General Zot Posted September 11, 2003 Report Share Posted September 11, 2003 Not good for the latest Nvidia cards, great for ATI: http://www.tech-report.com/etc/2003q3/valv...ve/index.x?pg=1 Basically, the 5900 ultra performs at half the ability of the 9800 pro in Half Lif 2, and valve thinks this is a dx9 problem, not HL2 specific. Ouch for Nvidia! * Edited by Whooter to correct the URL. * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted September 11, 2003 Report Share Posted September 11, 2003 Reading that article makes me glad I have a pimped out uber-rig to run HL2 on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooter Posted September 11, 2003 Report Share Posted September 11, 2003 I'll reserve judgement on this until someone who isn't having his pockets lined with ATi money says it's so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camp Posted September 11, 2003 Report Share Posted September 11, 2003 Wow. This has been one tough year for nVidia. When is their new chip due? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted September 11, 2003 Report Share Posted September 11, 2003 Here's another link to an article that talks about performance differences between nVidia's 5900 and ATi's 9800. http://www.gamersdepot.com/hardware/video_...desktop/001.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted September 11, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2003 whooter, I agree that more research here is needed, but I'm not buying a new Nvidia card until their name is cleared either 8) The part I found interesting was the vast gap between the two product lines, it was literally half the FPS for Nvidia! Even if Gabe Newell wanted to skew the numbers a bit, isn't this too huge a difference to be made up? Especially with the bad press Nvidia has gotten recently for doctoring benchmarks, just doesn't instill confidence. Don't matter, not buying anything until HL2 ships anyway. Always cheaper tomorrow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 Here are two more links to HL2 benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1863&p=1 http://www.tech-report.com/etc/2003q3/hl2b...ch/index.x?pg=1 All signs are pointing to the Radeon 9800 being the card of choice for HL2 currently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 And another at ExtremeTech http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973...,1264987,00.asp Sean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 I'll reserve judgement on this until someone who isn't having his pockets lined with ATi money says it's so... Nvidia's own words in thier press release reply which you can read here: Nvidia's response Since we know that obtaining the best pixel shader performance from the GeForce FX GPUs currently requires some specialized work, our developer technology team works very closely with game developers. I see that as being exactly the problem with DX9 applications on Nvidia cards and the entire point Gabe Newell is trying to make. Smaller dev houses who do not have the money and resources to pour into creating these specialized paths may end up having major issues getting the best possible performance from Nvidi'as FX hardware. Furthermore several sites have been reporting on John Carmacks comments that the Nvidia FX series does indeed require these specialization: Update 09/05: We emailed id Software guru, John Carmack about his experience with NV3x hardware on Pixel Shading performance, and this was his reply: GD: John, we've found that NVIDIA hardware seems to come to a crawl whenever Pixel Shader's are involved, namely PS 2.0.. Have you witnessed any of this while testing under the Doom3 environment? "Yes. NV30 class hardware can run the ARB2 path that uses ARB_fragment_program, but it is very slow, which is why I have a separate NV30 back end that uses NV_fragment_program to specify most of the operations as 12 or 16 bit instead of 32 bit." John Carmack Gabe Newells point touches more on the development issues that other dev houses may run into and less of "thrashing" of Nvidia cards. Carmacks comments seem to back these worries up. Competition is a good thing but Nvidia is just as guilty of lining pockets as anyone else in the industy, the point of this particular address is still poignant if true, however I would like to see actual benchmarks done by some reliable hardware sites as well. We'll have to see what improvements the Detenator 50's bring to the FX hardware. When is their new chip due? I've heard the release for the NV40, nvidia next major redesign, is sometime 1st quarter next year. Around the same time ATI will be releasing the R420 chipset, which is also their next major hardware redesign as well. ATI also has the 9800TX due soon and it seemd rumors of it being packaged along with Half-Life 2 may be true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooter Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 Good points, Romier. As an Nvidia fan and ATi skeptic, it's disapointing to see. I'm interested in how the new 50 drivers that Nvidia's talking about stack up. As I've stated before, though, whatever is best when HL2 and/or D3 come out is what's going in my rig... regardless of who makes it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 Good points, Romier. As an Nvidia fan and ATi skeptic, it's disapointing to see. I agree, its disappointing from any perspective really. I want Nvidia and ATI to both succeed. The more competition the better. Keeps both companies on their toes. The Det 50'smay bring about some revelations however so we'll see how that goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustyjaw Posted September 12, 2003 Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 I want Nvidia and ATI to both succeed. The more competition the better. Well, the seesaw kind of battle might be good. I thought for sure a couple years ago that ATI was dead in the water, but they really worked hard in the face of being obliterated. I suspect nVidia is working just as hard, and will come back strong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Zot Posted September 12, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2003 I agree with Ed, the race is not yet over. If Nvidia needs to kick it up a notch for next generation, so be it. Reminds me of the Intel/AMD battle the last few years. We didn't get really fast and really cheap CPUs until AMD started kicking the bejesus out of Intel with a superior price/performance ratio. Now all CPUs are a lot more resonable and going Intel or AMD is strictly a personal preference. ie - they will both play Quake 3 equally well for 95% of the population. I'll probably pick up that Radeon/HL2 bundle when it hits shelves, more just because it makes two must have purchases a little cheaper than buying separately. I don't think Nvidia HL2 players will be at any sort of disadvantage at that point (maybe at worst turn off a little high end eye candy -- big whoop.) It's like that old CIA game: let's have you and him fight, I'll wait here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted September 13, 2003 Report Share Posted September 13, 2003 Gamespot has their own hands on test. Interesting reading: Gamespot hands-on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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