ATI R300 & NVIDIA NV30 - A Technical Comparison

[Adul]

http://www.beyond3d.com/articles/nv30r300/

ecently, Microsoft has published the newest DirectX version: DX9 Beta 2.1. Although I didn?t have the chance to sign the NDA for DX9, I can access the (leaked - Ed.) DX9 Beta2.1 specification here. Compared with DX8, DX9 Beta 2.1 makes great progress, providing general programmability and floating point precision throughout the pipeline.


Something to feed the brain for those that care.

 

[Czar]

wow, good thing it seems that the Radeon 9700 owners wont have to worry about DX9 PS3.0 since the nv30 wont even reach the specs

 

[GTaudiophile]

That is a fairly technical article. It's hard to make a brief heads or tails of it.

ATi and nVidia excel in their own, unique ways to reach the same goal of DX9 compliance...and it's still too early to tell which will have the performance advantage when NV30 debuts.

 

[Mingon]

I cant say I understand it all, but know i want one

 

[RanDum72]

From what I read, the NV30 supports more advanced features and has the higher texel output while the R300 is a bandwidth monster. The NV30 has possibly a 128-bit memory interface but they will try to compensate by using higher clocked DDR-II. The R300 has a 256-bit wide memory interface possibly coupled with DDR-II. The NV30 may shine on more complex 3D scenes while the R300 will still have the upper hand in FSAA performance.

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
That is a fairly technical article. It's hard to make a brief heads or tails of it.

That's Beyond3D for ya . When it comes to technical websites, Beyond3D has alot more 3D-knowhow than other websites.

 

[apoppin]

Excellent read . . . if a bit technical.

Good thing many of the fan boys aren't super-technical or this article would be the basis for an awesome Nvidia vs. Ati Flamewar.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Excellent read . . . if a bit technical.

Good thing many of the fan boys aren't super-technical or this article would be the basis for an awesome Nvidia vs. Ati Flamewar.

Oh great sage, please enlighten us!

 

[Deeko]

It seems you probably won't see advantages of the NV30 for quite some time. Dev's won't pick up on the CinFX programming advantes for quite some time. So at time of release, it could be a close battle, with nvidia winning the fill rate battle, but ati owning in bandwidth/vertex processing.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile

Originally posted by: apoppin
Excellent read . . . if a bit technical.

Good thing many of the fan boys aren't super-technical or this article would be the basis for an awesome Nvidia vs. Ati Flamewar.

Oh great sage, please enlighten us!

Haven't you been keeping up with the ATI 9700 vs. NV30 speculations? THIS article is the answer to the speculator's prayers as it gives some pretty good guesses about the forthcoming NV30's capabilities (especially regarding its supposed superiority to the R300).

IF the fanboys were technical, there would be much ammunition for a flamewar. That's all, don't read any more into my comments which were meant to be taken with a ' '.

And this topic could go straight to Highly Technical - it'd be right at home there.

 

[GTaudiophile]

And, after reading that, what are NV30's superiororities compared to R300? I mean, that article has lots of charts, comparing various techincal specs. NV30 "wins" some while R300 "wins" others. Can't it be argued both ways?

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
And, after reading that, what are NV30's superiororities compared to R300? I mean, that article has lots of charts, comparing various techincal specs. NV30 "wins" some while R300 "wins" others. Can't it be argued both ways?

The difference will be in which architecture developers tune for. If you have the hearts and minds of the developers you will win the war. It would be interesting to see how many are developing games on an ATI platform. My own bias would say that very few do (as a result of bad OGL drivers) and as a result most games will end up tuned for NV30. Just as 3dfx had developers developing on 3dfx hardware and therefore it ran best on that hardware (until geforce anyway).

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
And, after reading that, what are NV30's superiororities compared to R300? I mean, that article has lots of charts, comparing various techincal specs. NV30 "wins" some while R300 "wins" others. Can't it be argued both ways?

Of course . . . that's what make for an interesting debate.

And no matter what arguments are presented, the games we play won't be taking advantage of the new features of either card for quite awhile.

 

[Adul]

very true apoppin, but I nee a faster card soon so the 9700 looks good to me

 

[ElFenix]

but how fast will a p4-3GHz HT on a GB board with dual 3200 and a radeon 9700 pro or nv30 run doom3?

 

[Adul]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
but how fast will a p4-3GHz HT on a GB board with dual 3200 and a radeon 9700 pro or nv30 run doom3?

fast enough to be playable , but not has fast has a nv35 or r350

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
but how fast will a p4-3GHz HT on a GB board with dual 3200 and a radeon 9700 pro or nv30 run doom3?

"42"


The answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything.

 

[Aquaman]

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

Originally posted by: ElFenix
but how fast will a p4-3GHz HT on a GB board with dual 3200 and a radeon 9700 pro or nv30 run doom3?

"42"


The answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything.

NO 69 is the true number

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[DaFinn]

Ahhh,

Little you know guys. Even without reading thet article I can conclude thad since R300 is MUCH bigger number then nv30, R300 will be MUCH fester in DOOM3.

---> goes to shop for R300...<



-DaFinn

ps. You are right Aquaman, 69 is truly magic...

 

[WyteWatt]

What in the heck does 69 stand for?

When you were born or how many fps you will get in doom3? I know doom 3 will be limited at 60 fps i beleive but still.

 

[FishTankX]

69 is a number used to describe the position of man and women when committing the 69 act, which to most normal human beings is very pleasurable.

It's funny, because it seems teens and adults like to make jokes of a sexual nature, just like kids like to make jokes about pee or farts or sh!t or something.

 

[WyteWatt]

Maybe i should of never asked. I don't think this is right in a computer forum.

 

[CQuinn]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Excellent read . . . if a bit technical.

Good thing many of the fan boys aren't super-technical or this article would be the basis for an awesome Nvidia vs. Ati Flamewar.

<fanboy>

Well it is quite obvious to me...

Since more big words in the article were used to describe ATI technology, it must be the superior platform.

</fanboy>