AnandTech Half-Life 2 Info :)

[Jason Clark]

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1862

Check it out, more to come

 

[rickn]

ATI didn't need these special optimizations to perform well and Valve insists that they have not optimized the game specifically for any vendor.

that part I bolded. I simply do not believe. ATI didn't drop a few mil to get this game as part of their sales and marketing and not get any perks.

 

[Alkali]

Great News, Great News, I knew Ati was the way to go *teeheehee*

 

[Dewey]

It's hard to believe the 5900 isn't performing all that well.
I'm pretty much sold on a 9800 now!

 

[Schadenfroh]

You'll see my own numbers tomorrow night at midnight, but we've been given the go ahead to reveal a bit of information about Half-Life 2. I'll keep it brief and to the point and will explain it in greater detail tomorrow night:

- Valve is pissed at all of the benchmarking "optimizations" they've seen in the hardware community;
- Half-Life 2 has a special NV3x codepath that was necessary to make NVIDIA's architecture perform reasonably under the game;
- Valve recommends running geforce fx 5200 and 5600 cards in dx8 mode in order to get playable frame rates.
- even with the special NV3x codepath, ATI is the clear performance leader under Half-Life 2 with the Radeon 9800 Pro hitting around 60 fps at 10x7. The 5900 ultra is noticeably slower with the special codepath and is horrendously slower under the default dx9 codepath;
- the Radeon 9600 Pro performs very well - it is a good competitor of the 5900 ultra;
- ATI didn't need these special optimizations to perform well and Valve insists that they have not optimized the game specifically for any vendor.

There you have it folks, there's much more coming tomorrow.

Doom3 works best on NV and ATI works best on HL2.

 

[Alkali]

Originally posted by: Dewey
It's hard to believe the 5900 isn't performing all that well.
I'm pretty much sold on a 9800 now!

Dude wait for the Radeon 9900 Pro it will blow your mind Its coming very soon, hopefully before xmas.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Alkali

Originally posted by: Dewey
It's hard to believe the 5900 isn't performing all that well.
I'm pretty much sold on a 9800 now!

Dude wait for the Radeon 9900 Pro it will blow your mind Its coming very soon, hopefully before xmas.

Ive heard definitely before then, more like an announcement in the next month. Im not so sure about blowing minds, but obviously it will be better. I also think they are calling it the 9800XT now, check www.rage3d.com forums for more info.

 

[Mem]

Dude wait for the Radeon 9900 Pro it will blow your mind Its coming very soon, hopefully before xmas.

BAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want ATi`s PCI EXPRESS card next year,that will blow my mind .

 

[Pocatello]

Half-Life 2 has a special NV3x codepath that was necessary to make NVIDIA's architecture perform reasonably under the game

More likely to cripple the nvidia card so that ATI is happy, it's not a secret that Valve and ATi are in bed together.

 

[fredtam]

Originally posted by: Pocatello

Half-Life 2 has a special NV3x codepath that was necessary to make NVIDIA's architecture perform reasonably under the game

More likely to cripple the nvidia card so that ATI is happy, it's not a secret that Valve and ATi are in bed together.

Yeah. Your right. It is definately a conspiracy. I think that aliens run ATI too.

 

[rbV5]

10x7@60FPS sounds bad to me.

 

[Mem]

More likely to cripple the nvidia card so that ATI is happy, it's not a secret that Valve and ATi are in bed together.

Looking at the pixel shader 2 tests I`m not surprised ATi has the edge.

 

[ShawnD1]

"I think that aliens run ATI too."

Aliens - Canadians, what's the difference?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Aliens - Canadians, what's the difference?

mapple leaves?

 

[Corporate Thug]

when is the 9800XT or whatever supposed to be released?

 

[OddTSi]

Haven't we all already seen that nVidia's NV3x are a) not completely DX9 compatible because of not using floating point shaders (or something to that effect) and b) that they have poor Pixel Shader 2.0 performance (possibly because of 'a') in DX9 benchmarks.

Also, let's not forget that I believe when Doom3 was coming out that one of the game programmers (John Carmack?) said that using the default rendering path ATi's cards performed their best, whereas with the nVidia cards they got poor performance using anything but nVidia's proprietary rendering path.

So why is anyone doubting the validity of Valve's claim that they had to use a "special" path to get nVidia cards to perform half-way decent?

 

[Maleficus]

ATi > Nvidia. Has been for a while

Now i need to sell my 5600 Ultra though

 

[GTaudiophile]

OMFG! the Radeon 9600 Pro performs very well - it is a good competitor of the 5900 ultra

I can hear fanATIcs laughing from here!

Edit: I sense R360/RV360 info tomorrow. For nVidia's sake, NV38 had better perform 25% faster than NV35!

 

[GTaudiophile]

Graphs from Beyond3D!

I especially like the second one

 

[NFS4]

ATI OWNZ YOU!!

My 9600 Pro was a good purchase afterall

**Pats self on back**

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Pocatello

Half-Life 2 has a special NV3x codepath that was necessary to make NVIDIA's architecture perform reasonably under the game

More likely to cripple the nvidia card so that ATI is happy, it's not a secret that Valve and ATi are in bed together.

Give me a f##king break!

At midnight tomorrow, the nVidia clan members will be feeling the power of nVidia.....ramming them in the a$$. The conspiracy theories have already started coming in. I can already hear the excuses, even BEFORE the benchmarks have been released.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: Pocatello

Half-Life 2 has a special NV3x codepath that was necessary to make NVIDIA's architecture perform reasonably under the game

More likely to cripple the nvidia card so that ATI is happy, it's not a secret that Valve and ATi are in bed together.

Give me a f##king break!

At midnight tomorrow, the nVidia clan members will be feeling the power of nVidia.....ramming them in the a$$. The conspiracy theories have already started coming in. I can already hear the excuses, even BEFORE the benchmarks have been released.

Taking it down both pipes. NVIDIA ramming from behind while ATI gets a job from the front

 

[peter7921]

Originally posted by: Pocatello

Half-Life 2 has a special NV3x codepath that was necessary to make NVIDIA's architecture perform reasonably under the game

More likely to cripple the nvidia card so that ATI is happy, it's not a secret that Valve and ATi are in bed together.

Yes ATI and Valve are in bed together and they are both ramming it in Nvidia's ____. (Please fill in the blank)










BTW: I like Nvidia, infact I own many Nvidia products but come on I had to make fun of this guy.

 

[sandorski]

Nvidia seems to have mucked up their DirectX 9, but did swell with OpenGL. That would explain the HL2/Doom3 situation. This is going to be a big blow methinks.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Remember those DIII "benches" that everyone put out for the initial NV35 reviews? I dare anyone to come forward and claim they were NOT nVidia-sponsored! Such BS in light of what we're seeing with HL2.