I lost my faith on Bd3 after the "beta article" about Traod/dx9 ps2.
(does that qualify as " decent amount of information" ?)
While I can understand GeForce FX owners being annoyed at that article, their vitriol should not be vented at
us.
Does it contain valuable information? Good lord, yes. Was it a surprise? Hell yeah – running the numbers on the Radeons and then the FX’s after I wondered whether I should even publish it. However, the truth of the matter is that this was the truth and it highlighted the issues that were we already aware of from other, synthetic, benchmarks. I strongly believe that articles like this, and ones from other sites is part of the reason why GeForce 6800 is here in the configuration it is – NVIDIA have currently halted all new reviews on 6800 because “they are sick of people moaning about the drivers so we’re holding back and getting everything perfect in the next set†– Bravo! Lets hope they do. But clearly, if it wasn’t for reviewers highlighting issues then this may not ever have happened.
Ati has left you guys in the rain bigtime. Dx9, Shader models, Optmizations, higher clocks, marketing "platinum desperation" (good on ya Macci),..the whole works..you name it... I wonder why with so many talented people arround here and NOT ONE SINGLE decent game was made using Ati hardware with Ati's great shader model 2.0 "solution". And they where all pointing the wrong direction
Wrong.
What do you think Far Cry and Halo were all about. “But, hang on, the performance of those aren’t anything like Tomb Raider†I hear you say. Want to know why? Because they use different paths with different shaders depending one whether you’re running a Radeon or an FX – you run Far Cry on a Radeon and you get a greater range of PS2.0 shaders, including much better looking water.
How about a "beta article" on Farcry Ps3.0 performance? Maybe ultrashadow? Or an "obscure-title-stuffed-with-loops-and-geometry instancing-and-displacement-mapping" full of bugs, made in a hurry unplayable but with the latest technology avaiable in Ps3.0 and coincidentally bundled??
How about an official DX9.0c that I can run Shader 3.0 games, how about Shader 3.0 patches, how about Ultrashadow used in games, how about applications / test with Sahder 3.0 in. Can’t do these things if I don’t have the tools (and I certainly can’t do them if I don’t have the boards).
(You’ll also note that Far Cry is not one of our benchmarking titles – which given the relative performances is clearly not congruent with your thoughts on the site.)
As for all this filtering stuff as Chalnoth points out, Computer Base appears to be working with 3Dcenter to code applications, which is all well and good. However, we aren’t coders and I can talk about what I can see – you’ll note that they are talking about things from a very theoretical level, as yet they are not basing it on what can actually be seen.
