Nvidia Brainwashing or not?

[Rifter]

I was at the AMD computer show in vancouver last night and Nvidia was one of the speakers. I was talking to the guy that spoke at the show before he spoke and was asking questions about the GeForce 3. They had it running a loop of some new game that uses DX 8, it was running 1024x768x16. I asked him why not 32bit color, beacuse it slows down the framrates? He told me that switching to 32bit does not slow down the framrates. Than i asked why it wasnt running using AA, Beacuse it would slow down the card? he said it could do AA well WITHOUT slowing the framerate at all beacuse it was not done in geometry like the 3dfx cards, it was done in hardware. So is it true:

Does going from 16bit to 32bit slow down a geforce 3?
and does FSAA slow down a geforce 3?

 

[Czar]

Yes it slows it down, going from 16 bit to 32 bit doubles the reqired bandwith, and same goes for FSAA.

 

[TGCid]

Why didn't you ask the the spokeperson, then why isn't it running at 32 bit color using AA?

 

[Rifter]

I did he evaded me twice

 

[shathal]

You must have met a marketing guy ...

32 bpp DOES slow down a GF3 AFAIK - have not seen any evidence to the contrary. The only card where this does NOT apply is the Kyro II - but the situation there is different. There, everything is calculated in 32 bpp anyway - in other words you don't get any IMPROVEMENT from going down to 16bpp.

FSAA doesn't slow down GF3?

I'll have to try that one, but I am seriously wondering what that guy was on ... of course it would slow down the performance somwehat. (may not be MUCH - but it would). Hmmm ... I think you cought that chap out & he switched to "sell"-mode rather than "admit ignorance"-mode. He wasn't a teckie was he (doubt it, they rarely hold speeche) - must have been something like "tech marketing" ...

... not that I am somewhat cynically-minded towards all things marketing .

Either way - I'll look into the matter - just to make sure I'm not talking BS here ...

 

[shathal]

Hmm ... next time you get accross such a guy, simply MAKE him switch to 32bpp and FSAA ... "just to prove the point".

Hehehe - make the liars squirm .

 

[Rifter]

i think he was a tech guy, when he evaded me he started pointing out all the features of the card in the game, started saying stuff like, look at that, its a good example of per pixel shading, or look right here its a good example of anistopic light filtering or soem crap like that, he pointied out like 15-20 differnt things(which really did loook wicked, of course it could have looked wicked cause it was on a 21" flatscreen monitor) I dont think he could bull$hit for 15-20 differnt features lol. I am interested to know if AA slows it down though, would be cool if it didnt, someone please test this

 

[shathal]

The day AA / FSAA does NOT slow down GPU's, that'll be the day that ... that ... that I'll be a very happy man indeed ...

 

[Nexer]

read any geforce 3 review. AA slows to down quite a bit

 

[Dulanic]

AA does slow it down, but 32-bit colors barely slows it down.

 

[Chad]

Doesn't the Dreamcast use some sort of FSAA that doesn't take a penalty?