HDR - Is SM3 support enough?

[Count Zero]

All you have to do to take advantage of HDR, is buy a card that supports SM3. True or false?

 

[giant384]

basically yes

 

[DEATH eVADER]

All you have to do to take advantage of HDR, is buy a card that supports SM3. True or false?

Are you trying to rub it in? I would of been fine with just Bloom effects

 

[Insano]

But the x800 cards from aTi will do the job too, no?

 

[Dumb Dude]

Any DX9 card should do the trick for HDR, but some games (like Far Cry) require SM3 for HDR. So to be on the safe side and "future proofed" you should go ahead and get a SM3 card,

 

[Trinityxero]

i would wait and see if Nvidia releases their RSX (reality synthasiza chip thingy) for hte PC... i hear its better than duel 6800U's... but if that dont happen just get the 6800U... still beats anything ATI has to offer asumeing it hasent changed :sniper:

 

[Sickmind]

Whats SM3? Don't flame...I know I'm being lazy, but everyone will learn from response...

 

[Ames]

SM3 = Shader Model 3.0.

 

[DrDevin]

But the x800 cards from aTi will do the job too, no?

No these cards do not have SM3 and will not be able to use HDR.

As for the main question yes SM3 is enough for HDR but extremely cheap SM3 cards will not be powerfull enough to use HDR effectivly (6200Turbocache). I would advise a 6600GT or hopefully 6800GT or SLI 6600/6800. So far all HDR games require SM3 to work (from my memory). This includes Far Cry, SP:CT and now HL2.

 

[diluted]

HDR works on SM 2.0.

 

[DrDevin]

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/partners/shadermodel30_NVIDIA.mspx

SM3 vs 2 from microsoft who enforces standards. Yes HDR "can" be done on 2.0 but so far noone has done it and it looks like noone will so it is almost as good as saying 2 cant do it. Also colour depth is usually to low to call it true HDR (32-bit floating point)