R360, Radeon 9800XT to ship with Half Life 2

[Tyrion]

Originally posted by Dr. Freeman
good post

i think pple overlook the 256mb cards a bit more than maybe because they don't know about the internal workings of these newer tech cards.. and even if current games may not take full advantage of the 256mb of ram on that card, future games like Doom3, Stalker etc.. probably will implement such things since they are being released later.

also, ur comment about the next generation of ATI cards R4X's...

regardless of when they are released (before summer '04?) the first batch are probably going to have their share of bugs and stuff.. and waiting an extra 3-4 months afterwards for reviews and comments on these cards would be wise.. at least this way, u may know a little of what ur purchasing...

Doom 3 will be using around 108 max video RAM,if I remember correctly. Plus, 256 DDR RAm,believe it or not, can actually slow down the speed of the games. *shugs*

I wouldnt buy a 256 DDR RAM card right now. Considering that by the time you will actually need to use 256, most of the current cards that have it will either be low-end or ceased to be produced.

 

[mhtsaras]

Originally posted by Rambo
Anyone know any other good Hardware news Sites like the inquirer?

Theinquirer its not a hardware only news site but except tom's and anand's there are some very good and reliable like xbitlabs.com , nvnews.net , nvmax.com , guru3d.com , rage3d.com , etc

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Originally posted by Tyrion
Plus, 256 DDR RAm,believe it or not, can actually slow down the speed of the games. *shugs*

really? aight, show me evidence.. show me something that proves this.. im not saying this isn't true.. but damn its one thing to have evidence and another thing to just say things.

Originally posted by Tyrion

I wouldnt buy a 256 DDR RAM card right now. Considering that by the time you will actually need to use 256, most of the current cards that have it will either be low-end or ceased to be produced.

again, u haven't provided facts to back that up.. but thats okay, its a common occurance on this forum to say stuff and not actually provide the links to back all ur stuff up.

maybe someone should go back read Java's post... ya i realize he hasn't provided any links either.. but these GPU companies don't manufacture these 256mb cards for nothing ya know.. theres actually some substance behind it..

 

[kelisis]

Yeah, I would like to see the facts. Now, a fact right now is that AGP 4x is actually faster then 8x in some DX8 games. But, only by a few fps...Were I got it? Maximum PC March 2003 issue.

 

[Anwar]

Originally posted by Apos
I figure it because it's possible to release cards that aren't on the highest end, but are targeted at lower end buyers. It's also exactly what happened with the 9600.

Perhaps you missed a few key words. "Next Generation" and if you go to the link you will notice they say "Improved Clockspeeds" "Faster Memmory" "Support for DDR2"

Not real hard to see it will be faster.

 

[Anwar]

Originally posted by kelisis
Yeah, I would like to see the facts. Now, a fact right now is that AGP 4x is actually faster then 8x in some DX8 games. But, only by a few fps...Were I got it? Maximum PC March 2003 issue.

And that is a bunch of BS.

AGP 4x 1.1 GB/s

AGP 8x 2.1 GB/s

DirectX has nothing to do with AGP what so ever.

 

[kelisis]

Yeah, I know. I'm noting trying to start a fight, lol. Anyways, if you read my post I said some DX8 games. I got it from Maximum PC, so don't b*tch at me about it. I don't remember the exact facts, but I'm not telling no lie. Basically what the article is saying is that AGP8X isn't needed in games yet, until HL2 and Doom 3 come out etc.

 

[Curator]

Originally posted by mhtsaras
If the new card with the R360 scores 7000+ in 3D Mark03 then the card must be a killer thriller and worths the extra money, don't you think so?

Go look up some benchmarks, the 9800 Pro has scored as high as 6500 points in 03. Granted most computers don't go that high, but the average for a 9800 Pro is about 5500-6000 which isn't much less than 7000. And considering the 9800 TX will most likely cost $400 while the 9800 Pro will lower to $300-$350, i'd consider it a waste of money.

 

[Tyrion]

Originally posted by Dr. Freeman
really? aight, show me evidence.. show me something that proves this.. im not saying this isn't true.. but damn its one thing to have evidence and another thing to just say things.




again, u haven't provided facts to back that up.. but thats okay, its a common occurance on this forum to say stuff and not actually provide the links to back all ur stuff up.

maybe someone should go back read Java's post... ya i realize he hasn't provided any links either.. but these GPU companies don't manufacture these 256mb cards for nothing ya know.. theres actually some substance behind it..

As I said(or meant to say,anyway) that it was purely based on memory. Havent tried looking for facts yet.

As for the reason companies manufacture these 256mb cards, it's for the heavy-duty picture editing companies and such. They can actually use the 256md in it. However, most current and future games cant fully utilize the 256mb ram. I'm not quite sure on how 128 mb is faster, and quite frankly I may be wrong. But eh, may need to check up on it.

Gah,I really do need to find Doom 3's specs. But yeah,there are needs for 256mb video cards. Just that there really arent any for PC games. At least, needs worth the extra cash.

Edit- Yeah, what I said before about Doom III was something I heard on another forum. But still,I'm sure that Doom III wont be using more than 128mbs of video ram.

Bah,I may be wrong on the 256mb is slower thing after all. I got it, again, from this forum. Which was probably an moronic thing to do on my part. Heh. Anyway, could someone help me find which is better?

 

[Curator]

The 256 meg version usually provides 2-5 more fps over the 128 meg version. The only real use for it is when running the game at high resolutions with AA and Anis enabled as the game tends to slow down a fair amount less. The main reason for ATI having a 256 meg card is simply for the money. No games, not even Doom 3 use more than 128.

As for rendering, that's what the Fire XGL is for.

 

[x84D80Yx]

damn i need some money lol...

guess ill wait for x-mas for my big comp upgrade ;x

 

[RhapSidious]

Originally posted by Tyrion


As for the reason companies manufacture these 256mb cards, it's for the heavy-duty picture editing companies and such. They can actually use the 256md in it. However, most current and future games cant fully utilize the 256mb ram. I'm not quite sure on how 128 mb is faster, and quite frankly I may be wrong. But eh, may need to check up on it.

If you look in the Valve info thread Gabe says the HL2 will indeed utilize all 256mbs of vram on cards that have it (ie my 9800pro 256).

 

[crabcakes66]

Originally posted by RhapSidious
If you look in the Valve info thread Gabe says the HL2 will indeed utilize all 256mbs of vram on cards that have it (ie my 9800pro 256).

I doubt there will be any significant gains in performance.......a 256 meg card still isnt worth the extra money in my opinion.

 

[Tyrion]

Originally posted by RhapSidious
If you look in the Valve info thread Gabe says the HL2 will indeed utilize all 256mbs of vram on cards that have it (ie my 9800pro 256).

Really? Didnt look into the Valve info thread,since most of the posts were the same thing being posted over and over.

I wonder what the heck they will put in it..

 

[Xtasy0]

Originally posted by Tyrion
Really? Didnt look into the Valve info thread,since most of the posts were the same thing being posted over and over.

I wonder what the heck they will put in it..

Normal maps.

 

[RhapSidious]

Originally posted by Tyrion
Really? Didnt look into the Valve info thread,since most of the posts were the same thing being posted over and over.

I wonder what the heck they will put in it..

I took the liberty of finding the Gabe comment I was talking about...
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The way Source is designed, hardware manufacturers can update materials to take advantage of new hardware as it comes out by shipping updates (probably via Steam). So if they come out with a 512 MB card or double the number of instructions possible in a pixel or vertex shader, then customers who have
that card can be updated to take advantage of that.

Specifically to answer your question, I think the cards were actually 128 MB cards but we do take advantage of 256MB cards. If I'm remembering right, we froze the hardware for the demo before ATI had sent us the 256 MB cards.

No, HL-2 doesn't have a SOF-2 style damage system.

Gabe
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