The GeForce 8000 series graphics processors are a major step forward in graphics in two ways. The most obvious is that they are the first graphics cards to support the Direct X 10 graphics engine in Vista, allowing fully native graphics for Vista's Aero interface. The lesser known is the change in the graphics processor architecture away from specialized processor to a series of unified processors that can be dynamically be assigned to geometry, vertex, physics or pixel operations. This gamble in design change paid off with some outstanding graphics performance even with Direct X 9 and OpenGL graphics.