Tessellation is the killer app of DX11, making the jump from DX10 much more impressive than the jump from DX9 to DX10.  There is a bit of bad news for HD5xxx owners out there which is the performance hit that comes from the breaking up of large triangles into dozens of tiny ones.  In [H]ard|OCP’s testing of the Unigine Heaven benchmark they saw a drop of about 40% when they enabled tessellation, but the visual impact is much greater.  Check out the screenshots and pay particular attention to how the wire frames change.  That huge increase in the amount of polygons is what tessellation is all about.
“What does DX11 Tessellation look like in a real-time 3D engine? Unigine’s Heaven Benchmark supports DX11 with Tessellation and we’ve taken a look at Tessellation in this unique application. Tessellation has the potential to improve the gameplay experience, and you’ll see why once you see these screenshots.”

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