Latest VGA reviews: why no AA w/softshadows?

[wstcoaster07]

Looking over all the latest reviews i was wondering why tomshardware (or anyone else for that matter) never tests a card with the AA and AF enabled while running softshadows. I understand it may drop frame rates extremely low, but isnt it nice kinda knowing your cards upper limits and what it cant handle? Cause i am lookin to get a saphire toxic x1900xtx come summer time and wanna know if/how it will run with a res around 1280x1024 with AA AF and softshadows (basicaly everything maxed out) under games like fear. Thanks

 

[pauldh]

To me looking at Tom's latest....why is 1024x768 2xaa/4xaf the highest settings tested? Who in the world plays at those settings with a X1900XTX? Not to mention why are the charts reversed(mislabeled) or did framerates actually improve by enabling FSAA/AF?

 

[wstcoaster07]

I believe the improvment in fram rate is due to the fact that they had soft shadows on for the first chart, and then off for the 2nd (they turned off softshadows and enabled AA & AF) so apparently soft shadows is much more taxin on the computer. but again.... why not show a benchmark with all of it runing. like a 1280 res with all things maxed out. So what if only the top cards can even register numbers, at least we will know how good these cards really are right? or are we here to show what they CAn do rather then what they cant? I personally wanna know what they CANT do.

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

I haven't played nor added any patches to FEAR, but I know in this case that Soft Shadows and AA don't mix well, if at all. I was able to force AA through CCC, and play fear with SS on (although it was said that it wasn't pure AA and SS by someone in the posts) at highly playable frame rates.

I recon personally, that only the 1900 and 7900 can play these games with SS at 1280x1024 (I can't seem to let any game run below this - spoilt indeed I am) with AA (if allowed) - the 1900 series has the Fetch4 instruction/logic included to handle SS, and this was sorely needed as my 1800XL (not the fastest I admit) just fell to pieces with SS on. And ofcourse, the 48PSP helps alot.

What do you guys recon, does Nvidia or ATi hold the SS crown in terms of performance? PS - just asking, don't want to spark a "who's the best" debate.

 

[radeonninjaxt]

I haven't played nor added any patches to FEAR, but I know in this case that Soft Shadows and AA don't mix well, if at all. I was able to force AA through CCC, and play fear with SS on (although it was said that it wasn't pure AA and SS by someone in the posts) at highly playable frame rates.

I recon personally, that only the 1900 and 7900 can play these games with SS at 1280x1024 (I can't seem to let any game run below this - spoilt indeed I am) with AA (if allowed) - the 1900 series has the Fetch4 instruction/logic included to handle SS, and this was sorely needed as my 1800XL (not the fastest I admit) just fell to pieces with SS on. And ofcourse, the 48PSP helps alot.

What do you guys recon, does Nvidia or ATi hold the SS crown in terms of performance? PS - just asking, don't want to spark a "who's the best" debate.

I run fear with 4xaa and SS on my x1900xt overclocked to 700core and 800core and it does really well. 45-60fps.

 

[wstcoaster07]

what res?

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

Well, I ran FEAR with 8AF(+AAA), 4AA(+HQAF), at 1240x1024 with SS on, and it was more than playable bar the one or two instances where I had lots of action (my P4 comes short in that regard).

 

[wstcoaster07]

cool, thanks. This summer (aug) i plan on building a new rig with a 2.6 conroe & Saphire Toxic X1900XTX, so just seing how much juice i can get out of it.

 

[PJ101]

Hey I have got a question for all of you. Why in the two latest VGA charts have they only included AGP offerings from Nvidia. They haven' t included any of the latest and greatest cards from Nvidia in their reviews. I have to agree that The x1900xt or xtx beats out most Nvidia cards but really... we would like to see the competitors cards too...

 

[PJ101]

If they dedicate one to Nvidia how are they going to make a comparison between brands without having multiple windows opened... sounds like a pain in the ass.

 

[sdrawkcaBgoD]

I agree totally. I hope that they combine all results into one gigantic Mega-Chart so we can tell at a glance exactly which cards perform the best.

 

[sdrawkcaBgoD]

Personally, I base my buying preference on performance as well as price.

 

[sdrawkcaBgoD]

Calm down, sparky. Did you notice the word "personally" in my last post? Dictionary.com can help you out if that word has too many syllables for you. And for a Buyer's Guide I'd imagine price is an important issue, else we'd all have x1900xtx's is Crossfire. If price wasn't inherent in a Buyer's Guide, they wouldn't call it a Buyer's Guide, you tool. And as for:

it therefore makes sense to group ATI's offerings together and then do nvidia's or vice versa.

Well, here your just being retarded. As a Buyer's Guide, it DOES make sense to group ATI and Nvidia cards into one chart. Otherwise, how is one supposed to decide between the two companies? Yes, you can compare the different parts of the article when Part 3 is published, but my original point was that it would be better to group them all into one chart when the article is complete. A Guide, after all, is a comparison between different items.

Also, don't start an argument when someone is just giving their two cents. I said nothing in my posts that would barb you into attacking me. I'm done with you and will not post a response when you (inevitably) attack my opinion again.

 

[radeonninjaxt]

Calm down, sparky. Did you notice the word "personally" in my last post? Dictionary.com can help you out if that word has too many syllables for you. And for a Buyer's Guide I'd imagine price is an important issue, else we'd all have x1900xtx's is Crossfire. If price wasn't inherent in a Buyer's Guide, they wouldn't call it a Buyer's Guide, you tool. And as for:

it therefore makes sense to group ATI's offerings together and then do nvidia's or vice versa.

Well, here your just being retarded. As a Buyer's Guide, it DOES make sense to group ATI and Nvidia cards into one chart. Otherwise, how is one supposed to decide between the two companies? Yes, you can compare the different parts of the article when Part 3 is published, but my original point was that it would be better to group them all into one chart when the article is complete. A Guide, after all, is a comparison between different items.

Also, don't start an argument when someone is just giving their two cents. I said nothing in my posts that would barb you into attacking me. I'm done with you and will not post a response when you (inevitably) attack my opinion again.

Dude just ignore him, he has a way of twisting things around and blowing everything all out of porportion. Im pretty sure he has a mangina instead of a penis :lol:

 

[radeonninjaxt]

love you too sugar

YUCK! 8O :lol: :lol: