dscowboy
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http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17444
No, I'm not an nVidia fanboy or ATI-hater. Originally I was annoyed with nVidia for their FX-series fiasco and was planning to buy ATI for HL2, but it's looking as though the 6800 series is simply a better card. The inquirer article says the Farcry 1.2 patch failed because they tried to make an SM 2.0b hack for ATI which didn't work. This situation is suspiciously similar to the problems the FX-series had with DX9 and the hacks Valve was putting in Source to accomate nVidia's poor adherence to spec.
So you say 'who cares about SM 3.0?' Well invariably ATI's next gen card will finally have SM 3.0 support, and the Source engine will be updated to do SM 3. But for now, ATI doesn't have an SM 3 card and nVidia does. So for those who plan on buying a vid card this generation, I strongly urge you to look into the 6800s, regardless of anything Valve has said about ATI performance.
When Valve made their promotion deal with ATI I had no problem with it. The FX cards sucked at DX9, and it was good of Valve to tell people that. However, the game has been delayed a year and the 6800s are out. One of two results are going to come from the CS:S benchmarks and Valve is going to feel pain either way:
1) ATI does not have a significant advantage over nVidia, and Valve will look stupid for promoting ATI when there is little or no performance difference.
or
2) ATI will perform significantly better than nVidia, which will make it look like Valve 'cheated' to give ATI the advantage since all other DX9 benchmarks show nVidia and ATI in a dead heat.
I suppose there's a third option: nVidia outperforms ATI in HL2. Then everyone but nVidia is going to look stupid.
To summarize, here are the resons why I'm buying a 6800 GT:
- ATI's current offerings do not do SM 3.0
- All DirectX benchmarks we've seen so far show ATI and nVidia essentially tied. Any significant differences in HL2 performance will probably be artificial.
- nVidia currently has a large advantage in D3's OpenGL performance.
No, I'm not an nVidia fanboy or ATI-hater. Originally I was annoyed with nVidia for their FX-series fiasco and was planning to buy ATI for HL2, but it's looking as though the 6800 series is simply a better card. The inquirer article says the Farcry 1.2 patch failed because they tried to make an SM 2.0b hack for ATI which didn't work. This situation is suspiciously similar to the problems the FX-series had with DX9 and the hacks Valve was putting in Source to accomate nVidia's poor adherence to spec.
So you say 'who cares about SM 3.0?' Well invariably ATI's next gen card will finally have SM 3.0 support, and the Source engine will be updated to do SM 3. But for now, ATI doesn't have an SM 3 card and nVidia does. So for those who plan on buying a vid card this generation, I strongly urge you to look into the 6800s, regardless of anything Valve has said about ATI performance.
When Valve made their promotion deal with ATI I had no problem with it. The FX cards sucked at DX9, and it was good of Valve to tell people that. However, the game has been delayed a year and the 6800s are out. One of two results are going to come from the CS:S benchmarks and Valve is going to feel pain either way:
1) ATI does not have a significant advantage over nVidia, and Valve will look stupid for promoting ATI when there is little or no performance difference.
or
2) ATI will perform significantly better than nVidia, which will make it look like Valve 'cheated' to give ATI the advantage since all other DX9 benchmarks show nVidia and ATI in a dead heat.
I suppose there's a third option: nVidia outperforms ATI in HL2. Then everyone but nVidia is going to look stupid.
To summarize, here are the resons why I'm buying a 6800 GT:
- ATI's current offerings do not do SM 3.0
- All DirectX benchmarks we've seen so far show ATI and nVidia essentially tied. Any significant differences in HL2 performance will probably be artificial.
- nVidia currently has a large advantage in D3's OpenGL performance.
