Nvidia's DX11 GF100 Graphics Processor Detailed 220
J. Dzhugashvili writes "While it's played up the general-purpose computing prowess of its next-gen GPU architecture, Nvidia has talked little about Fermi's graphics capabilities — to the extent that some accuse Nvidia of turning its back on PC gaming. Not so, says The Tech Report in a detailed architectural overview of the GF100, the first Fermi-based consumer graphics processor. Alongside a wealth of technical information, the article includes enlightening estimates and direct comparisons with AMD's Radeon HD 5870. The GF100 will be up to twice as fast as the GeForce GTX 285, the author reckons, but the gap with the Radeon HD 5870 should be 'a bit more slender.' Still, Nvidia may have the fastest consumer GPU ever on its hands — and far from forsaking games, Fermi has been built as a graphics processor first and foremost."
Re:When's it coming out? (Score:3, Informative)
Feh. (Score:5, Informative)
The days of needing the biggest, fastest, most expensive card are pretty much over. You can run just about any game out there at max settings at 1920 X 1080 silky smooth with a 5870, which goes for less than $300. Hell, even the 4870 is still almost overkill.
Unless you plan on maxing out AA and AF while playing on a 30 inch screen, there is no reason to drop $500-$600 on a video card anymore...
Re:When's it coming out? (Score:3, Informative)
They have admitted those 2 games were programmed by monkeys.
If you compare a 4850 from then to a 4850 today with the game fully patched and monkey shit removed you'd see an increase in frame rates. Or compared it to the squeal which had even more monkey shit removed there would be a further increase in frame rates.
Besides the fact that 2 games, that received crap reviews except from the "Oh so pretty" crowd do not represent the market.
Re:When's it coming out? (Score:5, Informative)
When the differences are minute to the point where you have to pause a Gametrailers video and lean in close to your monitor, they may as well be the same...you aren't going to see that during actual gameplay, ESPECIALLY not in a frantic shooter like MW2.
That being said, there is one consistant difference between the 360 and the PS3 in terms of image quality: the 360 tends to be a little washed out, and the PS3 tends to be a little dark. Thank goodness for auto-switching color profiles based on the input selected.
Re:When's it coming out? (Score:3, Informative)
Trust me, I hack both systems.
The 360 and PS3 are practically identical. Both use IBM Power-PC based main cores and a bunch of side processing units. the 360's total performance capability is HALF that of the PS3 (360 does 1TFLOP PS3 can do 2TFLOP) the PS3 also has a superior graphics hardware set. Comparing GTAIV on the 360 vs the PS3, the 360 looks like it's running in 16-bit color depth, shadows are absolutely horrible, and the draw distance isn't even on par with the PS3.
Sorry, speaking from an 'inside' point of view, you're dead wrong. For one, the 360 only has 10MB of dedicated VRAM. the PS3 has 256MB of GDDR3 for their GPU, and the 256MB of XDR DESTROYS the 512MB of GDDR3 that the 360 uses for system memory (For one GDDR3 isn't meant to be used as main system memory, XDR is.)
http://www.wikixbox360.com/page/Detailed+Xbox+360+System+Specs [wikixbox360.com]
http://playstation.about.com/od/ps3/a/PS3SpecsDetails_3.htm [about.com]
PS3 stomps the 360. The 360 is by far inferior, it's locked down, and it burns itself out more often than not.
Oh, and I do run Linux on my PS3.
Re:When's it coming out? (Score:3, Informative)
The 10MB of "VRAM" you refer to on the xbox 360 is actually called eDRAM, and is more similar to the cache memory found in CPUs than video memory. It's often not even used, but reportedly can reduce the hit when anti-aliasing to nearly nothing. The main difference between the 360 and the ps3 in terms of memory is that the 360 GPU serves as a memory controller. Since this is the case developers can use up to about 480mb as either system memory or graphics memory - as they decide, instead of being limited to only 256mb ram, and 256mb vram on the ps3.
Your own references contradict your comparisons in memory performance. While the xbox 360 post claims 21.6GB/s FSB, the official ps3 specs allow only 20GB/s / 15GB/s for memory performance to the RSX. With a margin of only 3.4GB/s XDR hardly "DESTROYS" the ddr3 either... especially if the latency is considerably higher, the main weapon in the RAMBUS arsenal is raising clock speed with latency.
Using GTA IV as an example proves a point against a lot of folks trying to use a single game to determine which console can provide a superior experience. Rockstar has never been concerned with having high quality graphics; while #4 was certainly a step in the right direction rockstar simply doesn't understand how to make a proper 3d engine.
Both the PS3 and the xbox 360 are locked down. Let me know when you can run backups of your chipped blu-ray discs. I'll be running linux on my 360 whenever I complete the JTAG hack and read the NAND. http://www.free60.org/ [free60.org] is a great resource for some the "homebrew" hacks, you should check into it.