Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Originally posted by: jim1976
Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Odd for nvidia to drag their heels as you put it. But I have a little thought. Far fetched? Maybe, but here goes. Maybe nvidia is holding back intentionally. Why, you ask? Ok. Nvidia has released the last 2 gens well before ATI's corresponding gens. This gave ATI plenty of time to see how Nvidia hardware performed, and tweak their clocks and drivers and whatever, and do whatever they had to do to be competitive or just best nvidia's fps in games. It could be possible, some may not see it this way, but possible that nvidia is intentionally holding back and "dragging heels" to give DAAMIT a "false" sense of security with the G80's current performance with nvidia's latest driver offering. DAAMIT will do what they need to do to get their R600 just a scooch faster than current G80 performance for the R600's January debut, which is what ATI has done the last two gens. I think Nvidia likes to be first to market for obvious reasons, but there is the downside of letting your competition know exactly what they have to do to best it by being out first. So, put a grain of salt label on this theory if you desire, because it's just a few thoughts jotted down here in the forum.
Keys
Dunno Keys.. I don't like this theory though.
Because I chose this card instead of waiting to see what R600 has to offer basically for performance and IQ reasons. Now IF Nvidia CAN unlock the xS AA and the hybrid modes and they won't do it in the next series of drivers I will find this indimitating for the consumer. Why should I have to wait for R600 to play my older games with insane IQ settings? I can understand that they may want to keep an asset in their sleeve for R600 launch but this can be in the form of performance (madd+madd anyone? Ok this might be far stretched and I don't know if the second MADD instead of MUL is there and can be unlocked) and not IQ.
Well, since you already have a G80 that offers phenomenal performance and IQ, I would think you might be very happy if this theory holds any water. Why? Because free performance boosts (hopefully large ones) may be in your near future. And free performance is a good thing, yes? I know that if I owned a multibillion dollar graphics company, I might try "playing possum" if the occasion allows it. I think Nvidia can afford to do this right now because there is Zero answer from DAAMIT until January, unless R600 gets delayed further of course. And G80's can't be beat so there is really nothing else and enthusiast would buy at this point in time. Nvidia could also be doing the "possum" thing because they know how many people will be waiting for R600 to come out and will want to see the benches against G80. That is most likely (If the theory holds water) when Nvidia will release the killer drivers. Just days before the release of R600.
The thing is, a lot of people are getting emotionally attached to a company's business strategies and tactics. As long as you have the hardware, and it does what it's supposed to do and you're happy with it, why does anyone care how Nvidia and DAAMIT try to dupe each other? That is their business. (Not singling you out Jim, this post is for anyone.).
The Rage3d review seems like a decent one to most who have read it.
Keys I do understand your point.
That's why I said I do understand if they keep hidden performance for the R600 launch.
But I can not understand the need to keep xS/hybrid modes if they can give them now.
IQ might be better with G80 as it is, but as I said one of the reasons I bought it immediately after the launch was the ability to use as much IQ as possible... It seems pointless to keep IQ features hidden IF you have the ability to give them right now..
Unless they have problems with the drivers yet but I don't see how this can be directly correlated with the AA modes. It's one thing to talk about rendering issues and another to talk about AA modes