"Some sort of ATI graphics card"

[Dave Baumann]

From Gamespots Doom preview:

Doom was apparently shown running on a 2.2Ghz system using some sort of ATI graphics card. It's scheduled for release sometime next year.

Any guesses as to 'what' sort of ATi graphics card? Obviously Radeon 8500 would be an obvious choice but then you'd think they would have picked that up.

 

[muted]

I don't know , you're talking about Gamespot .. some sort of ati card

hell it could be matrox , jc said it already ran on the parhelia ..

Imagine the free publicity the card running it would get .. ( and will probably get ) I think Nvidia was pretty happy that doom 3 was demoed using the geforce 3 on their card at macworld


my money is on nvidia .. well maybe ati

i'll try and see if i can't find some real information

 

[nooneyouknow]

At the show, it was dubbed "Next Generation ATI Graphics Card". I highly doubt it is a RV250 since that is a Value version of the Radeon 8500. Enjoy

 

[Doomtrooper]

At the show, it was dubbed "Next Generation ATI Graphics Card". I highly doubt it is a RV250 since that is a Value version of the Radeon 8500. Enjoy

My guess is R300 Beta Board as I'm sure its out of Alpha stages now, from the movie the models look amazing and was looking for truform opportunities..and saw lots

 

[Dave Baumann]

My guess is R300 Beta Board as I'm sure its out of Alpha stages now

Mmmm, Well, we've read how much trouble JC had with Alpha silicon for R200 - if it we're R300 then it must be in a pretty advanced state.

 

[Randell]

My guess is R300 Beta Board as I'm sure its out of Alpha stages now

Mmmm, Well, we've read how much trouble JC had with Alpha silicon for R200 - if it we're R300 then it must be in a pretty advanced state.

well wouldnt it have to be if it were to be ready for a August/Sept launch?

 

[ram]

At the show, it was dubbed "Next Generation ATI Graphics Card". I highly doubt it is a RV250 since that is a Value version of the Radeon 8500. Enjoy

The key here is that the "value" is meant in comparison to R300. RV250 is in fact a faster R200.

 

[Dave Baumann]

The key here is that the "value" is meant in comparison to R300. RV250 is in fact a faster R200.

Given the previous designations I would expect Rv300 to take that mantle. I'm not sure that Rv250 doesn't have some pipes cut down...

 

[ram]

Given the previous designations I would expect Rv300 to take that mantle. I'm not sure that Rv250 doesn't have some pipes cut down...

According to this (already a bit dated) PPT presentation it still has 4 pipes. Though it is strange that it is still 0.15u. It seems RV250 could just be a new R200 stepping.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I'm not sure how much faith I put in those supposedly confidential roadmaps that aren't very confidential - it also appears to state that R300 is ready for release about now...

Anyway, it seems that Rv250 will be pitted against NV18, so I wonder what NVIDIA will be doing as well. The question is whether the costs of the processes have come down in price significantly to house a DX8 card with a full 4 pipes for a very low price - 3Dlabs still consider .13um to be too costly to introduce this year.

 

[multigl2]

just maybe the r300 is ready, or very close to, being released.... they're just waiting for DX9

 

[Hellbinder]

R300's were given out to various developers a full month ago.

I thought this was semi common knowlege in this community.

It was an R300.. you can bank on it. (IMHO)

 

[Ichneumon]

Ya, there are people using early versions of the r300 right now. I don't know how many developers have them, but I know that ATI has working boards in their own systems at the moment.

 

[nggalai]

Hi Doomtrooper,

My guess is R300 Beta Board as I'm sure its out of Alpha stages now, from the movie the models look amazing and was looking for truform opportunities..and saw lots

I wonder whether Truform would negate one of the best points of the new DooM3 engine. The reason you see low-poly models is not really that modern graphics cards can't cope with higher polygon load for the models themselves, but that, as soon as you work with shadow volumes, you'll want as few polygons to be bothered with as possible. That's why you have low-poly models "skinned" with the results of bump map transformations of a high-poly model in the first place--I think the engine's shadow calculations would slow down tremendously with higher polygon models.

The discussion what board was used during the presentation is not very interesting: first I think we'll never know what REALLY was used and what's simple marketing blurb, second it's not important--all we non-E3 visitors have as grounds for discussion are the screenshots and movie(s) of DooM3, and gods know what VGA those were taken from. I'm pretty sure those screenshots were not taken right at the booth, but rather some time prior to E3.

ta,
.rb

 

[SlmDnk]

http://www.actiontrip.com/previews/doom3thelegacy.phtml

Quote:

"I was not able to find out any info on the processor that was used for the demo, but I was able to learn that it uses the very newest GeForce 4 video card. The rest of the box I am certain was top of the line. It had to be, this ain't your momma's 3D engine, this is Doom III."

What's this then? Did they show the Doom 3 demo with ATi card and also with GF4? Confusing....

This is the best story about Doom 3 that I have read, Neal "Petrodon" Leyendecker did an excellent job especially when describing the performance and quality of the engine.

 

[Dave Baumann]

heheh - Just as Typedef posts that previous quote on the front of NVNEW's ATI releases some PR...

LOS ANGELES, May 24, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Id Software(TM) has chosen ATI's next generation graphics architecture as the platform for previewing their unbelievably realistic and much anticipated DOOM III(TM) at this year's E3 Expo.

ATI's chip was chosen because it offers the most advanced, high-performance graphics architecture to power the demonstration at E3 2002. DOOM III(TM), scheduled for release in 2003, has been highly anticipated both as an unbelievable game and as a true measure of today - and tomorrow's - graphics architectures. Also highly anticipated, ATI's next generation product, scheduled for release this fall, will cement ATI firmly as a leader in the ultra-high-end 3D and gaming graphics market.

"ATI's next generation hardware has an ideal feature set for the DOOM III(TM) engine, and at the moment is the fastest platform to run the game on," said John Carmack, Chief Technical Officer & co-founder of Id Software, Inc.

"We want users to be blown away by their gaming experience," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, Marketing and General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies Inc. "Our next-generation product will move gamers a quantum leap forward in realistic and immersive gaming. Gamer's won't just play DOOM III(TM) with ATI's next generation hardware - they'll live it."

 

[LeStoffer]

LOL Just as Typedef posts that previous quote on the front of NVNEW's ATI releases some PR...

LOS ANGELES, May 24, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Id Software(TM) has chosen ATI's next generation graphics architecture as the platform for previewing their unbelievably realistic and much anticipated DOOM III(TM) at this year's E3 Expo.

ATI's chip was chosen because it offers the most advanced, high-performance graphics architecture to power the demonstration at E3 2002. DOOM III(TM), scheduled for release in 2003, has been highly anticipated both as an unbelievable game and as a true measure of today - and tomorrow's - graphics architectures. Also highly anticipated, ATI's next generation product, scheduled for release this fall, will cement ATI firmly as a leader in the ultra-high-end 3D and gaming graphics market.

"ATI's next generation hardware has an ideal feature set for the DOOM III(TM) engine, and at the moment is the fastest platform to run the game on," said John Carmack, Chief Technical Officer & co-founder of Id Software, Inc.

"We want users to be blown away by their gaming experience," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, Marketing and General Manager, Desktop, ATI Technologies Inc. "Our next-generation product will move gamers a quantum leap forward in realistic and immersive gaming. Gamer's won't just play DOOM III(TM) with ATI's next generation hardware - they'll live it."

This is quite interesting as it confirms that R300 ["Our next-generation product"!] is more than just up and running. And it's amazing that the drivers at this early point is solid enough to demo the game on.

At the very least this confirms that ATI was faster to get an alpha/sample DX9-chip out the door. Hmmm, I would guess that DX9 hasn't gone beta yet since NV30 isn't quite as far in development. But I also have a feeling that NV30 may be a more radical departeure from GF3/4 than R300 is from R200 in means of architeture.

 

[Colourless]

That's really got to hurt Nvidia. I take it to mean one of 2 things:
1) Nvidia isn't ready yet
or
2) ATI's card is better than Nvidia's

-Colourless

 

[Dave Baumann]

To me the words "at the moment is the fastest platform to run the game on" to indicate that R300 is in a closer state of readiness, but the performance title is still up fr grabs!

 

[thorny]

Regardless of nvidia vs ati, it does mean that Matrox won't hold the performance crown for very long at all.