#2 – Rendering Tiers

WPF applications automatically examine graphics card capabilities at runtime and assigns a rendering tier value, indicating what functions can be performed by the graphics card.

• Tier 0 – No hardware acceleration, all rendering done using software
• Tier 1 – Some hardware acceleration available.  DirectX version >= 9.0.  Hardware acceleration for:
  • Radial gradients
  • 3D lighting calculations
  • Text rendering
  • 3D anti-aliasing
• Tier 2- Most features use hardware acceleration.  DirectX version >= 9.0

To determine the current rendering tier:

 int renTier = (RenderCapability.Tier >> 16);
 MessageBox.Show(string.Format("Tier = {0}", renTier));