Some technical insight on graphic card performance (ati vs nvidia) from the man himse

[Zoost]

Some technical insight on graphic card performance (ati vs nvidia) from the man himself.

http://www.gamersdepot.com/hardware/video_cards/ati_vs_nvidia/dx9_desktop/001.htm

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

[Arioch]

haha, owned by ATI again

[chilvence]

Heh. I really dont know what to make of this, Im just glad I havent bought a new card with future games in mind.

[Fredrik]

Arioch said:

haha, owned by ATI again

Yep. Hardly unexpected :P

[AndrewB]

What I find amusing are the subtle references that having a top-end video card would give a player an edge at a LAN party. Come on. High-end video cards may be prettier, but they don't make for better players.

If you're crying after being smoked in a multiplayer game, it's not because you have the inferior video card. It's because you have serious emotional problems.

[mewse]

AndrewB said:

What I find amusing are the subtle references that having a top-end video card would give a player an edge at a LAN party. Come on. High-end video cards may be prettier, but they don't make for better players.

If you're crying after being smoked in a multiplayer game, it's not because you have the inferior video card. It's because you have serious emotional problems.

hallelujeah, praise jesus and pass me a whiskey, i actually agree with andrewb on something

[DaJuice]

Having high fps does give you a distinct advantage in multiplayer. The person with 30fps is gonna have somewhat of a handicap compared to the guy with 60fps. Of course good ping is still more important which is not an issue on LAN.

[Fredrik]

I'm sure you can get a high FPS with a high resolution even on a Geforce 2. Just disable everything.

[AndrewB]

Including the game?

[NiGHTMARE]

Maybe they'll include a 320x200 option as some kind of easter egg ;)

[Arioch]

NiGHTMARE said:

Maybe they'll include a 320x200 option as some kind of easter egg ;)

They already have a 320x240 mode, afaik. Which is close enough. :)

[AndrewB]

I want to see a 24x18 resolution.

[Zoorado]

AndrewB said:

I want to see a 24x18 resolution.

I'd rather play Tetris.

[Arno]

DaJuice said:

Having high fps does give you a distinct advantage in multiplayer. The person with 30fps is gonna have somewhat of a handicap compared to the guy with 60fps.

Competitive players always turn of all details anyway. When all the textures are reduced to shades of pink, there's no need for a high-end card with cool DX9 features.

That whole article is one big ATI commercial, btw. The benchmarks are probably valid, but the text just shows blinded ATI worshipping.

Example:

it’s apparent that NVIDIA is more marketing-driven while ATI is sticking to its guns of bringing the best performance to the desktop user bar-none.

ATI is not santa claus, but a money-making company with similar marketing strategies and goals like NVIDIA. The authors of this article really lost their sense of reality.

[mewse]

Arno said:

ATI is not santa claus, but a money-making company with similar marketing strategies and goals like NVIDIA. The authors of this article really lost their sense of reality.

definitely, that's the sort of comment you'd hear about 3dfx vs. nvidia instead of nvidia vs. ATI, heh

[Zoost]

Arno said:

That whole article is one big ATI commercial, btw. The benchmarks are probably valid, but the text just shows blinded ATI worshipping.

Well there is a good reason for the tone of the interview. Have a look here to see what a gap in performance in dx9 apps!

[Arno]

Good example of what a sort of objective, well-written review looks like: HalfLife2 benchmarks at Anandtech.com.
Note how Anandtech makes clear distinction between fact and rumor. They also recommend ATI-hardware, but in a more professional, independent, non-fanboy way.