Half Life 2 Benchmarks (From Valve)

Here it comes already:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1261770,00.asp

It'll be most interesting to see which sites HONOR the request of the software developers, and which ones don't....

 

NVIDIA damaged its own reputation and ATI have let their product speak for the company instead because ATI could afford to.

Before we all start pissing on NVIDIA PR et al we should realise if ATI was in a position that NVIDIA commands now (the underdogs) would they have acted with Chivalry or Malice? It isn't over until the fat lady sings.

One generation down another one to come. The worm could turn!


Gah, I feel dirty using all those stupid cliches.

 

NVIDIA were faster than I imagined. You can view it as pathetic or a last stand. Maybe, just maybe, it will end here.

 

ati was the underdog for several years... they didn't sink to the same depths as nvidia.

 

Gabe Newell should work with Futuremark

 

Not this year...

 

How did ATI act from the time of the TNT all the way through the radeon 8500? Anything remotely like nVidia? All I generally witnessed was a relatively low profile.

I certainly agree that when you're behind, you resort to more PR to try and make up for it. That's natural and expected. However, I have never witnessed

1) A company doing this while they are AHEAD (See, nVidia PowerVR whitepaper, for example)

2) A company doing it to the extent that nVidia is doing it when behind.

Absolutely. And I'll be happy as long as if it turns, it turns because of a better product, not better PR.

 

Anyone else remember..."So powerful...it's a little ridiculous"


Jack

 

Lol....

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/hl2_performance_preview_part1/page2.asp

Um...methinks they got it backwards.

Though in FiringSquad's defense, the FPS/$ graph does have the x axis mislabeled as $/FPS.

Oh...and nVidia is pretty busy with damage control:

So...nVidia says only beta dets are valid, and Valve says they are not. Web sites....start aligning yourselves....

 

I recall their response to comments about lack of 32-bit color, limit of 256x256 textures, etc. "At 60 frames per second, you can't tell the difference." (I may have paraphrased that and please don't ask me for a source.)

 

Don't be dissin' 3dfx.

Seriously, I don't recall 3dfx making such a statement at all. They did, however, say things along the lines of "what good is 32 bit color, or large textures if that means sub 60 FPS?" That is at least perfectly defensible. (Same argument they used against AGP texturing, BTW).

 

http://anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1862

thread over at NVnews http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17785

 

I'm wonder where my 9500 pro will fit in I would hope it would beat the 9600 pro.

 

sounds like not a valve approved driver...

why did valve make an nv3x codepath if nvidia will replace their shaders anyway , they could have safed alot of time

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/hl2_performance_preview_part1/page3.asp

Optimization Investment

• 5X as much time optimizing NV3X path as we’ve spent optimizing generic DX9 path
• Our customers have a lot of NVIDIA hardware
• We were surprised by the discrepancy
• ATI hardware didn’t need it

 

Yeah, it is fun to see the hubris filled humbled so..I can't wait to see tomorrows news!

 

But they were just wrong on both counts AGP texturing doesn't have to mean sub 60 fps performance, it just means the HW has to hide enough latency to make the AGP bus work well. And you're telling me that if you got 59 fps with 32 bit color and large textures that it's too slow? You can't make blanket statements like this. Sometimes eye candy is worth the performance hit as different games have different requirements.

P.S. I'll diss 3dfx all I want... I bought their damn stock at $2.25 ("It can't go any lower.")... look where it is now

 

Sort of...they always stressed that features don't exist in a vacuum...the have to be usable. That is true, and I daresay ATI can make the same arguments against their competitor wrt 32FP shaders, for example.

Now, whether or not those features were usable or not is the real question. But let's not get into that.

Agreed.

Lol...I own ATI stock at the moment, so er...GET BACK TO WORK!

 

Classic

 

Ouch, I didn't think of that...think nVidia's stock is going to take a hit in the morning?

 

Actually, I don't know. Sometimes, "the street" totally ignores stuff like this...and sometimes the market as a whole reacts to other news.

I'm more worried at the moment that the street will get "nervous" about another bin-laden tape being aired, which sometimes preceeds terrorist attacks...