ATI HL2 Performance Tweak

It doesn't seem to help much with AA/AF on, eh?

Any change in the image quality or anything noticeable?

 

Dave,

thanks for the info. Any word on when it will be turned on? First offical HL2 patch?

 

1. You didn't say what cpu.
2. What happens with a faster video card with more than 1 vertex shader?

Dave, that chart you posted is great, though only the first canals test seems to have a large performance change. It'd be nice to see how it effects different cards and cpus though, as most people definetely don't have an x800 xt pe and an fx-55.

I guess the video memory bandwidth becomes the limitation at that point...

I thought he said valve only enabled it for nvidia cards because ATI cards showed a decrease in performance at times.(perhaps they could detect cpu speed and video card and determine if it should be used)

 

So this only helps if ur gpu limitied? Like it will put more stress on ur cpu rather then gpu?

Cause I'm cpu limited, and would rather have my gpu do the bulk of the work

 

Sorry for the noobie question, but do I just put the text "+r_fastzreject 1" in an autoexec.cfg? Or is it something you have to type in launch options?

 

I think an autoexec file will work, or add it into the special launch options in steam.

 

1. I'm using an Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.5 Ghz

I'll do some more testing at different resolutions and AF/AA settings later this weekend. I'll also try some in game demos instead of the stress test.

 

my results

r_fastzreject = 0

at_coast_12:
84.96 (first run)
85.07 (second run)

hard_c17_12:
76.38
76.88

at_canals_08:
72.25
71.07

--------------

r_fastzreject = 1

at_coast_12:
85.28
85.25

hard_c17_12:
75.35
75.91

at_canals_08:
70.68
70.87

------------

Common System Config:
1024x768 / 2xAA / 4xAF / All settings at "High"; Water @ Reflect All

Athlon64 3000+ @ 2430mhz / Memory @ 221mhz (single channel)
1 GB DDR (2 x 512mb)
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro using XT BIOS @ 440/375
Beta Catalyst 4.12
Catalyst AI status - unknown - since the above driver uses the old-style CP (where the sliders were at High Quality for the 2 middle ones and App. Pref. for everything else)

other:
NForce3-250 based motherboard; using latest version of NForce chipset drivers
Windows XP SP2
Using Realtek ALC850 on-board sound (AC97)
AGP Aperture set to 256mb

hl2 command line: -applaunch 220 -heapsize 512000 +cl_smooth 0 +r_fastzreject (1 or 0)

-------------

My comments: doesn't seem like the fastzreject option does much for me at the settings I've tested. Those are the settings I've decided to play HL2 with, so if (for example) the option only provides a boost for those who use 0xAA or 0xAF/Trilinear filtering, doesn't help me much.

 

9600 has 2 vertex shader units.

 

I thought the RV3xx cards had half everything the R3xx cards have...so half the pixel pipelines and half the vertex shaders. Oh, the r3xx cards have 4 vertex shaders don't they?

 

Yes, they do.

 

4/2=2 yes that's about right

 

Re: my results

AI is set to 'low' if you use the old CP by default.

 

Re: my results

I really wish they'd put AI controls in the old CP.... (HINT-HINT TERRY!!!!)

 

Xbit added some results with fastzreject …xbit.

Has anyone tried running Performance-AF instead of Quality-AF? And maybe moving the TP (Texture Preference) slider from HQ to just Q? In some games (like Delta Force) my performance goes up by ~ 40% on my 9600XT by just doing those 2 tweaks (while at 4AA/8AF). Painkiller only improves about 10%. It would be interesting to see how much HL2 improves with those 2 tweaks.

 

It would have been nice to see slower video cards used as well. How about the 9800s, 9700s, 9600s, and 9500s? I assume the 9200s and below already have it enabled.

 

Yeah, they don't seem too bright do they? Hehe.

With the tests that I posted above... I checked the console variable upon starting HL2 to ensure it was set to the value that I wanted.

The only one of their explanations that makes sense is "maybe CATALYST4.12 beta driver turns this on by default". Either that or this setting really is dependent on level geometry, so the particular demo you are using has an effect.

 

This thread is over 3.5 years old. I'd say that definitely long past the expiry date. Thus locked.