I was right after all.

[Dracas]

Remember that thread I posted about hassling nVidia for some real Software Enabled Hidden Surface removal and how you folks said that "Occlusion Culling" was *exactly* the same thing?

I was right, you were wrong.

Download Aida, if you have a GeF4 Ti based GPU graphics card and run it, the following things you will find are not supported by the graphics card:

cubic filtering...[not supported]
Directional Lights...[not supported]*
DX Volumetric Compression...[not supported]
Geometric Hidden Surface Removal...[not supported]**
N-Patches...[not supported]*
Point Lights...[not supported]*
Quintic Bezier Curves and B-Splines...[not supported]*
Rectangular and Triangular patches...[not supported]*
Specular Phong Shading...[not supported]*
Spot Lights...[not supported]*
Triangle Culling...[not supported]**

Anything with a (*) suggests a feature that may or may not be enabled as a feature flag through a GeForce -> Quadro Mod, or a full out GeF4 based Quadro.

Anything with a (**) are features that are used for hidden surface removal and occlusion culling.

I imagine the Occlusion Culling technology that nVidia is using must take an awful big hit since its not culling triangles :P

And for that matter, Geometric HSR is the big one folks, looks like we got short changed by nVidia afterall.

I also found out that the GeF4 BIOS' has DDC Monitor detection turned off by default (unchangably) within the BIOS. This is a big crumb to me, because if you use a DDC capable monitor, you're not getting to use the function at all, as a matter of fact, if you paid for the DDC with your monitor (high quality monitors) then use it on a GeForce 4, then you're not even using the DDC feature, its going to waste.

If you're interested, I can take a backed-up bios and enable the DDC Monitor detection for you, email dracas@hotmail.com and send a copy of your video BIOS if you can.

If you want to do it yourself, just go to http://www.x-bios.3dgames.ru/ and get the NVBios Editor.

So thats two or three points we got screwed on by nVidia.

Forgive me for saying this, but I'm not really looking forward to the NV30, I think I may go ATi after this, unless nVidia gets off their tookus and get up to snuff with their technology.

[NDD]

I wouldn't start bashing nVIDIA for something one program (good, though), doesn't report.

Another thing - it might be another name for ATI R9700's Hyper-Z 3 or whatever number it is now. R9700 supports it because it's newer and more advanced, no questions here. Or GF3/4Ti support it in some other way (look Pixel Shader v1.4 story for reference ...)

Someone with R9700/R9500 to prove my theory ? ;)

[Plaster]

Yawn.

How did nvidia screw you or anyone else? I never saw them advertise any of their cards as TBR or HSR. If they did, please send me the press release.

[Dracas]

To be honest, it wasn't a bash. It was an extension of a previous thread about rallying for true Geometric HSR.

ND: It is a good program, but not the only one I've seen pull up short in reporting stock HSR. The discussion in question was how Hyper-z, Occlusion Culling, and other methods of culling weren't exactly Geometric HSR, nor had the overall performance characteristics of true HSR.

Plaster:

As it were, we were sort of ripped, considering this company bought up 3dfx assets after they warped them out of business, one might think that they would have employed a refined version of the technology.

Kudoz, to the GeForce line all the same, their excellent tweaker cards, just not well thought out. Then again, little will ever match some of the technological know-how that went into 3Dfx cards and even some of the newer ATi videocards. One can hope they wise up some with the release of the NV30, however, the fact they had to launch a new proprietary 3d developement language (Cg) only shows that they're trying to dominate the market in a similar fashion as Microsoft has the Operating Systems Software market.

I'm not really the 'bashing' type, however, I'd like to know the equipment going into my computer wasn't simply an 'afterthought' by a company wagering more on their name then any real technological breakthrough, it sort of takes the meaning out of buying new hardware. Call me Nostalgic, but I liked the days when you could buy one motherboard and had the choice of AMD, Intel, Cyrix, or IDT processors, any videocard you could dream of, and a unified will to advance technology, rather then just banter about more MHZ and Higher FPS.

True advancement requires the utilization of new and sometimes even eccentric technologies, but teaching an old dog new tricks has never won out in the long run, this is exactly what nVidia has done. Same idea and architecture, smaller process, new features, more transistors. Hot Hot HOTTER! Intels doing the same thing,

So in this case, as far as innovation and applied technologies go, I think I'll stick to ATi, Matrox, SiS, AMD, Via, Transmeta and Other innovation companies in the future. I'd like to know I'm not just wasting my money on a space heater instead of a computer.