Tweaktown Volari v8 Duo review

[Veridian3]

click here

Makes for interesting reading, thats for sure!

 

[Ylandro]

Intersting reading? In a way...

I seem to remember a certain review from Xbitlabs ( http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/xgi-volari.html )

Don't think that Tweaktown has ever read it. They should... And then very quickly and silently put their own review in the carbage bin. Next to the Volari card.

 

[Veridian3]

Glad to see it wasnt just me who thought that

 

[digitalwanderer]

Hanners pointed this page of the review out to me yesterday to show that the latest 56.64 drivers from nVidia still contain the 3dm2k3 cheats.

Considering this is XGI’s first attempt in the high performance arena, they have done a pretty good job. The Volari gives an excellent range of features but due to the drives being so new the optimization and design isn’t the best at the moment. At the moment XGI is able to keep up with both the Radeon 9800 XT and GeForce FX 5950 in some tests and considering how long the cards have been out for, some of the scores achieved by the XGI battler are quite respectable.

I think this is the first review I've read of a Volari that said anything nice at all about 'em.

Also, did anyone else notice his 9800 AA/no-AA pictures he doesn't have AA enabled on either picture? (It's FarCry, he probably didn't know HOW to enable it! )

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=623&dPage=13

 

[Veridian3]

Hanners pointed this page of the review out to me yesterday to show that the latest 56.64 drivers from nVidia still contain the 3dm2k3 cheats.

They could also contain legitimate optimisations that bring equal speed increases to the dodgy ones in previous drivers...so quick to judge...

I'm not going to comment on specific content of the review though as there is so much just not right with it... i just thought it provided some good entertainment

 

[digitalwanderer]

They could also contain legitimate optimisations that bring equal speed increases to the dodgy ones in previous drivers...so quick to judge...

I know you won't believe me V3, so here is the link; but that is damn near EXACTLY what I said when Hanners told me that. 8)

TweakTown have kindly (yet unwittingly) proved that all of the 3DMark03 cheats are still in these drivers:

Now what makes you say that Hanners? Maybe these are legitimate speed improvements? :|

 

[Veridian3]

So what changed you mind?

 

[digitalwanderer]

So what changed you mind?

I couldn't see the pig, it got sucked into the intake jets of a 747 while I was posting to that thread.

 

[Hanners]

They could also contain legitimate optimisations that bring equal speed increases to the dodgy ones in previous drivers...so quick to judge...

If they do, I shall be the first to take off my hat to nVidia... And promptly eat it.

 

[rainz]

Is it going to beat any of the current top cards somedays ? Maybe if they pray hard

RainZ

 

[StealthHawk]

Only one screenshot from one game? And it looks like XGI has rendering errors in it when AA/AF is off :? Well, at least Far Cry runs on Volari now, I guess that's something of a plus.

 

[SsP45]

I find it odd that they list the overclocked core at 420Mhz, 840Mhz DDR. I don't think I've ever seen a core speed listed at DDR speed as well.
________
Subaru r1

 

[Lecram25]

I find it odd that they list the overclocked core at 420Mhz, 840Mhz DDR. I don't think I've ever seen a core speed listed at DDR speed as well.

I noticed that one too

 

[rwolf]

Intersting reading? In a way...

I seem to remember a certain review from Xbitlabs ( http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/xgi-volari.html )

Don't think that Tweaktown has ever read it. They should... And then very quickly and silently put their own review in the carbage bin. Next to the Volari card.

heh heh

 

[Iceman]

Don't think that Tweaktown has ever read it. They should... And then very quickly and silently put their own review in the carbage bin. Next to the Volari card.

I second that.

Any reviewer who is too blind, or too dumb, to notice that AA is not working and who then writes "...like the 9800XT still has room to move..." should't be let near a graphics card in the future.

 

[Veridian3]

Well, at least Far Cry runs on Volari now, I guess that's something of a plus.

Well...runs is something of an overstatement. Ran it last night with the new drivers:

V8 Duo 256mb
A64 FX-51

FarCry 1024x768
Avg: 6.404 - Min: 5 - Max: 10
The fact that it even runs on my system is an improvment over the last drivers. Very bad water textures...lots of greys mixed in, most of the textures (wood etc) look washed out. Speed speaks for itself.

 

[Ylandro]

Well... 6 fps in a DX9 game seems typical for the Volari

I wonder... does it look like 6 fps?

To be honest, I can hardly believe the Volari really is this bad. Maybe the benchmarks get screwed up because of this double-GPU design, and report half framerates or something...?

 

[Veridian3]

Nope, it really is this bad. Need for speed feels like its in slow motion/sluggish.

Farcry was so slow that it was hard to even control/move the character because you were waiting on the frames rendering to see if your keystrokes etc had occured.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Nope, it really is this bad. Need for speed feels like its in slow motion/sluggish.

Farcry was so slow that it was hard to even control/move the character because you were waiting on the frames rendering to see if your keystrokes etc had occured.

Eeew! Thanks for the info V3, taking one for the team and forcing yourself to play a game that bad just so you could tell us about it IS appreciated. 8)

Dang it, is there ANY game the Volari does run well? I mean, c'mon...every dog has their day, I figure Volari must have ONE game that runs well on it!

 

[Ylandro]

Dang it, is there ANY game the Volari does run well? I mean, c'mon...every dog has their day, I figure Volari must have ONE game that runs well on it!

Pac-Man?