ATI Radeon "optimized" for HL2

[nickster]

I apologize if this has been posted before, but ATI is now claiming that their cards are "optimized" for Half-Life 2, whatever that means, do you think theres any truth to this.

Get the link here http://www.halflife2source.com

 

[BaNDiT]

they prolly are cuz they ran the e3 demo in the ati place

 

[derby]

it's been discussed a few times.

Look at the info from valve threaad to see what gabe has to say (i think he says that it isn't optimised for any particular card)

 

[Jagermeister]

Will Half-Life 2 be catered towards a particular brand of video card? As in NVIDIA or ATI?

It would be great if we could pick one hardware platform with perfectly consistent performance, but we can't.

One interesting problem for game engines right now is scalability. You have to run fast on the DX6 generation of hardware (TNT, Intel 810), and you have to fully exploit the latest and greatest DX9 hardware (R350-based and NV35). There's a far greater difference between old and new ATI cards than there is between the latest and greatest ATI and NVIDIA cards.

Source: Gabe Newel Interview - Trepid.net @ 2003/06/13


EVIL should add that to his FAQ.

 

[worldspawn]

the card being optimized for the game is different than the game being optimized for the card.

 

[nickster]

The question I have is how much a performance difference would there be if I was running an ATI card as opposed to a Nvidia?

 

[EVIL]

if there would be aperformance gain then it would be very minimal. you wont gain 50 fps or so.. maby 2% or less

edit: but i think the press release is just made to gain ATI customers, or they just mean that the demo! at the E³ is optomized for the ATI cards just like the 3dmark trick from nVidia that caused them a performance leap in the test's wich makes 3dmark a bad benchmarker

 

[Jagermeister]

Originally posted by worldspawn
the card being optimized for the game is different than the game being optimized for the card.

Who says that the card is being optimized for the game?

 

[EVIL]

worldspawn.. have you visited the ati site? it sais halflife is optemized for the RADEON 9800 series

 

[Jagermeister]

Yup, nickster mis-read this.

 

[Miasma]

That's bullshit. The game isn't optimized for any one card, it's just built on Microsoft DirectX/3D. I wonder if VALVe knows anything about ATi's claims.

 

[worldspawn]

Originally posted by EVIL
worldspawn.. have you visited the ati site? it sais halflife is optemized for the RADEON 9800 series

i didn't visit the site.. just went by the title of the thread.. i bet it's just marketing bullshit, but i don't mind, i'm going to upgrade to ati anyways.

 

[derby]

regardless of any HL2 optimizations (which i doubt will be significant) the ATi card seems to be the best package so far, forgetting raw FPS performance, the ATi cards are smaller, cheaper, quieter ans offer a bettter quality image. and they come in go-faster-red!

more info and tests here:

http://www.ocaddiction.com/articles/video/fx_5900ultra_vs_radeon_9800pro/

 

[$pazmatazz]

Look at it this way: HL2 is optimized for any card that's designed to use all the benefits of DX9. The Radeon 9800 is one of these cards, therefore, it is optimized for HL2.

That's marketing folks.

 

[Bad^Hat]

9800 pro it is ^_^

[EDIT] - is it worth getting the 98pro 256mb card? I should imagine it'd be faster in some way or another.

 

[jhero]

two words: Marketing Scheme It seems to be working!

 

[Xenome]

The card is optimized for halflife2.. that does not mean that halflife2 is optimized for the Ati Radeon 9800 !

 

[djkanuk]

256MB is only useful if you're running really high resolutions. Can't remember exactly why, but that's what the review at Tom's Hardware said. http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030604/index.html

 

[SidewinderX]

When ATi says that it's optimized for Hl2, they jsut mena that HL2 is optimized for running on Dx9 cards, which the 9800 is. nVidia could say the same thing if felt like it.

 

[ShinRa]

incase u guys are interested check out the sticky. i posted a new email from gabe

 

[Spiffae]

Gabe newell responded to an e-mail saying that half life 2 could definetly use the extra 128 of the 256 meg card.

and here i am stuck with the old 9700 pro (never thought i'd be saying that!)

 

[jhero]

WTF, 9700 is an amazing card...

 

[Spiffae]

i know...it's a part of the system i just built.

 

[ShinRa]

well after that spiffae i just changed my 9800 128 mb order to a 9800 256 mb...

ATI OEM SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB DVI/TV 8X AGP OEM
Specifications:
Chipset:ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
Memory:256MB DDR RAM
Bus:AGP 8X
256-bit memory interface
First to fully support DirectX® 9.0 and the latest OpenGL® functionality
New SMARTSHADER 2.1 technology allows users to experience complex, movie-quality effects in next-generation 3D games and applications
128-bit floating-point color precision allows for a greater range of colors and brightness

 

[Calle]

and exactly how much will that thing cost ?

I've only got the 128mb vers but im quite satisfied with it....

 

[ShinRa]

its almost 500.....487

 

[A.A]

What they mean now is that this is what you'll see when you start the game "ATI, get in the game!".
Instead of "Nvidia, the way it is meant to be played!".
Not that's what they could mean with optimisation. And I've see with my own eyes and tested, games that have "Nvidia bla bla bla" run better on Nvidia cards and gets more errors etc with ATI cards.
Now this is when ATI gets a game to brag with, Nvidia has Doom3.

 

[ShinRa]

Wow Nvidia gets Doom3...'nuff said. However, someone tell me if it's worth buying the 256 instead of the 128, I have the money to burn, but is it worth it?

 

[A.A]

256MB of memory is currently useless on cards at this time.
It's all about the numbers.

 

[A.A]

Originally posted by guinny
Wow Nvidia gets Doom3...'nuff said. However, someone tell me if it's worth buying the 256 instead of the 128, I have the money to burn, but is it worth it?

Use your money for a new CPU and/or motherboard, and maybe some RAM. But if you have 512 RAM, you wont need more.

 

[SD1]

Originally posted by A.A
256MB of memory is currently useless on cards at this time.
It's all about the numbers.

Its been said by Gabe HL2 will use the extra memory available on board with the 256mb cards

Same goes for Doom3

Taz

 

[ShinRa]

Yes, I understand but I am getting this:

*REAL CASE (BLACK) 3G READY Tooless ATX Mid Tower Case with 400watt Power Supply
*Samsung SW-252BENB 52x24x52 Black CDRW Bulk
*Samsung 16X DVD Drive (BLACK)
*WESTERN DIGITAL "SPECIAL EDITION" 80GB 7200RPM EIDE HARD DRIVE
*CORSAIR 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400
*Intel Pentium 4 (800 FSB) Micro ATX Motherboard
*Intel Pentium 4 / 3.0CGHz 512k socket 478 Hyper Threading Technology 800 MHz FSB Processor
*Turtle Beach Voyetra Santa Cruz 6-Speaker DSP Audio Accelerator Sound Card
*ATI SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB DVI/TV 8X AGP

So basically, I don't need to put the money towards another processor or mobo. That's why I'm asking if the 256mb is really worth it.

 

[howser]

the game will really shine on any of the latest but that ATI card it will just be that extra bit shiny as ATI have built the card with extra shader support and all this other crazy shit, its a high quality card anyway. Im going to drop my G-force 4 for it before I get HL2.

 

[A.A]

Originally posted by guinny
Yes, I understand but I am getting this:

*REAL CASE (BLACK) 3G READY Tooless ATX Mid Tower Case with 400watt Power Supply
*Samsung SW-252BENB 52x24x52 Black CDRW Bulk
*Samsung 16X DVD Drive (BLACK)
*WESTERN DIGITAL "SPECIAL EDITION" 80GB 7200RPM EIDE HARD DRIVE
*CORSAIR 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400
*Intel Pentium 4 (800 FSB) Micro ATX Motherboard
*Intel Pentium 4 / 3.0CGHz 512k socket 478 Hyper Threading Technology 800 MHz FSB Processor
*Turtle Beach Voyetra Santa Cruz 6-Speaker DSP Audio Accelerator Sound Card
*ATI SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO 256MB DVI/TV 8X AGP

So basically, I don't need to put the money towards another processor or mobo. That's why I'm asking if the 256mb is really worth it.

Watercooling, man, watercooling! :bounce:

 

[ShinRa]

I've only got 2 fans coming to cool all that off. It should suffice right? I'm not getting water cooling so forget it.

 

[A.A]

Originally posted by guinny
I've only got 2 fans coming to cool all that off. It should suffice right? I'm not getting water cooling so forget it.

I hope they'r silent? Yes, it's enough.

 

[ShinRa]

I hope they're silent too lol. Positive 2 fans will keep it cool?

 

[A.A]

Originally posted by guinny
I hope they're silent too lol. Positive 2 fans will keep it cool?

Yes.
Are they 80mm or 120mm?

 

[$niper]

You do not need the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb card. Do not buy it. You will be a fool if you do so, if you opt for that card over the 128mb version. In conclusive benchmarking, Doom3 has shown to NOT use the extra ram.

It's marketing PR. Bullshit.

Consult this to affirm why the 128mb card is just as good (if not better) than the 256mb version:

"The benchmark results of the new Radeon 9800 Pro with 256 MB are sobering when compared to those of the 128-MB variant."
http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030604/radeon_9800-06.html


Well, it's good if you want to turn your PC Case into an oven.

 

[Pr()ZaC]

If the guy wants to buy the top of the line (right now represented by the 256MB R9800 PRO), let him do it.
It's a damn fine card and the 256MB, albeit not necessary right now, are certainly a good feature for the future.