guys guys guys..
we're not arguing with these specs.. it's just stupid!
we all know that the GTS is limited in bandwidth no? it has 800Mpixels second fillrate no? it CAN do 1.6 gigatexels no?
It is doing what it can on 166mhz DDR SDRAM right? for now that is. that is definetly limiting it. 200mhz DDR SDRAM will definetly help it out, but going even faster (I'm talkin 250mhz here) would begin to show what that card is capable of.
the difference between the Rampage specs, and the NV15, is that the NV15 has DUAL texturing (and of course onboard T&L) right? so, during a dual texturing game, the bandwidth required by the NV15 goes up right? probably almost double.
these specs tell me one thing. if that is what the Rampage will be, it will be capable of 800mpixels/mtexels, which means during dual texturing apps, it doesn't demand much more from the RAM, becuase the core is maxed out. therefor, the speeds we're talking about with RAM, will probably take care of what each chip needs.
It's possible to calculate these kinds of things, however that one equation you just made up, only happens for one frame during a game, asuming the environment is constantly changing (ie people walking around). you can only really speculate on average, giving examples of the highs, and lows.
ok, so to me, it appears 3dfx is not that bad off when it comes to bandwidth without any memory saving techniques. The truth is, we don't know if those specs we saw earlier are real.
Now, the NV20. thought by many to be amazingly alot better then the NV15. (well duh!). the leaked specs don't make it out to be much more impressive IMHO. it pretty much just takes away the limit of bandwidth using a technique we all know. calculate geometry (with you're amazing T&L engine..), then figure out which triangles etc aren't being shown, and only draw the ones (I mean, do all that processing, textures etc added to the wireframe) that u see.
The specs we saw (also unproven) show that it still has 4 pipes, 2 texture units/pipe, and this new rendering technique, along with pretty much everything the same as NV15, except one feature I don't remember well, something that would help T&L games alot.. oh well.
anyway, you see, it appears to be an NV15, without nearly as much memory bottleneck (unless you're running, say, a flight sim, which has little to no overdraw), and a few small features tacked on. I'm going out on a limb here, but I assume they're going to increase the clock to at least 250mhz, you can't sell something that has the same specs can u?
so what do we have? 2 cards, both looking excellent, yet NOT REAL. NOT EVEN CLOSE. we don't even know how awesome that G800 will be. the ATi Radeon blew me away, with it's awesome 32 bit performance (can you say, DAMN? where did that come from?). such a small thing as Z-Buffer compression sure helps. it goes to show, that card with less overall power, but also less memory bottleneck, can be a thing of beauty.
for example, given the chance, instead of going all out muscle, I'd rather go for best power/pound on a car. that is the theory behind the fastest road worthy machine right now. the McLaren F1. you can have you're Mustangs, Corvettes (I always hated that car, even though it's cool) etc. You looking for speed, you gotta know what to look for. for me, the most likely sports car I'll get, will be a Ferrari F355, simply because it's one of their cheapest cars!
That shows you one thing. I don't go for all out muscle. I go for price/performance (given I have enough money even for that!). These cards are all good, but when will they effect me? not till at LEAST the next gen afterwards!
now I was going to talk about some trivial little spec I think.. I can't remember what it was.. I think it was that shading feature I saw on the leaked spec sheet for the NV20... can someone describe that to me?
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