Benchmarks and video preview of Lost Coast at Bit-tech

[Ackmed]

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2005/09/21/lost_coast_benchmark/1.html

Obviously the 7800GTX is faster than anything else.

I must say I am VERY happy and suprised that HDR doesnt take near as large of a hit as it does in Farcry.

 

[crazydingo]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
I must say I am VERY happy and suprised that HDR doesnt take near as large of a hit as it does in Farcry.

HDR done right.

 

[Ackmed]

Well it is only at 1024x768, so its really not enough info to say for sure. But at that res, it doesnt take as large of a hit, which is a good sign.

 

[sisq0kidd]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Well it is only at 1024x768, so its really not enough info to say for sure. But at that res, it doesnt take as large of a hit, which is a good sign.

:thumbsup: the 7800gtx only takes a 5 frame hit!

 

[Ackmed]

Oh yeah.. AA+HDR, the way its supposed to be.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Oh yeah.. AA+HDR, the way its supposed to be.

And it looks the same using either sm2 or sm3. And the performance hit is pretty much equal using either shader model.

 

[mwmorph]

nice that SM2 will run HDR fine(just like in BIA: Rd to hill 30), but 8x6? sorta low considering non hdr runs fine at 11x8 2x or 4x(forgot, set it and left it a long time ago)aa, 16xaf, max no a 9800pro.

 

[blurredvision]

Where the hell is the rest of the article? Is that all the benches we get? Oh well.

 

[BFG10K]

nice that SM2 will run HDR fine

IQ appears to be the same between nVidia and ATi cards. That'll upset nV fanboys no doubt.

 

[Pocatello]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

nice that SM2 will run HDR fine

IQ appears to be the same between nVidia and ATi cards. That'll upset nV fanboys no doubt.

But after seeing the score, and the beautiful scenes, I might bite the bullet and buy a GF 7800GT to replace my Radeon 9800 Pro.

 

[trinibwoy]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

nice that SM2 will run HDR fine

IQ appears to be the same between nVidia and ATi cards. That'll upset nV fanboys no doubt.

I don't know how fanboyism works but wouldnt they be upset only if Nvidia hardware "couldn't" do Valve's HDR?

 

[hans030390]

Hm, the 6800gt does pretty well compared to the x850...yeah...

*drools*

i want it now!!

 

[CrystalBay]

Still looked kinda choppy to me.

Edit: recorded at 25 fps.

 

[Regs]

That video reminded me how painfully boring it was to shoot at 100 of the same masked commandos who all make the same sounds, die all the same way by flying away like rubber dolls.

 

[Regs]

Not that im a D3 fanboi or anything.

 

[Polish3d]

Too bad most programmers suck at quality vs. cost compared to Valve or maybe we'd have better games faster :disgust:

 

[McArra]

Great looking and nice performance, well done Valve

 

[orangat]

Looks like another 2Gb game and SM3.0 doesn't help the 6800GT much at all which is struggling mightily at 45fps.

 

[The Green Bean]

Originally posted by: McArra
Great looking and nice performance, well done Valve

:thumbsup:

 

[linkgoron]

Originally posted by: orangat
Looks like another 2Gb game and SM3.0 doesn't help the 6800GT much at all which is struggling mightily at 45fps.

The 6800GT is using high-end HDR, while the ATI cards are using low-end HDR...

 

[ZobarStyl]

Originally posted by: linkgoron

Originally posted by: orangat
Looks like another 2Gb game and SM3.0 doesn't help the 6800GT much at all which is struggling mightily at 45fps.

The 6800GT is using high-end HDR, while the ATI cards are using low-end HDR...

Exactly where did you see anything stating there was a 'low' and 'high' HDR? From what I saw, there are 4 different modes of rendering that are all designed with specific manufacturer cards in mind, which is a pretty fair way to do it.

As for quality itself, he put the pictures up next to each other and specifically asked if anyone could find any IQ discrepancies. I suggest you take him up on his offer, since you think you know the difference.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl

Originally posted by: linkgoron

Originally posted by: orangat
Looks like another 2Gb game and SM3.0 doesn't help the 6800GT much at all which is struggling mightily at 45fps.

The 6800GT is using high-end HDR, while the ATI cards are using low-end HDR...

Exactly where did you see anything stating there was a 'low' and 'high' HDR? From what I saw, there are 4 different modes of rendering that are all designed with specific manufacturer cards in mind, which is a pretty fair way to do it.

As for quality itself, he put the pictures up next to each other and specifically asked if anyone could find any IQ discrepancies. I suggest you take him up on his offer, since you think you know the difference.

I guess the only question is did Valve have to do code acrobatics to make HDR run on the ATI cards... If they did, is anyone who is not as closely partnered with ATI going to do so as well? Also, will any special coding be required for ATI SM3.0 capable cards, or is the code for the current SM3.0 implementation standard? The latter would be more preferrable, since developers really shouldn't have to code for specific GPU's.

 

[orangat]

Regardless of what low/high quality HDR is used the reviewers did not find any discernable difference in ATI/Nvidia cards.

Despite what the rumour mongers might say, Valve is very much independent of either company. Some say the millions ATI spent on bundling Half-Life 2 with their graphics cards last year (the infamous Coupon Experiment) means the Red Army will get favourable treatment. This is, of course, total rubbish..

So why is the sm3.0 in 6800gt not helping?

 

[ZobarStyl]

SM3.0 is not a requirement for HDR; it's simply a different implementation. In Far Cry it did require SM3.0 but only because it was designed for it. Unless I missed something, I don't think they used any SM3.0 code, just optimized FP for the different cards. Thus, no SM3.0 code, no SM3.0 bonus. It's not magic, orangat...it's just a type of code.

 

[nitromullet]

So why is the sm3.0 in 6800gt not helping?

Maybe it is... Customarily, the X8x0 cards have done better in HL2 than NV 6-series, but if you look at the top graph (the tests with HDR) you see that the 6800 Ultra beats the X850 XT and the 6800GT beats the X800 XL.

Now, check out these non-HDR tests conducted by Anandtech when HL2 first came out...

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2278&p=10

You can clearly see that the X800 XT (a lesser card than the X850 XT) beats the 6800 Ultra in every test.

Something is obviously giving the NV cards an edge when HDR is enabled... Maybe it's the SM3.0 support...