Will you buy a 6800 based on HardOCP's DOOM3 benchies?

I think that would exclude you from the poll's target audience

 

No:

-I'm waiting to buy a AMD64 939 (possibly nforce4) system with PCIE.
-I just bought a LandRover County 3.5L V8 on Gas
-I think my current system will play this carmack game better than the system I had at the time of the other game's releases so am not too worried.
-I play Counter Strike... still! so I am placing more importance on HL2 with its mods and my next cards performance.

 

I really wish I had fallen in with the HL crowd. Seems like a pretty dedicated bunch so the game must be great. The first time I saw the HL engine was last year and it was just U-G-L-Y so I had to put it down. I'll be sure to give HL2 a good run though.

 

Just for clarification, those benchmarks are id Software's not HardOCP's. The evaluation of the numbers is mine though.

I think your question/poll may be a bit premature though, as I would not suggest anyone make a purchasing decision based on those benchmark numbers. The DOOM 3 [H]ardware Guide that will be out this week will be another story though, and you MIGHT just find another card that is even more valuable than the GT.

 

LOL... please let the hardware guide say a NV40 based card is the most valuable otherwise there will be wide spread suicides by the [H]forum video junkies.

 

I know it's 1 in a million, but please let this not be an ATI or Nvidia card ... hell, make something up. Call it Phantom VGA and say it's the best thing that ever happened. Just so the ATI and Nvidia camps won't have any ammunition against one another. If Bitboys and PowerVR are listening, now's the time to deliver, for the sake of humanity.

 

Ahh fawk......Please don't let it be a card that it not released yet and will have a pre-order of 2 months. Ohh wait! what about a magic driver release from ATI just before the game hits the stores for a major upset from ATI !

I JUST sold my Radeon 9800XT 256MB to my brother-in-law to help him out for Doom 3 (he didn't have enough money at the present to buy a 6800), while I am desperately trying to find a 6800GT in stock in eastern Canada.

The id benchmarks were obviously the reason why I considered upgrading my videocard.

But now, you know what I think? - I will wait for the [H]ardware guide, for the "final answer", reading the web on my lowly Ti4200....before I make my purchase.

Problem is that every day that I wait there are less and less cards available, because of these id benchmarks, blood thirsty gamers are going through every store that stocks the 6800GT/Ultra/Ultra extreme.

These wild and frantic shifts in "what it the best card to buy" are difficult to deal with.

I just want a frggin card that works well with Doom 3 (and subsequently Half-Life 2) and lets me enjoy the beauty of the game without worrying if my card is fast enough. I've got the money, I'm ready to buy, let's do this.

François

P.S. Example of "Congitive dissonance"
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Cognitive_dissonance
Once two cognitions are held and there is a conflict of interests between them, the individual falls into a state of cognitive dissonance. This may be demonstrated by an individual purchasing a brand of washing machine, initially believing that it was the best product to buy. This person's cognition is that a good washing machine has been bought. However, after the purchase, the individual may be exposed to another cognition that informs him/her that there is a better washing machine out on the market (for example, through an advertisement). This then leads to an imbalance between his/her cognitions and a psychological state which needs to seek consonance between the two cognitions.

 

Are you being serious or are you just trying for more cookies?

 

Sorry pressed the button too quickly (must be the nerves)

 

Given the word 'valuable' I'm betting that it's a cheaper card so my vote goes to the vanilla 6800. Unless the 9800PRO/XT pulls a coup I would think that's a solid bet.

 

i didnt mean to imply that it will be a disappointment for everyone, i meant myself specifically, i thought that when i said "unlike others" it would have been clear

as for the halo reference, it was meant as an allegory to my disappointment (if you played the game all the way through, you'd probably understand)

and as to why i think it will be a disappointment...when i play fps games, i usually dont play it for the single player side of it and the limitation to 4 players (at least thats what i last heard) is

 

I agree with that also.

 

Man, I cant wait to see this.

 

And the funny thing.... you could get, right now, a plain vanilla 6800 in stock while the GT's/Ultra/Ultra Extremes are back-ordered.

"valuable" could also be interpreted as "rare"

Let's look at the Geforce 6800nu hypothesis:

Robert Duffy said in PC Gamer Sept 2004 edition:

"On 128MB videocards, we run everything at full resolution but use compressed textures"

"On 256MB videocards, we run with compressed diffuse and specular textures and uncompressed normal maps"

"In Ultra quality, everything is uncompressed but most levels require about 500MB od texture memory, so we don't enable this setup by default on any currently shipping videocard"

Looking at this, is a card with 128MB ram an interesting option ?

François

 

Lol. I think you mean invaluable

And value in 3D means bang for the buck, if the 6800NU is posting up X800XT scores in Doom3 that's a hell of a lot of value. For it to be an ATI card then some magic has to have happened with the R420 or the 9800PRO/XT is doing something special. Both are much less likely than a good showing from the plain 6800.

Well considering that all the games with all compressed textures on 128MB cards run just fine now....then YES!!! This uncompressed thing is more gimmick than anything else IMHO.

 

I hear you. I played it through and sure it wasn't deserving of all the hype, but since I never really bought into the hype in the first place it was a decent enough game for a one time run.

Understood. I take a different stance however. If I had a preference to multiplayer FPS' then I wouldnt have high hopes for Doom3 as its multiplayer aspect has not been heavily hyped. Therefore I wouldnt be disappointed since expectations weren't really that high to begin with

 

well the 6800nu is only a 128 meg card so even if it was it be using medium settings to get the x800xt pe scores .

Personaly they need to do low , medium and high value guides .

people will get confused if they show the 6800 ultra getting say 60fps in high quality and then the 6800nu getting the same at medium quality .


anyway i wonder why they aren't looking into gdc .

HOpefully ati lobbies or offers to do the work for them. 3dc will add some benfits for ati at the high ends. Like possible offering high quality image quality with 3Dc compressed normals at the same quality as the uncompressed normals. May give them a couple fps .

But really for the future r42x low end cards it would help alot when using the medium settings .

 

You may be right but the value argument still holds. We don't know how medium quality holds up. We are hearing that Doom3 looks good at 640x480 and that AA does not give as big an IQ boost as in some other titles. Now if medium quality looks damn good on a $300 card at the same fps of a $500 card with IQ that's not much noticeably better then that's value!

If they do it that way my money's on the GT for high. I suspect that this guide will be using the same drivers/hardware as the preview. Even if there are some magic drivers I doubt they could propel the R420 parts past their 6800 counterparts to steal the value award.

But this is all guesswork...I just can't put my finger on which ATI card could possibly have strong value in Doom3 based on the preliminary benches.

 

well if thats true then u can run the x800xt pe and 6800ultra class cards at medium quality and get much better framerates and fsaa/aniso lvls tham the 6800nu .

I think why u can get away with the lower detail lvls and not notice it is because they aren't that huge to begin with and the darkness in the lvls and shadows hides it more so than in say farcry on a beach in the middle of the day

I think the 9800pro for 160$ is a very good deal. But i guess we will find out soon enough.

Though basing your buying on one benchmark is very silly . The 5700ultra may give u the same or better framerates in doom3 but i wouldn't want to play it over the 9600pro in farcry /

 

This is why I have been reviewing an "alternative" benchmark. Yes I know I know it was the beta but still it gives us something to think about.

http://www.ixbt-labs.com/articles2/digest3d/0604/itogi-video-hl2-wxp.html

François