Will next 3dmark's game test 4 require sm 3.0?

[Mendel]

Well in the current situation where only Nvidia can offer shader model 3.0...
What do you think, will Futuremark push it and only let people run the "Grandmother Nature" with 3.0 capable hardware or will they create a fallback for 2.0, thus giving x800 some points from all tests?

Take your guess and clarify why you think that would happen.

 

[ANova]

I doubt it. SM3.0 doesn't really offer anything revolutionary enough to justify it as a requirement. Certainly nothing like the jump from PS1.3 to PS2.0. It's basically the PS1.4 of today.

 

[Pete]

Of course not, for the same reasons that previous 3DMs didn't require PS1.4 or PS2.a. FM will likely continue to target the base hardware and provide alternate (more efficient) shaders for newer hardware.

 

[KimB]

Nah. It may stress PS 3.0 (and thus be quite a bit faster with PS 3.0), but it'll have a fallback.

 

[digitalwanderer]

No.

 

[Entz]

Nope. As the others have said they may have a code path for it (Just like PS 1.4 in DX8 tests) but there will always be fallbacks to 2.0.

Though I would not be suprised if they had a PS 3.0 only "Advanced Shader Test" that looked nice but had no effect on the overall score (ala 3DMark 2001 SE). Perhaps only in demo mode.

 

[Mendel]

You seem to be stressing the Pixel Shader part of the shader model 3 a lot. What about the more significant changes in Vertex Shader?

 

[KimB]

Well, I think that the floating point texture filtering and framebuffer blending support is the most significant new feature in "SM3" for games.

 

[Pete]

I referred only to PS simply because that was the biggest point of differentiation b/w ATi and nV in the past. Sure, FM can do the same with VS: baseline of 2.0, with 3.0 for whoever can use it to their benefit.

 

[Hanners]

As others have said, I think you can look to how FutureMark handled Pixel Shader 1.4 in the Radeon 8500 era to predict how they will use 3.0 shaders in a future iteration of 3DMark.

 

[Patric Ojala]

What do you think, will Futuremark push it and only let people run the "Grandmother Nature" with 3.0 capable hardware?

Grandmother Nature featuring PS3.0 in the next 3DMark - that was genuinely funny
- Well spoken Mendel!

 

[Evildeus]

Hint Hint

 

[Dave Baumann]

I think I'll take the 5'th on this poll.

 

[Evildeus]

I think I'll take the 5'th on this poll.

5th vote on yes? 5th what? :?

 

[Maverick]

The fifth amendment.

 

[Tim]

The next 3dmark is AFAIK HLSL-based the shader code will be compiled using the appropriate compiler target for each card. This includes 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0b and 3.0.

 

[AAlcHemY]

I think I'll take the 5'th on this poll.

5th vote on yes? 5th what? :?

3D Mark 2004 released 5 june.

( thats how I read it )

 

[Quitch]

I think I'll take the 5'th on this poll.

5th vote on yes? 5th what? :?

Fifth ammendment, you don't have to say anything that could incriminate you, or some such. What Dave means is he isn't voting because he knows the answer... git.

 

[Evildeus]

Yeah i know what is it, just puzzled to see a 5th coming from nowhere

 

[Ante P]

I'm hoping for some more cool technology tests, something involving vertex texture fetches.

MRT's would also be nice.

Personally I think an even more interesting question is: will they support 3Dc or at least have it as an option..?