The PC is about to undergo a radical change for the better. Every few years, our beloved platform casually becomes next generation, and it's about to happen again.

As PC gamers, it's great watching the console boys try to show off. High-definition? Big deal. We were playing Quake III at 1280x1024 resolution almost a decade ago. Online gaming? We’re so net-savvy we don’t even know what real people look like any more. Movie downloads? You’re preaching to the Bitorrenting choir.

The release of a new version of Windows in January, combined with a series of new technologies becoming available, is putting the PC giant steps beyond anything else. Everything is different now. Well, apart from those small silver screws that always drop off the end of the screwdriver and get lodged in inaccessible corners of your PC’s case. They’re still the same.

Many of these advances are down to Windows Vista. You’ll learn a lot about its non-gamey virtues over the page, but let’s talk for a moment about just why this latest harvest from the Microsoft software farms is such a big deal for gaming. In two words: DirectX 10.