1GHz is enough for hardcore gamers!

[AtomicGuY]

As expected, the new Doom3 engine will crawl not from the lack of enough cpu power but from the lack of a powerful enough GPU.

The current GeForce3 powered by a 1GHz Athlon will score about 30fps with all features enabled. When the next generation NV25 hits the market, Carmack expects 60fps+ with everything on.

The link below will take you to the official chat with Carmack himself,
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=01/08/01/1220230&cid=203


So what's in the future you might ask? Well for starters, Carmack wants Graphics cards with 1GHz Memory clock speeds and a 500MHz+ GPU. He also wants single screen rendering and 128-bit color.
128-bit color? you might ask. Well just think how much GPU power you would need to even accomplish this task! It's coming, along with 8X AGP and DirectX 9.


-----------------------------------------
From all this, all I can say, for all you budget gamers out there who havnt shelled out the bucks for a new graphics card, stay with the MX line of cards untill the GPU reaches 2 Giga Pixels. The GeForce3 MX will play Doom3 just fine! And expect massive framerate improvements with every game patch released, cause remember, the GeForce3 is programmable :)

But what about Radeon??, well Carmack says the Current Radeon with 64MBDDR will score "under" 30fps in Doom3. BUT, R200 comes to the rescue and expect 60fps+ like nVidia (Don't count ATI out!)


The future is looking bright for graphics and special effects, epect massive improvements to graphics technology in the next 24 months.

BTW, Got the 1GHz+ mark? keep your CPU and spend your next upgrade on another generation of graphics technology. You wont regret!


AtomicGuY

[oc jason]

(I feel the same as you) I just upograded from a TNT 8meg to a GF2 Pro 64mb DDR and i can play any game out now- but its like soon ill have to get another expansive card if i wanna keep up-and i run my card @ 350/465, that isint gonna cut it for Doom3 and other games a such??? well thats plain crappy, just wondering what would be better a GF2 Pro or a GF3 MX

[BIG-O-2]

I have to say I am ashamed of my video card but it is all I have and can afford now. I to am pretty psst at the fact that a video card is good for a year tops and that is if you spend megga bucks the day it hits the street.

I have heard the new GF3 cards are really top shelf but I just got this new AMD setup six months ago and I am not going to spend another $400 -$500 on a new video card.

I wish they would hury and get to the top and stay there a while. And with the slow down in the tech ind. you would think it might change a little. But it just gets worse it seems.......

Wish I could win the lotto, all I need is $10,000.

I could have it all.........





:p :p :p :p ;) :)

[OC-Master]

Originally posted by Would71
I heartily recommend the Radeon LE to anyone who wants a decent "value" card and is willing to mess around with it a little bit. (like clocking it, and tweaking it with a program such as Raid-On Tweaker) It's around $78 right now for a 32 meg DDR card, and it scores respectably for a "value" card. Of course, benchmarks aren't the final word in card choice, but they're a decent start. I get around 3109 3DMarks with this setup.. according to the chart on their website that I saw when I used the online result browser, a GF2MX on this same system would only be roughly 75% as fast.. and a GF3 is only 66% faster.

Yes, I say "only 66% faster".. if I'm gonna pay 4x to 5x the amount of money for a video card, it better bloody well be at least double the performance, if not more, of what I have now. Otherwise, no go. I get 40-60 fps in Tribes 2 at acceptable detail levels and resolution, so why would I need some GF3 that I'm not willing to spend significantly more money for?

A faster CPU will probably be my next upgrade, but again, only if I can get about 500 MHz more out of it reliably. (shouldn't be too hard, or too expensive)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The GeForce 3 MX will sweep you off the ground in terms of performance and features. The GeForce 3 MX will have the exact same performance as a 64MB GeForce 2 Pro clock for clock, with same drivers. But, when games begin to take advantage of the infiniteFX graphics engine, LOOK OUT!

The GeForce3 whether MX, Original or Ultra, everyone who has an nVidia should have GeForce3 by 2002 to keep in the game.

I'm going from a nVidia RIVA 128 4MB PCI to the GeForce 3 MX, this should be FUN!


cheers all!

[Blackearth]

$350-450 is an awful lot of money to spend, i've got a geforce2 gts 32ddr (asusv7700pure) and i love it compared to ati 3drage pro (8mb) i had been using before(then again that was on a completely different computer so i dont know if that counts. . .) but i think its defective which i post about in a second in the appropriate area. anyway i will eventually get a geforce3. . . but can you really ever have enough? i cant --always want more, more power, more speed!!

[Oright]

Why hell, why not just go plain crazy and all buy wildcat 2 5000s.......... Will that make you happy carmack! Heh...

[BIG-O-2]

Now how did I become a Juior Memeber, when before the new forum look I was member??

Man I am having problems with this new forum......

[BIG-O-2]

And did you look.......

Just kidding

Anyone know how I get my Pic back up under my name??

[FerrariF50]

you mean the price?? My Savage4 i think when it was new must of costed like $130 well now it's less then $30 lol big price drap Crappy card.


Originally posted by Would71
I'm not upgrading CPUs until I can get about a 500 MHz increase in clock speed, overclocked or not. I'm at 1050 right now.. (sig hasn't been changed back yet) so figure 1550 or so will make me upgrade. As for video cards, they annoy the crap out of me with how much they change and devalue themselves over time, even compared to the progress of CPUs. I like my Radeon LE, I'm not really fond of the notion of being "required" to get rid of it/upgrade it in 6 months or less. Maybe it's because I was out of the FPS genre for quite some time.. (went from Duke 3D to Firearms 2.4) the games that usually do it for me don't require a lot of vid card power. *shrug*

I think I can find use for a new CPU.. Folding @ Home will always take the extra clock cycles, plus my landscape renderings in Terragen would speed up a bit.

[FerrariF50]

you may not think of this when you buy a Geforce3 but like 2 years later a card like that will the price will just drop like a rock... I mean what the heck is my money going to?? I'am I paying for the Gpu?? The Pcb?? And don't give me that it cost a so and so amout to make 1 Chip!!! $400 for something then I have to update it again because it's outdated... Or becuase I want more 3D MARKS!!!!!! Grrrrr..... Untill Nivid gets it's right people will slowy learn how in the world can I keep forking out $330 each year for a video card update!!

[sfa ok]

Originally posted by FerrariF50
you may not think of this when you buy a Geforce3 but like 2 years later a card like that will the price will just drop like a rock... I mean what the heck is my money going to?? I'am I paying for the Gpu?? The Pcb?? And don't give me that it cost a so and so amout to make 1 Chip!!! $400 for something then I have to update it again because it's outdated... Or becuase I want more 3D MARKS!!!!!! Grrrrr..... Untill Nivid gets it's right people will slowy learn how in the world can I keep forking out $330 each year for a video card update!!

Most of the Geforce3 price is in the memory. I'm going to stay with my Voodoo5 as long as I can without going crazy. Maybe by the time I need to switch a Geforce4 Pro will go for under $200. :D

[FerrariF50]

Don't they make a geforce 3 with 32mb of mem?? and it'sa bout the same price.

Originally posted by sfa ok


Most of the Geforce3 price is in the memory. I'm going to stay with my Voodoo5 as long as I can without going crazy. Maybe by the time I need to switch a Geforce4 Pro will go for under $200. :D

[Myself and I]

I still use my old voodoo3 3000 but i just overclocked it to 199mhz and its fast as hell. It just doesnt compare to the geforce 2 when it comes to colors but their isnt much difference to justify paying over 150 for a good geforce 2 card. I will wait until the geforce 2 pro gainward will come down to 140 and buy one

[AtomicGuY]

is $20 for a Duron 600MHz a good buy?

[FerrariF50]

yeah sounds good but I can get a Duron 750Mhz for $34 plus $10 S&H at www.newegg.com


Originally posted by AtomicGuY
is $20 for a Duron 600MHz a good buy?

[AtomicGuY]

just wonderin,

actually, I'm planning on selling my CPU and buy a 1533MHz Palomino when it comes out in end of september. I wonder if I can hit the 2GHz mark with AIR cooling?

[FerrariF50]

If you could I still would not Risk it....

[Myself and I]

I dont you might get that new duron that runs at 3 gighertz

[rugby]

Graphics cards are nuts. I'm still using my STB VElocity 8mb card with my computer and it's fine. I play D2 LOD on it and it looks okay to me. I was thinking of upgrading to a Matrox g450 or g400 in the future, but I just can't bring myself to spend money on a vid card. The only proggy I use that remotely stresses my vid card is Diablo2 and I don't play it that often. I boot Linux every now and again so maintaining compatibility is a must for me, that's why I'm going with a Matrox card. I'm definitely not feeding the nvidia machine.

[sfa ok]

Originally posted by FerrariF50
Don't they make a geforce 3 with 32mb of mem?? and it'sa bout the same price.



It isn't the amount of memory, but the speed of the memory that really counts, for both performance and price.

[BIG-O-2]

is this a OEM box or from a freind??

It is a good buy I have seen 700's for $29.00!!

on the net........

[Frost Byte]

The thing that upsets me with games it give people faulse impressinos. When is Doom3 comming out? Well by the time UT2 comes out the Geforce 3 will be looked at like we do to the TNT. I mean really! They say...we are making this game and it needs a minimum of a GF3...everyone freaks but by the time it comes out...the price will be down. People get so upset about compters getting out dated, but they don't ever get outdated, you just need one to fit your needs, and if your needs are to play the coolest gamse with the most eye candy then you need to stay on top...but if you are ok with lower res and less eye candy then you don't need to worrie

[Frost Byte]

Sorry Double post

[FerrariF50]

I think I understand what you are trying to say.... You mean we all buy A Geforce 3 now and say unreal2 came out tommrow the Mem specs would be a Geforce3 or higher as the box says. And so Nivida makes a newer card and then the Geforce3 would now be yesterday's news......



Originally posted by Frost Byte
The thing that upsets me with games it give people faulse impressinos. When is Doom3 comming out? Well by the time UT2 comes out the Geforce 3 will be looked at like we do to the TNT. I mean really! They say...we are making this game and it needs a minimum of a GF3...everyone freaks but by the time it comes out...the price will be down. People get so upset about compters getting out dated, but they don't ever get outdated, you just need one to fit your needs, and if your needs are to play the coolest gamse with the most eye candy then you need to stay on top...but if you are ok with lower res and less eye candy then you don't need to worrie

[AtomicGuY]

Yea it's an OEM with just the plastic case. Anyhow, I was thinking of having it just as a backup chip. for $20, you really cant go wrong. And after reading some forums, I decided I ain't gonna by the Palamino processor after all. Simply because Throughbred will be here early next year and thats when I'll slap the 2GHz puppy onto my KG7. My goal is to get 2.4GHz out of my KG7.


Next:
But people, dont get too blown away about the 30fps issue with Doom3. Doom3 as far as I know Doom3 wont be here till Christmas NEXT year! Thats almost a year and a half away! And what Carmack means by 30fps is that you got all those new nifty features turned on! But there will be a simple option in the graphics setup for GeForce3/2/1/MX series and Radeon cards. And also the custom settings of course!

I'm thinking for the MX series, the texture resolution will be brought from 2048x2048 to 1024x1024. That would make the MX the same speed as the GTS and pure GeForce3 line.

So with a 32MB GeForce2 MX, you should be able to hit 60fps at 1024x768x16 with 1kx1k textures and MX option selected. It would be just like running Quake3, execpt a little slower. The 16-bit color would also make the difference.


As for graphics quality, the Doom3 engine supports 4096x4096 texture resolution. I never thought the day would come when we didnt need bilinear filtering no more! ITS HERE! 4k textures will be supported by GeForce4 and Radeon2 I believe, I'm not sure about GeForce3 thou, can anyone verify this?

[AtomicGuY]

Think of it this way, we can all pretest the performance of Doom3 early. Just take Aquamark, benchmark, show your results and then minus 33% of the framerate.

Aquamark scores 40fps maxed with a GeForce 3 right? So then that means its 33% faster to play then Doom3!