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 Lost in all the ATI and NVIDIA graphic cards? Here is a summary of 17 ATI and 11 NVIDIA AGP and PCI Express graphic card performances just before the end of the year.
> Recap of ATI and NVIDIA graphic cards |
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Panosys has just released online a utility called ThrottleWatch. If your Intel processor cooling system isn’t efficient enough, a function named Thermal Monitoring is activated. This function reduces the processor temperature to avoid any crash or damage. It is transparent for the user but it reduces the computer performances, because of pause instructions send to the processor. The second Thermal Monitoring version integrated to the Socket 775 « J » and Pentium M processors also reduces the frequency.
 Without being indispensable this utility check if your cooling system is efficient and if your processor is used at its full potential. So we advise you to do a stress test Prime95 when ThrottleWatch is working. If the processor Thermal Monitoring is activated you will have to improve your CPU cooling system! |
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Although aware that Linux users are a minority (Linux represent 1.3% of OS installed) and that only a few gamers are using Linux, ATI has decided to increase the compatibility with this support (NVIDIA already made some serious progress on that subject). During the past 6 months, the Canadian manufacturer would have increase by 300% the number of people working on Linux drivers (backbiters will probably say they are four now). They have installed a new test procedure and are planning to release a new version every two months.
   Innovation to come in the next six months will be: - compatibility for all PCI Express products - compatibility with AMD/Intel 64 bits - an easy to use installer - several innovations for the control panel - a better monitor management - compatibility with the next GPU generations We will see in a couple of months if they will keep their promises… |
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 Despite an increased competition with NVIDIA, ATI is planning to remain the GPU mobile leader with more than 70% of market shares. One of the key areas to remain market leader is to assure a good autonomy to laptops equipped with their GPU. The new PowerPlay v5.0 equipped with the Radeon Mobility X300, X600 and X800 helps to increase the autonomy with standard energy saving functions but also because it is able to deactivate one part of the PCI Express bus when the whole of its bandwidth isn’t used. It isn’t necessary to use a PCI Express 16X to type a Word document, only a PCI Express 1X is enough.
It is however only one detail. Reading a HD DVD for example is a much bigger issue. It requires processing up to six times more pixels, and also logically more energy. According to ATI, using a standard decoding process for these DVD could divide the laptop autonomy by three. Reading DVDs in battery mode would be impossible. Decoding DVDs via a GPU needs too much energy as well as using the GPU pixel pipelines. Also only GPU with a high enough fillrate would be able capable to process the decoding.
   The solution would be to integrate a completely independent video engine to the GPU to deactivate as much equipment as possible if the user chooses to read a HD DVD. ATI indicates that they already have developed this technology under the shape of a dedicated chip, the Xilleon, used in screens compatible with HDTV. Future GPUs might integrate new functionalities… NVIDIA has also integrated a dedicated video engine to the GeForce 6. We don’t know yet if this engine is completely independent from the GPU’s other components and its efficiency. Drivers aren’t available yet and NVIDIA’s explanations on the subject are quite vague.  Finally for long term, ATI joined early 2004 the Extended Battery Life Working Group to work with the main laptop manufacturers, Microsoft and Intel, on solutions to increase laptop’s autonomy. The target is to increase the autonomy to one day of work. Of course, changes will be important and will include the type of battery used. |
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 To show their last graphic cards performances, ATI asked to Crytek to develop a demonstration based on Far Cry’s engine but with more complex shaders, higher definition of textures, high definition normal map using 3Dc and advanced post processing (depth of field, motion blur etc.). The result is success, one step further than Far Cry’s graphic quality.
   ATI insists on the fact that they didn’t asked to Crytek to restrict the demonstration only to their graphic cards. Using the 3Dc is optional and as no other specific ATI’s technology is included in the demonstration, any other graphic card should be able to run it. We confirm this information. With the GeForce 6 series, however, two graphic bugs are visible. First, the depth of field effect isn’t correctly rendered. It is the same bug corrected by NVIDIA with Tomb Raider AOD probably by replacing the shader. The other bug is with the water rendering, using a more complex shader than in Far Cry. Despite these two bugs, we wanted to see the behaviour of ATI and NVIDIA’s graphic card with this demonstration and also the interest of 3Dc. Normal maps are initially to the RGB format and then are converted during the process to the 3Dc format if it is activated. 3Dc is used to increase performances with a counterpart a reduced quality loss. This is theory. For the practice we will have to wait a little bit more as the 3Dc support seems to have a bug in this demonstration. The demonstration crashes when the 3Dc is activated. We though first that it was a bug in ATI’s drivers. But after testing several versions (Catalyst 4.11 / 8.07, 8.08 beta, 8.08 beta2 and 8.09 alpha) we came to the conclusion that the problem was the demonstration itself. Crytek seems to mix 3Dc and texture compression. With the patch 1.3, a less advanced normal map compression is used instead of the 3Dc as announced. With his demonstration, Crytek detects the 3Dc support even with a GeForce 6800 (not compatible with this technology). So when Crytek indicates 3Dc should we really read 3Dc or simply normal maps compression?    Here are the scores obtained in PS 2.x for the Radeon and in PS 3.0 for the GeForce. It is interesting to notice that with every scene change the GeForce 6800 Ultra slows down but not the Radeon X800 XT PE. 1024x768 AA 4X, Aniso 8X Radeon X800 XT PE : 41.4 fps GeForce 6800 Ultra : 37.3 fps 1600x1200 AA 4X, Aniso 8X Radeon X800 XT PE : 21.2 fps GeForce 6800 Ultra : 21.5 fps Results obtained with this demonstration (at least without the 3Dc activated) shows the possibility of the last high end graphic cards rather than the possibility of the X800 compared to the 6800. A similar demonstration based on Half Life 2 Source engine should be released in the weeks to come. |
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According to a presentation made by ATI, Windows Graphic Fundation 1.0 (WGF 1.0), which will be the base of Longhorn, would be a new DirectX 9 version and not a new DirectX Next / DirectX 10 version as we initially thought. DirectX 10 would be WGF 2.0. This version should be release with Longhorn or even probably a little bit later.
