Shader Model 3.0

[Maxspeed996]

I just got the EVGA Superclock AGP version to keep my AGP system rolling for a little while longer , and the card seems to be a MONSTER compared to my old X700...
After reading many many reviews about this cards Core and Memory speeds , I really believe that I could have gotten the standard version , and with adequate cooling acheived this level of overclock with the regular version of this card.
There is a but......of course ....the lower end cards do not come with Shader Model 3.0 support do they? I've not seen that in any of the other cards features. Would I be kicking myself in the butt if I would have bought one of the other cards , and started to play Oblivion and found that I don't have that SM 3.0 support? Or would it have made a difference with that game?

 

[Munky]

By default Oblivion uses SM2 shaders. There's a way to enable SM3 shaders as well, but I have not noticed any difference in performance, and visually there's no difference. With a SM2 card you would have missed out the option of using HDR in Oblivion, but technically HDR has nothing to do with SM3, it just happens to be only supported by SM3 cards.

 

[Sunday Ironfoot]

Your new card, the 7800GS, DOES support Shader Model 3.0, so you're fine