Does the GPU do anything?

[Atomicpower]

I have had a V3 2k and now i have see below. I have not seen any shift from the usage of the processor. Is it all a hoax???????(I'm not talking about speed which is great i'm talking about the shifting of the pc usage to the gpu)

 

[Dark4ng3l]

It's a mjor ripof games have to suport hardware t&l(nVIDIA PROMESSED OVER 100 GAMES last christmas and there are about 5 today)plus game desingners hate the limitations in nvidia's t&l engine.

 

[Doomguy]

Dark: JC hasent complained at all about nvidia's T&L. I believe he is complaining about the radeon's T&L missing a feature so radeon cards will have worse image quality in Doom III. You sound like such an idiot spewing that crap.

 

[RogueOne]

Um, sorry doomguy, but there was no mention of the Radeon in his post. If you look at his setup it specifically says he's got an ASUS Geforce. He wouldn't know anything about ATi's card considering he doesn't own one. So I suggest you be quiet because you sound like an idiot spewing your crap. I own a Radeon 64 VIVO ddr and it plays quake 3 extremely well. I've tried with and without T&L acceleration, and T&L acceleration gives me a speed increase. ATi created their T&L engine with faster lighting acceleration. This doesn't mean that the GPU is lacking in any way, it just specializes in one area more than the other. So before you start spreading misinformation, remember, someone's out there that knows better and will make you look like a fool.

As for you Atomicpower, you're running on a Geforce 1. Its T&L engine was okay, but your processor can actually perform better. That was the big problem with nVidia's original Geforce, it's T&L engine wasn't much faster than the current crop of processor. If you buy a geforce 2 or a radeon, you'll see a speed increase because their T&L engines are more advanced than the processers available today. Your T-bird 900 is extremely powerful and an original Geforce's T&L unit just can't beat it out being a first generation engine. Its not a hoax at all. The GPU does exactly what it's supposed to. Now its up to game developers to take advantage of the extra cpu power. The current crop of games are really more geared to last generations T&L lacking video cards (TNT2, V3, G400, Rage 128 pro)and therefor the games are programmed to run on a software based T&L unit. They can't take advantage of the extra cpu cycles that T&L enabled cards provide. You're just going to have to wait a little longer for these titles to come out.

 

[BFG10K]

I have not seen any shift from the usage of the processor.

What are you talking about? Have your frame rates gone up or not?

I'm not talking about speed which is great

Well obviously they have. So what's the problem?

What exactly do you mean "shift"? Are you checking for lower CPU usage in the task manager or something?

 

[Sunner]

Rouge, sorry to say, but even a GF-1 T&L unit is WAY faster than any of todays CPUs when it comes to pure poly crunching.

Its just not very evident in most games out there.

 

[Doomguy]

Rouge: Look at the radeon 3dmark benchmarks for T&L. I'm willing to bet nvidia beats it in every T&L test due to a mature T&L engine/driver.

 

[Bartman39]

Geforce 2 GTS = Vaaaarrrrrrrrooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[HigherGround]

GPU = graphics processing unit. like the name suggest it processes units and does it quite well. For example GTS 2 can convert Newtons to Pounds at incredible rate of 1,000,000 conversions per min. Of course no card is perfect and the same GTS 2 struggles with volume conversions (cubic meters to cubic feet) with rather pathetic 50,000 conversions per min. On the other hand, ATI's Radeon chip which struggles immensly in 1 dimensional conversions smokes 3d ones at an amazing rate of 1,200,000 conv/min. As you already know Voodoo 5 does not support unit processing, hence everything has to stay in the same unit space. That is why in same games monsters have disproptionate body parts, as game designers forgot to merge unit space on some of the models. This is a tough one, so i'll let you make a decision.

 

[BFG10K]

plus game desingners hate the limitations in nvidia's t&l engine.

What limitations? What are you talking about?

Its T&L engine was okay, but your processor can actually perform better.

No way. The GF1 T&L engine is faster than a 1 GHz P3 for T&L calculations.

 

[Maniac9127]

Um, I think you all have missed the point of this poor guys post, 'sept Dark and Rogue. He was talking about CPU usage, not limitations on cards. I.E. he had xx% CPU usage with the V3, and with the GeForce has almost the exact same CPU usage.

Atomic, were you playing games that use the GeForce's built in stuff? If you want to take T&L calculations off the CPU, then you've gotta use a game that supports hardware T&L.Ë?

 

[Sunner]

HG, I know some nice fellas with nice clean white coats who said they wanna have a chat with you

 

[BFG10K]

I.E. he had xx% CPU usage with the V3, and with the GeForce has almost the exact same CPU usage.

I asked that question but I was being sarcastic as I didn't really think that's what he meant. But since you brought it up, perhaps I was wrong.

The task manager isn't going to report less CPU useage. The boost will come in the form of framerates. That's the whole point of a GPU.

Anyway what if it did lower the CPU cycle useage? What what would be the point of the load going down from 100% to 80% or something? Those idle cycles would just be wasted anyway. Unless of course you want to read email while playing Quake 3.

 

[Wingznut]

Eventually T&L will be important. That cannot be denied.

But at this time, and in the near future, it isn't nearly as important as nVidia (and the nVidia die-hards) would like you to believe.

So far, MDK2 is the ONLY good game that benefits from T&L. And it's very limited (a few lighting effects.) I'm not aware of any good games that actually have the added polygons that nVidia keeps promising. (And puh-leeze... don't try to sell me Evolva. )

 

[Dark4ng3l]

I was talking about the 2 matrices thing game dasigners want at least 4

 

[BFG10K]

I was talking about the 2 matrices thing game dasigners want at least 4

Give us some links because I haven't seen anything about this. Carmack and Sweeney are both using nVidia's boards for developement for their upcoming games, and they haven't said anything about this.

 

[glen]

Does anyone think JC has only one computer and one video card?
I bet he is on the advisory board of every video card company out there.
Can anyone confirm which boards he is on?