- Jun 6, 2005
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NVIDIA:
linkThe current debate over WHQL waivers and SM3 compliance forces us to take a public stance regarding these issues. Microsoft is the ultimate judge of pass/fail for a particular hardware/software combination. NVIDIA hardware passes WHQL as judged by Microsoft, and fully supports all the features of SM3. Other hardware also passes WHQL for SM3, while not necessarily fully supporting all of the SM3 features.
When a vendor fails to implement a required feature (such as Vertex Texture), typically Microsoft would either fail to certify the hardware/driver, or issue a waiver for the lack of the feature. We would not expect tests to be changed or the interpretation of the DirectX specification to be changed.
A failure in a WHQL DCT test is by itself not an indication of hardware or driver flaws. There can be several causes for this, including test errors, and hardware mismatches with refrast (the Microsoft software reference rasterizer). A mismatch with refrast can be due to the hardware producing superior, inferior, or simply different images than refrast.
WHQL failures and errata by themselves are a poor and inaccurate indication of Windows and DirectX compliance. Microsoft is the sole arbiter of WHQL passage, and further questions on this topic should be directed to Dean Lester.