Detonator 50 benches here!

[WaltC]

....

nVidia did say after all :

Since we know that obtaining the best pixel shader performance from the GeForce FX GPUs currently requires some specialized work, our developer technology team works very closely with game developers. Part of this is understanding that in many cases promoting PS 1.4 (DirectX 8) to PS 2.0 (DirectX 9) provides no image quality benefit. Sometimes this involves converting 32-bit floating point precision shader operations into 16-bit floating point precision shaders in order to obtain the performance benefit of this mode with no image quality degradation. Our goal is to provide our consumers the best experience possible, and that means games must both look and run great.

Yay, let's go back to DX8 specs instead of DX9!
If DX8 shaders are so much better, why should we buy their super DX9 cards when DX8 cards are so much better ?

Also I've heard of nVidia changing all of it's precision down to 12bit in these new drivers. Only time will tell but you'll be sure to see sites like , Beyond 3D or Extreme tech telling us more about this

You know, nVidia's amazing--every time they do an "optimization" which decreases IQ they are quick to point out that the reason they're doing it is because it doesn't decrease IQ.... (Like, who needs all the visible textures in UT2K3 trilineared, anyway, since bilinear filtering results in no IQ loss?) Why don't they just come out and admit that they hadn't planned on supporting DX9 in hardware with nV3x all along, and that what motivates them to "optimize" for UT2K3 are benchmark scores instead of IQ? It would certainly make life simpler for them, for sure.

 

[Humus]

"320 x 480 - The Way It's Meant To Be Displayed"

That's quite an unconventional resolution

 

[ZoinKs!]

This is a bit off topic, but it lines up with the joking about the graphs...
Click here

 

[digitalwanderer]

This is a bit off topic, but it lines up with the joking about the graphs...
Click here

Well I like that link, for some weird reason...

 

[THe_KELRaTH]

I'm most impressed with the graphs, I never knew the NV35 performed that much faster with x4AA and x8AF than with it off.

On another note I think we should all applaud Nvidia for their extensive work on getting 8FP running successfully..................

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

"320 x 480 - The Way It's Meant To Be Displayed"

That's quite an unconventional resolution

It's been so long since I've gone down that low, I can't even remember the numbers. I've just looked at my control panel for the Cat 3.7's and it doesn't even go below 800x600 on my monitor.

I think that means my system is out of spec for viewing Nvidia performance graphs.

 

[OpenGL guy]

"320 x 480 - The Way It's Meant To Be Displayed"

That's quite an unconventional resolution

It brings me fond memories of my Amiga

 

[WaltC]

It brings me fond memories of my Amiga

Ah, a kindred spirit... I still have a fully functional A4000/Toaster rig--all kinds of 3rd-party add-ons (owned at least one of every Amiga model made except the A1000), tons of software that even today is really cool--using AREXX to write simple scripts between programs that were designed with AREXX control ports was a blast. Had a lot of fun--rendered a lot scenes with them, too. I can't/won't part with it...

I was about to remark on 320x200/400 interlaced Amiga HAM, when I saw your post... Of course, with the A4000 I finally got to 640x480 AGA HAM, which was 262,000 onscreen colors instead of the standard HAM of 4,096. HAM was 2d color compression, but with the right software it could be pretty artifact free. At any rate, during a time when x86 was doing CGA/EGA and Macs were black & white on tiny little eye-killing screens, it was a powerful tool. Did I mention how much fun it was?.... Yep, fond is the word...

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

It brings me fond memories of my Amiga

Ah, a kindred spirit... I still have a fully functional A4000/Toaster rig--all kinds of 3rd-party add-ons (owned at least one of every Amiga model made except the A1000), tons of software that even today is really cool--using AREXX to write simple scripts between programs that were designed with AREXX control ports was a blast. Had a lot of fun--rendered a lot scenes with them, too. I can't/won't part with it...

I still have a B2000 in my loft. ARexx was one of the biggest things I missed when moving to the PC. Luckily Unix keeps my hand in with scripting. Isn't there some kind of "Amiga on a PCI card" you can get with the new OS? If you really want a blast from the past, there are some Amiga emulators that run very fast on today's PC hardware, though I do tend to find the memories are better than the reality...

 

[WaltC]

I still have a B2000 in my loft. ARexx was one of the biggest things I missed when moving to the PC. Luckily Unix keeps my hand in with scripting. Isn't there some kind of "Amiga on a PCI card" you can get with the new OS? If you really want a blast from the past, there are some Amiga emulators that run very fast on today's PC hardware, though I do tend to find the memories are better than the reality...

Yea, I know what you mean about memories...I have the A4000 setup fully on a desk about 10 feet from my primary station--I cannot part with it... Although I doubt I've booted it in 2 years...*chuckle* Still works fine (far as I know...)

Yes, I looked into the newer Amiga stuff very briefly but...it's just not the same...My x86 box is 100's of times faster, etc.---but I swear if Workbench wasn't a masterpiece of the late 80's and early 90's. Full preemptive multitasking (reentrant, too, near the end), which the Amiga developers made full use of--and using Arexx was such a joy accordingly. There are still things I could do with that box that I'd have a hard time doing on x86/WinXp even now...Heh... About five years ago I had the local Mac dealer whom I knew at the time over and I swear his head just about twisted plum off and he was slack-jawed when I showed him a couple things I could do on that box that made his Macs look like stone chisels by comparison....Now, that little demo was *fun*... The Amiga was only 10-12 years ahead of its time, so now the disparity isn't so bad....nah, just kidding, of course. That was back in the "seat of your pants" days, which I guess is why I had so much fun. I have fun these days, too--no doubt about it--but it's just not the same...somehow...everything's too "corporatized" (if there's such a thing.) And now that SUN and Netscape, in their quest to unseat Microsoft, have succeeded in bringing the government into the industry in an ever-increasing way--I fear those days are gone for good...sigh...

 

[bdmosky]

I will not comment on how they achieved such an improvement but my guess is that it has to do with Pixel shader 1.1 and 1.3. (they change the code whenever possible for the card to do 1.1 or 1.3 instead of 2.0 : they call it an "optimisation" since the end result looks almost the same, but you're not running 2.0, so yes it is STILL a cheat).

I will not comment...

but here are my comments anyways...

What the hell?

 

[archie4oz]

At any rate, during a time when x86 was doing CGA/EGA and Macs were black & white on tiny little eye-killing screens, it was a powerful tool.

Huh? WTF? I had a IIfx with the 8-24GC display card and it could do 24bit color at 640x480. With the Rev. B firmware it would do 65k up to 832x624. Of course it would do 8-bit color up to 1152x870. And this was two years before the A4000 was released... Of course when it did come out, Radius, RasterOps and SuperMac were cranking out Nubus boards that could drive 24-bit color up to 1152x870...

 

[WaltC]

Huh? WTF? I had a IIfx with the 8-24GC display card and it could do 24bit color at 640x480. With the Rev. B firmware it would do 65k up to 832x624. Of course it would do 8-bit color up to 1152x870. And this was two years before the A4000 was released... Of course when it did come out, Radius, RasterOps and SuperMac were cranking out Nubus boards that could drive 24-bit color up to 1152x870...

Heh... I've got plenty of answers--but I'm not going to give them... I'm glad you enjoyed your Mac--let's leave it at that--and put the ghosts to bed.

 

[OpenGL guy]

At any rate, during a time when x86 was doing CGA/EGA and Macs were black & white on tiny little eye-killing screens, it was a powerful tool.

Huh? WTF? I had a IIfx with the 8-24GC display card and it could do 24bit color at 640x480. With the Rev. B firmware it would do 65k up to 832x624. Of course it would do 8-bit color up to 1152x870. And this was two years before the A4000 was released... Of course when it did come out, Radius, RasterOps and SuperMac were cranking out Nubus boards that could drive 24-bit color up to 1152x870...

Glad you brought up the Mac. My Amiga 1000 with a LUCAS/FRANCES board shoved into it (68020/68882) was quite a bit faster than a Mac II... and quite a bit cheaper as well. Also, my apps easily multitasked on AmigaOS with no special programming on my part... unlike MultiFinder.

You really can't compare old Macs to Amigas because the Amiga was far better

 

[cthellis42]

There are Amiga heathens on here? Screw you all! A-TA-RI! A-TA-RI! A-TA-RI!

(Man, I still have fond memories of the good old days when PCs and Macs were rather pathetic and it was Atari and Amiga in the turf war. Hehe...)






Proud owner of:
Atari 800
Atari 130XE
Atari 1040ST
Atari Mega 4ST

Now screw all y'all, I'm off to play Archon.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

About the 2nd graph:

The difference is from 25 to 29 yet the bars represent a double increase.

Don't you just hate it when people construct graphs like that? Who are they trying to fool? People who can't read?

 

[xGL]

No, it's to check if readers are awake or not

 

[THe_KELRaTH]

There are Amiga heathens on here? Screw you all! A-TA-RI! A-TA-RI! A-TA-RI!

(Man, I still have fond memories of the good old days when PCs and Macs were rather pathetic and it was Atari and Amiga in the turf war. Hehe...)






Proud owner of:
Atari 800
Atari 130XE
Atari 1040ST
Atari Mega 4ST

Now screw all y'all, I'm off to play Archon.

Of course you realise that the Amiga was developed at Atari......

I have very fond memories (all 48k of them) of my Atari 800, hard to imagine what I would be doing today if I'd bought a Sinclair ZX81 instead.

Heh .. loved playing Archon on my 800.

 

[Florin]

Of course you realise that the Amiga was developed at Atari......

Exactly, and in a way that ST he's cheering about is actually the successor to the Commodore 64, what with Tramiel taking over Atari and all (and seeing the Amiga slip from his fingers)..

Heh .. loved playing Archon on my 800.

That game just rocked.. I loved M.U.L.E. too, lot of the old EA stuff.

 

[cthellis42]

Yes, I know the rather convoluted... uh... convolutions. But at the it didn't matter--none if us knew the difference anyway. It was "us" and "them" and those Amiga bastards were just TRYING to move into Atari's territory by, like, picking a name that was 5-letters long and began with an A. It was all very Jets and Sharks...

BTW: since it looks like there are some Archon fans out here, how do folks feel about Wrath Unleashed? I've been saying for years Archon needs a modern update and would kick ass, and this is the closest thing I've EVER seen! Screw KOTOR and Jedi Academy--THIS is the LucasArts game I'm waiting for!