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Carmack on NV30 vs R300

Posted by chrisd on from the ati-needs-a-mark-vojkovich dept.

Nexxpert writes "John Carmack has posted his thoughts on the NV30 vs R300 (featured via www.bluesnews.com. Highlights some of the shortcomings of Nvidia's next step as well as pointing out what they've done right. Interesting read." In particular the arb2 vs nv30 path differences mean that it's not as simple as saying "ATI roX0rs nVidia" or vice versa.(update: sorry bout the misspelling, don't know how I missed that)

3 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. R300 path by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Notice that Carmack has no R300 path. Why is that? I can think of two possible explanations instantly.

    One is that ATI has optimized for the standard ARB2 path, and a specific R300 path wouldn't make much difference. In that case, my response would be, kudos ATI for promoting the standard, but speak positively of the performance of NV30.

    The other possibility I can think of is that the lack of an R300 path is punishment for ATI leaking the Doom III alpha version. In that case I wonder how much the Radeon 9700 Pro would gain from an R300 specific path.

    It certainly isn't a lack of time to develop the ATI path; there is an R200 path for older Radeon cards, and the Radeon 9700 has been available to developers for quite a bit longer than the GeforceFX has.

  2. thought on noise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "The current NV30 cards do have some other disadvantages: They take up two
    slots, and when the cooling fan fires up they are VERY LOUD. I'm not usually
    one to care about fan noise, but the NV30 does annoy me.

    Noise is becoming a big problem. I now putting zalman stuff in all my computers. My guide is a zalman heatsink, a zalman powersupply, athlon 1.2, seagate 40 Gig HD, ATi radeon 9000(whitout fan) and a good motherboard without fan on the chipset.

    thank you
    louis

  3. I like my cards quiet by Wag · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was holding out on nVidia's new card, but now I've given up on that idea. With more and more people using PCs as multimedia devices (watch DVDs, listen to music, etc), a fan that puts out almost 60Db of noise is unacceptable.

    I really wanted to go away from ATI this time around, but it appears I'll have to wait a little longer. I'm sure nVidia will [eventually] release a fanless, 1-slot version. I just wonder if it will be too little too late.