I was using code from the samples that come with the November 2008 SDK (I believe the most recent?). It is code to determine whether a hardware driver type or reference is available and then sets the driver type accordingly. // Store driver type choices in an array D3D10_DRIVER_TYPE driverTypes[] = { D3D10_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE, D3D10_DRIVER_TYPE_REFERENCE, }; UINT numDriverTypes = sizeof(driverTypes) / sizeof(driverTypes[0]); // Check the Driver Types Avialable for(UINT driverTypeIndex = 0; driverTypeIndex < numDriverTypes; driverTypeIndex++) { g_driverType = driverTypes[driverTypeIndex]; // Set the driver type to hardware, then refer // Create the Device and Swap Chain using the selected driver type hr = D3D10CreateDeviceAndSwapChain( NULL, g_driverType, NULL, createDeviceFlags, D3D10_SDK_VERSION, &sd, &g_pSwapChain, &g_pd3dDevice ); // If the first selection (hardware) is successful then break if(SUCCEEDED(hr)) break; // If it did not succeed loop using the next driver type } I then checked my global driver type variable against D3D10_DRIVER_TYPE_HARDWARE to make sure I had a hardware driver type, and much to my surprise I do not. I am running Vista 64bit with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 with 512MB, I'm sure I should be able to use hardware. I asked someone that told me that there are two main reasons why the SDK code falls back to the ref device. 1. A problem with the swap chain description like an uninitialized field or a value that is beyond the hardware capacities. Fullscreen mode with a size that is not supported as example. 2. Your driver doesn’t support Direct3D 10. This is not unlikely for notebooks as they are often delivered with old drivers. I was running in fullscreen mode in 1280x800, but I put it back in Windowed mode and bumped it down to 1024x768. I also updated my drivers from ATI and I still can attain no hardware driver type. Any help would be much appreciated.

Do other D3D10 programs, such as the samples, run in hardware?

If they do, then it's a problems with your program. Have you checked the return code (hr)?