Level Analysis: regulator
This level starts inside and moves outside at night through some grass and trees around a compound.
ATI regulator screenshot.
Click to enlarge.
NV SM2.0 regulator screenshot.
Click to enlarge.
NV SM3.0 regulator screenshot.
Click to enlarge.
Here is the first indication we have had that the SM3.0 path renders things ever so slightly differently than the SM2.0 path. Looking closely (swapping quickly back and forth between the images), it is apparent that the glow of the light above the door is a little dimmer when the new rendering techniques are applied (really, we promise its different). This small a difference doesn't really add up to anything in terms of game play, but it does let us know that the new lighting model isn't a mathematically identical solution. Which one is nearer the developers vision, only CryTek can tell us (and hopefully they will).
Again, we see a small performance improvement that pushes the 6800 GT above the x800 XT PE, but this performance improvement is very small.
Continuing the trend, performance improvement due to SM3.0 is slightly higher with 4xAA/8xAF than without. Here, we even see that NVIDIA can lead in an AA/AF enabed benchmark without the help of the new rendering path.
NVIDIA supplied this demo, and its modest improvement shows that not all performance gains are monumental.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
36 Comments
View All Comments
Anemone - Friday, July 2, 2004 - link
Am one of the increasing numbers of folks who does ues 1600x1200 on everything that supports it, just fyi. Now it's lcd, but before my 19" crt happily did that res too, and that's now many years old.Just for note only. :)
bearxor - Friday, July 2, 2004 - link
Yea, when are we even going to be able to buy a Ultra or "Ultra Extreme".Heck, I never even heard of "Ultra Extreme" until this preview.
I guess when ATi releases new drivers, nVidia will have to launch the long-rumored and much-hyped Geforce 6800 Ultra-Extreme Hyper Edition.
Then, during the ATi refresh,we will all be greeted the the Geforce 6900, 6900 Ultra, 6900 Turbo and 6900 Ultra Hyper Fighting Edition.
They're getting as bad as Capcom these days...
Pete - Friday, July 2, 2004 - link
Whoa, some huge gains for nV. I honestly didn't expect to see such clear differences this early--props to them.ATi's AA hit may be due to an under-performing programmable memory controller, per ATi ppl. We may see them improve memory-intense AA+AF numbers with newer drivers that better utilize the controller. Dunno if that can compensate for nV's huge SM3.0 gains, though.
I'm still a little baffled by the ever-faster "Ultra Extreme" models, though, considering we haven't seen one for even presale (AFAIK) in the many weeks since the 6800U's launch.
TheSnowman - Friday, July 2, 2004 - link
well Jeff, that explains why ati's peformace tanks, but it does nothing to explain why nvidia's doesn't.Jeff7181 - Friday, July 2, 2004 - link
Very nice article guys.Only thing I'd like to see that I didn't was lower res benchmarks, since I think it's safe to say that most people don't have monitors that support 1600x1200 at a decent refresh rate. Hell... mine can't do 1280x1024 at a decent rate.
Oh... and gordon151... I wonder if it could be because of the large amounts of objects to be anti-aliased. Grass, trees, etc. ... combine that with the HUGE draw distances and you've got quite a task on your hands. Just my theory anyway :)
gordon151 - Friday, July 2, 2004 - link
I've been wondering lately why performance tanks so much with the x800 series when AA is enabled in Farcry. It almost cuts in half when applying 4xAA, which is something you don't see in other games.