Kudos to ATI

[WaltC]

A couple of days ago I broke down and bought a "built by ATI" ATI-branded R300 to displace my GF4 Ti4600 in my machine at home. I bought it from Best Buy's because I had a 30-day, satisfaction-guaranteed return period. Doesn't look as if I'll be returning this one (a keeper) and so my 4600 is safely tucked away in the wife's machine.

I think this is the most solid 3D product I've seen from ATI. Once Epic fixed its OGL renderer, it runs UT w/hi-res textures (although some of them aren't so great looking...) better than my 4600 did--which surprised me. In fact, all I had to do to get it to work was install Epic's newest renderer and run the game--my UT.ini settings for the 4600 worked perfectly with the 9700. In fact, I've yet to discover an issue with any 3D game I own.

This is a far cry from yesterday's ATI--no question, and I'm very glad to see it because competition is great and I'm delighted to see that nVidia once again has some. OpenGL Guy has been absolutely right--it's not "your father's" ATI anymore... (Of course it never was my Dad's ATI anyway as ATI didn't exist--but that's beside the point.)

 

[Tahir2]

A lot of people in this very forum have been saying the same about the previous product too, the Radeon 8500LE.

In fact my Gainward GF4 TI4200 is exhibiting a problem and I will be returning soon - to replace it with an ATI based card... not 100% sure which one yet

 

[KimB]

Let me guess, Misae, it's instability that doesn't appear to be related to 3D games, but occasionally causes screen corruption?

 

[gkar1]

Somehow the last two posts of this thread struck me as funny.
How the tables have turned and all

 

[Oompa Loompa]

I agree, kudos to ATI.

Irrespective of issues like earnings/share and volume production, the simple fact is that they've delivered a world-beating DX9 product with reasonably good drivers.

That merits some serious praise. I'd elaborate further, but I don't want to deny additional bandwidth to my download of UT2003-demo.exe.

 

[Althornin]

I'd elaborate further, but I don't want to deny additional bandwidth to my download of UT2003-demo.exe.

86% here...

 

[jb]

Doh I am the first person to rack himself in the game online..what a way to be remembered

 

[flf]

Fortunately, he was wearing SackGuard.

 

[Doomtrooper]

Is UT 2003 going to be a usefull for benchmarks, just loaded up the Demo..why is their a Nvidia logo on this...
I have been waiting forever for this game and none to happy their seems to be support for one IHV that I don't have..
Is their specific optimizations in this demo for Nvidia based cards ??

 

[KimB]

Probably just because they are sponsoring the download (i.e. you can download it from nVidia), Doomtrooper.

 

[Typedef Enum]

Actually, Sweeney and Crew are using the new NV30 version of Glide to specially optimize this game for nVidia hardware...No joke...Seriously.

On a serious note, this thing (believe it or not) runs extremely well when configured for Surround Gaming. I was extremely (can't understate that) surprised at how well the thing played on the "P." (Parhelia, in MURC language).

 

[Doomtrooper]

Probably just because they are sponsoring the download (i.e. you can download it from nVidia), Doomtrooper.

You can download it from alot places, I don't see their ad.

 

[Doomtrooper]

Actually, Sweeney and Crew are using the new NV30 version of Glide to specially optimize this game for nVidia hardware...No joke...Seriously.

On a serious note, this thing (believe it or not) runs extremely well when configured for Surround Gaming. I was extremely (can't understate that) surprised at how well the thing played on the "P." (Parhelia, in MURC language).

Actually people that just spent $400 dollars on another IHV's video card should not be happy their card is not bringing The way it was meant to be played...

There should be no damn IHV ads in any game, this isn't a console.

 

[Nagorak]

I found the inclusion of the Nvidia logo to be absolutely unacceptable as well. Nvidia didn't do anything to produce this game...why is their logo included? I don't see a Creative Labs logo or anything, and at least they invented something actually used in the game (EAX).

A game is a game, not a marketting billboard. I'd be just as disgusted if I saw an ATi logo on start-up... What's next? The billboards in racing games outfitted with the Intel logo? Or will we start getting companies like AT&T advertising in games? Just lame...

 

[Tahir2]

Let me guess, Misae, it's instability that doesn't appear to be related to 3D games, but occasionally causes screen corruption

Chalnoth yes you are right. The problem lies squarely at Gainward ad apprently a batch of bad RAM. Nothing to do with NVIDIA

However in my humble opinion I preferred what I got with the ATI card I had last. I personally experienced better Image Quality in games generally and preferred the way you could set the driver tabs to do things and they would just do it (ref: 40.41 drivers). And I haven't been able to fix the horrible texture aliasing in GP4, so I give up. I even prefer the slower SmoothVision to the much faster Accuview(?) in some instances.

Hey, but that's horses for courses yea?

I hope no one on this board has a problem with my decision... and if anyone does then you should: [Doomtrooper inserts an appropriate smiley as I have lost the link where I found some]

 

[Dave Baumann]

If you remember me saying that NV were not going to be at ECTS, but then at the last minute they turned up with the UT2003 competition, AFAIK it was Epic who persuaded NV to actually go.

The logo is more than just because of the download.

 

[Gollum]

Oh come on, could this complaining BE any more ridiculous? Ever fired up an old Bullfrog game and wondered about the "intel inside" pentium logos a couple of years ago? Or played games during the 3dfx area? Oh yes, this is really new and its so worth complaining about!

Sometimes people here seem to have SERIOUS problems accepting market realities. Yes, computer games can be used to market products - just like magazines, movies and other media as well. I might not like it myself and so far its thankfully remained on a much more subtle level than in those two examples, but this is a business for christ's sake! Developers need to earn money and if Epic has signed a unimportant little contract with Nvidia about them sponsoring the demo to finance their development work, then more power to them, its their good right to do so!

Doomtrooper, I am really sorry that Nvidia logo will ruin your gaming experience, hopefully you can recover from that shock in time and grow to forgive Epic for what they have done. I can only imagine how horrible seeing that logo must have been for you, with it being burnt into you brain next to devil and hell and stuff...

 

[Hellbinder]

Well for all their BS nvidia *optimizations* Nothing will save them from the total ass whipping the 9700 puts on this game.. even without all that *FAVROTISM*.

These Scores were attained at 1024x768x32 with Maxed game settings and 4x FSAA + 4x Quality Aniso.

dm-antalus
13.030972 / 91.407516 / 292.400208 fps
Score = 91.415955

ctf-citadel
14.580855 / 47.833096 / 103.826202 fps
Score = 47.898083

The same results are obtained in the game live, only better and I have yet to see where that 13/14 FPS are comming from. I am playing with nothing but the above settings and I have never seen it dip below 40 even in the worst situation.

Not to mention at the same time compare to the IQ seen here.

 

[Tahir2]

llbinder - I think everyone here knows that the Radeon 9700 Pro is faster than the GF4 TI4600.

It really is not new news... however keep posting those screenshots..

 

[demalion]

Hmm...well, I think Epic fell down here a bit. I'm not going to crucify them for it, but...an advertisement for an IHV as part of the game launch sequence? Even animated and in 3D in this case...I can't even imagine "nVidia fans", atleast the ones here if I may throw around a useless label for a bit, getting a kick out of being greeted by an advertisement at every game start?

OTOH, it is a demo and I didn't pay for it, so they can go right ahead and slap as many ads as they want to rake in some cash, despite my feelings about it...it's not like I developed the game out of my pocket is it? It's not as if conditioning is anything new to advertisement. The only difference with some other demos I've seen is that this ad is at the beginning...just a bit too aggressive and repetitive in the positioning there for my taste. Oh well, the ad has had a negative impact on me, and will for some others, they'll find out whether it was worth it for them and respond accordingly in their next demo release I expect.

The line of no return for me is if that showed up in the actual shipping game...that would be a bit out there. But I'm not too worried, I just can't imagine them doing that.