ATI says R5xx to use SM3.0

[William23]

What exactly does shader model 3.0 offer for games Quality.Some ppl say it isn't that important.

And if it does not offer better quality why does nvidia use it on 6000 series?Just curious because thats ONE of the reasons why I was considering getting a 6800gt over a X800XT. Does it make games look better or run faster?

thanks

 

[df96817]

From what I've heard, SM3 has no effect on image quality at all. It's just a code to process graphics more efficiently or something.

 

[BenSkywalker]

SM 3.0 is the logical progression of SM 2.0 so ATi adopting it is a no brainer, it should be a given that their next part will exceed the shader capabilities of their current parts. Branching support will allow numerous shaders to require significantly less passes under 3.0 then it would under 2.0 and SM 3.0 for the R5x0 parts will be running FP32 which will impact IQ when the complexity of the shaders is high enough.

SM 3.0 is certainly going to have a lot of advantages over SM 2.0, it's just the current parts don't have enough power to push shaders with the complexity to show of the IQ benefits that it will offer eventually. For now, SM 3.0's main advantage is that it reduces passes on some shaders and can improve performance- the rest of the advantages it will take us some time to see implemented in games because we don't have fast enough hardware yet to push the upper limits(excluding the Fire/Quadro line which will have clear benefits for both collapsed shaders and increased precission in professional level viz applications).

 

[William23]

So are there any games out right now ,or any games coming soon that use SM3.0? Or is it something thats going to take a couple years?

 

[BenSkywalker]

FarCry with the 1.3 patch utilizes SM 3.0 to collapse passes, other then that while I expect it to see faster adoption then SM 2.0- it will still likely take years before we see any sort of major support in terms of the amount of games using it(much like we still aren't seeing a ton of SM 2.0 games). Even then, it will mainly be used as a quicker way to handle 2.0 level shaders(though you could argue that that is all it is good for anyway ).

 

[Genx87]

Stalker is supposed to use the SM 3.0 model.

 

[dguy6789]

Unreal engine 3 is supposed to use SM3.0

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: William23
So are there any games out right now ,
or any games coming soon that use SM3.0?
Or is it something thats going to take a couple years?

Yes

Yes

and no

is it necessary?

ABsolutely!
it is part of inevitable gfx evolution

( i guess its time is "right" - according to ati)
:roll:

 

[Pete]

SM3 is the logical next step in GPU evolution, and it should be easier to code for b/c it's more flexible than SM2. I don't think you'll see a big difference b/w SM3 and SM2 in games for the next year or two, though (Unreal Engine 3 games are due in 2006). SM3 can help speed in some ways, but I personally don't expect very big differences anytime soon. And tho SM3 is more capable, it doesn't mean an automatic performance increase--developers have to code for it.

That said, a GT also has support for FP blending, which allows for the neat HDR effect in Far Cry v1.3. So you'll have to weigh the GT's greater capabilities and very good performance against the XT's greater performance (and higher price).

If the GT is $100 less, I'd go for it (especially considering nV cards seem to offer nicer game bundles, too). If it's $50 less, I'd have to hunt down some more benchmarks (and read into its supposed texture shimmering).

 

[Drayvn]

SM3 will increase image detail and quality, as it will have the speed headroom for increasing the quality of the game.

And yes stalker does use SM3 but only partially.

The only fully based SM3 game that has been announced is Unreal 3.