pc tech questions

[eid]

ok heres my current specs

Amd Athlon3k barton(malay)

2x 512mb cas2

creative audigy

leadtek a350xt (5900xt) forceware:81.85

anyway i have a few questions to throw around about my video card 

i've heard rumours that the 'fx' series nvidia cards are bad at dx9 shader model 2.0

meaing anything like bf2/farcry/half life 2 etc ,either has lower prescision or runs very slow

i looked around the nv forums and found some info goes a little way to 'explain' a few things about this

heres the jist of  what i could understand from it

firstly when dx9 came into the world,mr william gates set a few standards and requirements,

these are best split into 3 groups

minumum: a dx9 compliant card with at the minimum of  full prescision 16bit textureing/shading

recommended: a dx9 compliant card that has  the medium specification and can use 24bit full prescision

high end spec: a dx9 compliant card that exceedes dx9 recomended specifications and uses 32bit full prescision-equal to 128bit colour

this is the result of greedy competition ,when ati choose  16/24fp for its dx9 standards.. nvidia went ahead of itself and went for 16/32 instead..thus not even supporting fp24 at all (hopeing for best image quality)

however the problem started when most games supporting dx9 didnt use fp32 at all, most used fp24,and seeing as though the nv 3x doesnt have fp24 hardware available...my guess is it would haveto emulate it somehow

meanwhile dx9 games run a bit shakey on my system,though still playable...overclocking helps too

my main question here is in relation to the above is....is the nv 3x series ahead of its time?  will we ever see its hardware put to use...or when it does,will it be too weak? /out of date dx10 destroys it for eg:

im thinking too of the 68xx series atm or maybe the x800(im an ati noob) ,im not sure who to vote for this time

if the 68xx arent worth it ill probly up to pcix and get and xfi card while im at it

hmm anything else?

[Nuvollari]

get 6600 GT ...its the best video card priceperformance...

                        It supports Pixel Shader 3.0...

[eid]

hmm the 6600 isnt bad, although from what i've seen in  past generation cards is ,they usually sacrifice speed (core clock/memory clock) but keep all the main features of the flagship card

some examples are the riva tnt2/m64/ultra or geforce 2/mx/mx200/mx400, gf4ti 4200/4400/4600/4800 and so on

however the nv6600 sacrifices speed(core memory) as well as its hardware pipelines *12* as opposed to *16*

the reason i dont think i will get one of those..or the ati variants is mainly because of the fact that they are slowing it down(no problem) and limiting its hardware capability (unforgivable) in contrast to the previous generations that had no hardware limitations..only slower for a cheaper price

anyway,in reference to the nv-fx cards following my previous post...seeing as though fp32 shaders arent being used by many(perhaps the doom3 engine is the only 1) although the fx has support for this ,whereas the ati's dont(only the newer ones do) when the time comes and most games start using it..would it be overambitious to think that the nv35's 'ahead of its time' fp32 architecture would be still good enough for when that time comes

but if not,i have 1 more question...im thinking of the 6800 or higher ..question is..do i stay with agp...or do i go do something crazy and get a pci-e board and splash out on a crazy 7xxx card, the way the cards are going atm,agp  is looking very shakey,as support for agp seems to be dissapearing..either that or its the marketing having a bit of fun

[erjin999]

and limiting its hardware capability (unforgivable) in contrast to the previous generations that had no hardware limitations..only slower for a cheaper price

as support for agp seems to be dissapearing..either that or its the marketing having a bit of fun

I agree with you about the new cards being slower and limited in contrast to before.

For your second point, I didnt realise the games were made for a particular type of card. The driver makes to type mostly irrelevant, I thought.

[Nuvollari]

WTH are u talking about.....F.E.A.R it works perfectly on a 6600 GT..(1024 rez- max settings)...Its the best card atm Performanceprice...BTW its much better than ATI 9800 PRO...

In my opinion if u want a high end video card.....get the 7800 GTX PCI-E(if u dont have the money then buy a 6600 GT)...

6800 ULTRA gonna suck for the next generation of games.

[eid]

well meanwhile, does anyone here actually know what im talking about with  full/partial precision fp16/24/32?

if so,do you know a program that can force the driver to use a particular precision mode?

3d analyser does this to some degree ,but its external and some apps dont like anything tryin to modify its code path

any others you guys might know of?

coz id rather squeese the life out of this card and get one of those creative X-fi cards instead of a new vcard

ive overclocked my vcard atm to some proportions,  stock speeds are 390/702..atm im running it at 470/950 seems ok

maybe an overvolt and some ram heatspreaders could help bring it upto 1ghz..  ?  its just strange how directx games still dont look as good as opengl...but seems to run a bit slower,i gues not strange at all considering its ms crap,good  one william! nice software, i love you, and im going to buy your next os,coz ur previous os own so much...ckckck..did ms get their programmers and testers from ea by any chance?

[erjin999]

not a clue, but I am ording me a 6600GT.  :P

[veK]

geforce 7800gtx - and you're done ...  :)