E3D,
Well, I dont know about all of that. I mean, I didnt state that I think SM3 will bring it up to the x800XTs level or not.
But it will improve it to some degree, and displacement mapping will give NV cards a level of IQ that ATI cards wont be able to match.
I took it to mean exactly that, mainly because I'm not sure SM3.0 will allow NV40 to do anything major that R420 can't do (aside from geometry instancing, though I don't know much beyond its ability to save some CPU time and AGP bandwidth). As for displacement mapping, I *think* R420 and R300 and even Parhelia can do it....
Again, I'll be reviewing this info. I honestly could give a rats behind if anyone other than Anand's says it.
I dont find those other sites (BOTH Toms and OCP) to have much credibility considering past events. The others are too small to not possibly be ran by biased tyrants. Heck, OCP THINKS they are in Anands league but they are smalltime still IMO.
The contempt you show for other sites is pretty surprising. I've been around here for way too long, and I don't agree with your assessment. IMO, AT hasn't been the final word on 3D for a while now--at least since Anand's 5900U review, in which he missed a few things and never (to my knowledge, and I was one of the few creating quite a fuss here) even acknowledged his errors. I'm sure he didn't have as much time to dedicate to the review as he wanted, but IMO that didn't excuse either the handful of errors in the review or the (extremely, strangely) slow (in Anand's case, non-)reaction to forum member requests at the time--especially for a site with as many hits and as much profit as this (meaning, AT has a large viewer base and relatively large income, and thus both the responsibility and the means to provide accurate info). "Biased tyrants" is an almost laughably strong term, and comical when referring to the various reviewers: Brent at H (Kyle runs the site), Lars at THG (Tom's the big cheese), or Dave at B3D. (I'm guessing you were thinking mainly of Kyle and Tom and referring mainly to THG's 5800U review and Kyle's 3DM03 stance, though.) I'm not sure one of those sites' writers has publicly purported to be in or out of AT's "league," but, IMO, AT doesn't stand at the top of 3D reviewing (for now, I prefer B3D, 3DC, and H.fr for investigative work, and TR for writing). Many sites publish good reviews (informative benchmarks with informed commentary), but only a few get things right more often and consistently offer more info to qualify as great. Anyway, I don't want to get into a ratings game, but I think you place way too much stock in AT for current 3D reviews. Derek's doing a good job so far (if I may be so bold), but he appears to be relatively inexperienced and perhaps doesn't have as many connections as compared to some other reviewers. (He's young yet. )
Anyway, its pretty much thought that so far IQ is actually in NV's favor. Not surprising.. I mean look at ATIs XT performance. Cuts were made somewhere.. not that the tech isnt great.. but I'm sure its a combo of driver cheats and great speedy hardware.
nV's the one who's been caught cheating since the 5800U, not ATi, and nV's the one with quite a few IQ problems in Far Cry (which has the kind of graphics we all want, on a D3D framework that HLSL promises to make simpler/faster to create). The R420 looks to be about as large as NV40, so I imagine they contain a roughly comparable transistor count (remember nV and ATi apparently count transistors differently when giving official numbers), so I'm not sure why you think ATi is cheating when they have about the same transistors working on fewer features, particularly since they're essentially releasing a more polished second-gen GPU to nV's (heavily?) reworked part. If you think ATi must be cheating for the X800XT to outperform the 6800U, can you offer some proof or even a hypothesis?
Those last two quotes show you as rather misinformed, making the strength of your convictions all the more surprising. You registered here a few days ago; would it be wrong for me to think you've begun following 3D cards in general and web reviews/forums in particular only recently?
As for 2048 testing, didn't Derek do some for the 6800U? I know he was asking for a 20x15 and higher monitor right before that review.
As for SM3.0, it certainly looks great, but so did PS1.4, and that wasn't exactly an instant hit.
I think the Articles forum left us right around the time we were all arguing about Anand's 5900U review (good times ). AT has since switched to a comments system for each article separate from the forums. If you want 20x15 benches, let Derek know in the AT X800 review comments thread (link at the bottom of any review page).