GeForce FX 6800Ultra -previews thread

[Arun]

Cheats in 3DMark03 would bring minimal performance improvements for the NV4x, unless they did real nasty stuff like they began doing with the first Det40s. And even then, probably not worth it.
3DMark04 though - with more complicated shading programs - could benefit from partial precision more. But that hardly matters in my eyes, because FutureMark already agreed to implement PP themselves in their next benchmarking suite, eh...

Uttar

 

[Joe DeFuria]

Current NV40 driver 8x mode is somewhat broken. It does 4xOGSS + 2xRGMS. It should be 4xRGMS + 2xOGSS.

Why do you say it's broken?

While 4xRGMS+2OGSS would perform better than what they have implemented now....would it really look much better than straight 4X RGMS?

2X SS in one direction? Eeewwww....talk about your bad performance / quality trade-off.

 

[DemoCoder]

#1 I was informed it was broken by an official source
#2 4xSS is an even worse performance tradeoff tho. Practically unplayable. The reason I mention it, is because alot of people seem to be under the impression that it was 2xSS which it is not, unless you run a FSAA analyzer, you wouldn't know.

All depends what you think is worse: 75% performance drop, but 4xOGSS with 2xRG GF3 style MSAA, or 4xRGMS "near ATI" 4xMSAA, plus 50% performance drop 2xOGSS (horizontal or vertical) for slightly better texture and alpha AA along one axis.

UT2k4 is CPU limited, but it also is not a next-gen shader game. Many of the next-gen games are more balanced with respect to GPU/CPU and can easily switch between them depending on scene or resolution settings.

 

[DemoCoder]

BTW, I'm burned out. Last two days have been hectic and I think there's not much left to discuss (except speculation) until more info comes out on NV40 (pricing, yields, clockability, etc) and R420 previews hit. See ya in a couple of days.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

#1 I was informed it was broken by an official source

In all honesty, that doesn't mean anything to me. (Not saying that either you or your source is lying, but even if it is "broken", doesn't mean it's fixable.)

#2 4xSS is an even worse performance tradeoff tho.

Worse performance, but better quality. It's just a different trade-off.

All depends what you think is worse:

Agreed.

75% performance drop, but 4xOGSS with 2xRG GF3 style MSAA, or 4xRGMS "near ATI" 4xMSAA, plus 50% performance drop 2xOGSS (horizontal or vertical) for slightly better texture and alpha AA along one axis.

They both suck.

50% performance drop to get 2X ogss is not my idea of "better."

In any case, the point is, why not have 6X "near ATI 6x" with an additional 30% performance drop, or even 8X rotated / sparse MSAA even if it's a full 50% performance drop?

UT2k4 is CPU limited, but it also is not a next-gen shader game.

Correct. It's a game you can actually play right now. Why should my $500 card new card not play it any better than my 2 year old $400 one? And who says next-gen shader limited games will be bandwidth limited, making higher MSAA sample modes even more attractive?
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[Joe DeFuria]

BTW, I'm burned out.

Oh ye of little stamina.