On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 19:30:36 +0200, "Romano Cule"
wrote:


"Folk" wrote in message:
cut

Why you all are so angry on nVidia ??Ati cards are in this moment faster and
thats is.Nohing to talk about.NVidia FX cards are total disaster in dx 9.o
because their combine register with legacy arhitecture,but Ati have made
total new arhitecture and new drivers for their product,in this case dx9
arhitecture.



I have very happily gone out and bought a FX5900 (for $250), in spite
of all the weeping and gnashing of teeth over DX9 water-effects......
err...sorry.. Pixel Shaders2.0................

I have bought high-performance video cards since my first Voodoo1
( was also $250, if I recall correctly ) and I am distinctly not an
impulse purchaser. I do not have enough loose change to be that
stupid.

I did need to make a purchase since I was building a new machine.

So why did I buy a FX5900 ...............

Well, I have a large collection of Directx/OpenGL PC games stretching
back quite a few years. It was essential to me to settle on a video
card family and drivers that I knew ( from experience with my Ti4400)
would run not only the new games but all my old favorites without any
functional glitches or really-objectionable graphical artifacts,
besides being trouble-free with all desk-top applications and all my
professional video-editing tools as well.

The FX5900/45.23- driver has satisfied all of my expectations.

Worst case FPS in Morrowind has shot up from 18FPS (Ti4400)
to 30, all effects maxed, same CPU. Morrowind has very oddly-
coded graphics, ---- unlike virtually every other first-person game,
resolution-scaling has little or no effect on FPS................
My other 'shooters" have seen such a quantum leap in FPS,
that I haven't bothered to measure it. Also no need to
tweak driver settings away from default for everything to run
correctly.

Why not Ati.....................

Ummm............tell me all about Ati driver/hardware and performance
with legacy games. Didn't Ati's recent drivers have a little shadow
problem with JK2. ? Been fixed yet ? Ever since the introduction of
the 9700 there has been sporadic but continued newsgroup
comments and cited facts with regard to Ati's lack of focus
on backward compatibility of their new hardware/drivers.
Seems as if Ati's emphasis is on the new.............nVidia's focus
seems to be on new but also very seriously trying not to break old
software. If so, I like the compromise they made in the FX5900.
I also like the on-chip thermal monitoring. My non-ultra FX5900
overclocks to 460/920 with no problem. With its very efficient
(and quiet) cooling the GPU max. temp ~ 65 degrees C, with
ambient air near the video board ~ 35 degrees C.
---------------------------------------------
Anyway, the subject which started all this foaming over nVidia/Dx9
--- Half-Life 2 will not be released before 19 November. By that time

we should be only a month or two away from the next round of
video hardware from both companies.

Meanwhile, while waiting for HL2, some time spent examining the
ummm....benefits... (???) Valve's Steam gives you, especially in
single-player and local-LAN mode, should very nicely distract you
from the currently-flogged-to-death HL2/ DX9 discussion..........
Maybe you can vent your ample spleen on Valve instead and
give nVidia a bit of a break. For PC gamers, the underlying
issues with Valve and Steam are far more fundamentally important
and far-reaching than this transitory DX9 discussion which will
become history with the next round of video chips, or
maybe even after driver tweaks.

If you are at all confused by the last paragraph, I refer you to
several Steam forums, particularly reading the Steam FAQ
and related Q&A very carefully indeed, and to relevant
newsgroup threads in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action.

John Lewis