.. It appears that Crytek is nearly ready to release an updated version of the game, targeted specifically for DX11 cards.

On June 27, Crytek will release a patch (1.9) and a few downloadable add-ons that take advantage of some of DirectX 11's more advanced graphical tweaks. The free "DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade" pack adds "hardware tessellation, parallax occlusion mapping, and several upgrades for shadows, water, particles, depth of field, and motion blur." An optional "High Res Textures" pack will also be made available for both DX9 and DX11 users. (It should be pretty obvious what that add-on will do!) Read more »

Square Enix has revealed that the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution will feature full DirectX 11 support and a number of other PC-specific features, PC Gamer reports.

The Nixxes Software-developed version of the upcoming franchise "reboot" will work with AMD's Eyefinity, allowing up to five monitors to be used during gameplay. Read more »

The PC edition of Lost Planet 2 will be released "beginning October 15," developer and publisher Capcom announced today. The news is celebrated with word of support for DirectX11 and other graphical whizzbangs, the system requirements and a benchmark test to rate how well your PC will run the sci-fi shooter sequel.

The PC edition of Lost Planet 2 will use DirectX 11 for smoke with "lifelike volume and depth," says Capcom, reactive water and level bosses "rendered with more detail than ever before." It also support for Nvidia's 3D Vision and 3D Vision Surround technologies. Read more »

Following the release of Windows 7, the first DirectX 11-capable benchmark tool has been released by Unigine.

You can grab the 127MB Heaven benchmark on FileShack. There's also a playthrough of the new DX11 features available to watch below: