You don't need a card with DX10.1 just DX10 will do, although to be honest unless you have a quad core @3ghz or higher you may struggle regardless of what card you get.
The metro map i am not overly fond of, although i have had some funny moments on it, but Caspian border is a different story altogether.
They have improved the old BF movement out at last and now you can run and strafe sidewards which is 100 times better than the old point and run system they used in all their other games.
I am, also not to keen on the fact they make you use a web browser, sonar and origin to play the game, i would of rather had a ingame browser like most games do.
Only time will tell if the new way of launching the game is any good.
I will say this though, i have played pretty much all FPS games since X Y bots at the arcades and this game is the best i have played so far, ET will always have a place in my heart as i have played it since 2003 but it is no BF3 that's for sure. If you like to be able to use your brain and do awesome teamwork and tactics then this is the game for you, i know ET has tactics and teamplay but it is not in the same league as BF3.
Nothing like having a whole squad enter a helicopter fly off get a few feet of the ground then blow up because some naughty person put C4 on it, oh the joys of BF3