NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 (G80): GPUs Re-architected for DirectX 10
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Derek Wilson on November 8, 2006 6:01 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Oblivion Performance
We aren't listing the table with all the settings we used because this time it's easy. We cranked everything up to the maximum setting. Every slider maxed and every feature enabled (with the exception of bloom and AA which are precluded by HDR). Taking into account just how stressful this game is under balanced quality settings, we can easily see just how incredible the 8800 GTX really is.
Oblivion has been one of the most demanding games in terms of graphics requirements ever since its launch. Up till now, ATI had a pretty substantial performance lead over almost anything NVIDIA could offer in this game, short of the 7950 GX2. With the launch of the GeForce 8800 series, the tables have turned, and quite dramatically. Not only does a single 8800 GTX card outperform any other current configuration (with the likely exception of 8800 GTS SLI, which we weren't able to test yet), but even the GeForce 8800 GTS is able to perform nearly as fast as X1950 XTX CrossFire, and slightly better than 7900 GTX SLI.
The 8800 GTX SLI is still the bottleneck in this game at resolutions above 1280x1024, showing just how demanding Oblivion is when it comes to graphics cards. ATI's CrossFire also scales better than NVIDIA's SLI in this title, gaining on average ~75% with CrossFire versus ~65% with SLI. Of course, we have to temper that statement by pointing out that X1950 CrossFire did not run properly at 2560x1600.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
They did the same thing with the original Halo, porting it (and slowing it down) to DX9. MS seems to think making Halo 2 Vista-only will get people to upgrade to the new OS. [:rolls eyes:]stmok - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
How else are they gonna get gamers to upgrade to Vista? :)(by cornering them into adopting Vista, using DirectX 10.0)
Its sad and pathetic at the same time.
DirectX 10.0 should be a "transitional" solution...That is, it covers both XP and Vista. This allows people to gradually upgrade their hardware, and if they wish, to Vista. What MS is doing now, is throwing everyone (developers and consumers) into the deep end, and expecting them to pay for the changes. (I suspect some would be put off by this, while the majority will continue to accept it...Which is unfortunate).
Great article BTW. Interesting to see the high-end stuff...But I doubt I can afford it in this lifetime!
I have two questions!
(1) Any chance of looking at a triple video card setup?
(I saw a presentation slide which had 2 video cards in SLI, while a third showed something else on screen).
(2) Any idea when the GF8600-series comes?
(mainstream market solution).
yyrkoon - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
Great, links arent working ?http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/featu...">http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/featu...
yyrkoon - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/featu...">This article was written by a friend of mine back in April after an interview with ATI. Perhaps this will clear some things up.
yyrkoon - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
When you break all hardware/software ties to something that has been around for 4-5 years? Its not that easy making it "transitional". From a software perspective, D3D10 is not compatable with XP in the least.I for one, think this is a step in the right direction.
JarredWalton - Thursday, November 9, 2006 - link
Supposedly all of the changes to the WDDM make porting DX10 back to Windows XP "impossible", although I'm more inclined to think the correct term would be "difficult" and you also have to add in "it doesn't fit with MS marketing protocol". WDDM is quite different in Vista however, so maybe there's some substance to the claims.cosmotic - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
On page 9:--Briefly explain what a sub-pixel is in the sentence before--
JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
Due to the size of this article and the amount of time it took to get ready, let me preempt any comments about the spelling and grammar. I am in the process of editing the final document as I read through it, and there are spelling/grammar errors. If they bother you too much, check back in an hour. If you read this an hour from now and you still find errors, then you can respond, though it would be useful to keep all responses in a single thread like this one.Thanks in advance,
Jarred Walton
Editor
AnandTech.com
xtknight - Thursday, November 16, 2006 - link
On p 12 (gamma corrected AA):"This causes problems for thing like thin lines."
acejj26 - Wednesday, November 8, 2006 - link
"If DirectX 10 sounds like a great boon to software developers, the fact that DX10 will only be supported in Windows XP is certain to curb enthusiasm. "I believe this should say "DX10 will only be supported in Windows Vista..."
Not to be rude, but shouldn't the article be edited BEFORE being published??