what kind of game is Nvidia and ATI playing anyway

[jclw]

R42X will support PS/VS 3.0 and FP32, and

according to Tweakers.net, in a short part discussing the GDDR-3 graphics memory, which currently has speeds in the range of 500 - 700MHz (1 - 1.4GHz effective) ATI demonstrated a demo of the upcoming, DirectX9 heavy title, Colin McRae Rally 4 on R420, which was quoted as running at 2 - 3 time faster than present DirectX9 capable hardware.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.74 i815*

 

[cleeve]

That review was done right after the 9800 PRO was released... back then, Ati had tried out some driver optimizations (valid ones that work with all games, not the bad kind) for the 9800 that weren't enabled in the 9700.

Back then, people with 9700 cards could enable a 9700to9800 softmod that enabled their 9700 to use those optimizations.

BUT, Ati later enabled those optimizations for 9700s in the new Catalyst drivers as well, so a softmod isn't needed anymore. Newer benchmarks that I have seen show absolutely no difference in performance between the 9700 and 9800np, which have the same GPU clockspeed... in fact, the 9700 PRO usually beats the 9800np at high resolutons because the memory is clocked slightly (like 10 Mhz) higher:

Check these benches at Firingsquad out:

<A HREF="http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9800_review/page5.asp" target="_new">http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9800_review/page5.asp</A>

________________
<b>Radeon <font color=red>9500 PRO</b></font color=red> <i>(hardmodded 9500, o/c 322/322)</i>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>2600+</b></font color=red> <i>(o/c 2400+ w/143Mhz fsb)</i>
<b>3dMark03: <font color=red>4,055</b></font color=red>

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

R42X will support PS/VS 3.0 and FP32, and

<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=389274#389274" target="_new">No, actually that doesn't appear to be the case</A>.

All the early indications are that the R420 series will NOT support Shader3.0, nor FP32. Initially we all thought that would be the case, but it appears more info says nope. However we won't know for sure until they hit shelves.

As for the Colin McRae demo, that's all fine an good, but it doesn't mean ALL will experience that improvement, heck it could be a VertexShader heavy game like X2 is and then a significant improvement would be expected with the 50% more vertex engines AND speed boost.
Even the current R9800PRO/XT would greatly benifit from faster memory (like that on the FX5900/5950), but that doesn't give us any indication as to architecture of the core.

I won't believe either camp's PR, and will only trust GOOD reviews that take the time to do it right, not just first.
Shouldn't be a long wait, but it will be tough none the less.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[pauldh]

Bring on the benchies

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt