I've seen alot of talk about multiple vertex shaders and other features of the newer cards and was wondering if I'm missing out on any eye candy with my 9700. I have the urge to upgrade but I don't know if I can justify it. Does a 9700 even have vertex shaders? Thanks.
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Am I missing any features with a 9700?
- Thread starter Roman79
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Brent_Justice
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The 9700 was the first card from ATI to support Shader Model 2.0. Currently ATI still only supports Shader Model 2.0 up to the X850. The new X800 series has added PS 2.0b support providing longer shader lengths. But you aren't missing out on any IQ differences as far as ATI cards go.
The GeForce 6 series supports Shader Model 3.0 and FP textures and blending. SM 3.0 itself does not provide an image quality difference, but it can allow one if a game content developer chooses to. The biggest thing with the GF6 series is growing support for tapping the FP16 blending allowing true HDR. Right now the best example of that is Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory where HDR is used very well throughout the game to give it better IQ. But it does take a large performance hit doing it and currently AA does not work with HDR on the GF6 series.
The GeForce 6 series supports Shader Model 3.0 and FP textures and blending. SM 3.0 itself does not provide an image quality difference, but it can allow one if a game content developer chooses to. The biggest thing with the GF6 series is growing support for tapping the FP16 blending allowing true HDR. Right now the best example of that is Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory where HDR is used very well throughout the game to give it better IQ. But it does take a large performance hit doing it and currently AA does not work with HDR on the GF6 series.
geekcomputing
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i dont think your missing a ton. Granted the new cards are faster and can do AA and AF much better but overall your not missing much IQ wise.
Roman79 said:Thanks for the quick (and indepth) response Brent! I stopped following new video card developments about a year ago and now I feel like a n00b again
Brent missed some other things you're missing with the 9700Pro.
1. Open EXR HDR in Far Cry.
2. Soft stencil shadows in Riddick
3. The ability to play Doom3 now, and Quake4/Wolenstein2 at modern levels soon.
Get thee a 6800GT or Ultra and miss nothing. Better yet, get two and be set for a while.
Brent_Justice
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Rollo said:
OpenEXR is just a file format. I mentioned the GF6 series has a FP blending framebuffer and textures which allow true HDR.
Technically the 9700 and up can do soft shadows, but it is very expensive in terms of performance, which is also true for the GF6 series. Bascailly for Riddick you cannot play with Soft Shadows enabled even on a 6800 Ultra, the performance hit is just too great.
The 9700 and up can play DOOM 3 just fine. Quake4 and Wolfenstien 2 are not out yet so obviously performance and image quality cannot be compared at this time.