ATI Graphic Chip in GameCube is VERY POWERFULL Indeed!

[Cannibal Corpse]

...Just play Starfox Adventures, and you will see VERY GOOD utilization of DOT Bump Mapping, Cube Bump Mapping (The reflection of water on walls) and FurrShading (nVIDIA's term I guess) meaning you can see the furrs on Fox and Mammoth.

Very impressive indeed. If it could only decode Dolby Digital 5.1 audio bitstreams...


I have ALL three consoles, XBox, PS2 and GameCube, and graphic wise, PS2 is showing its age. (it's even weak in sound department as well)

Oh, well just a rant!

[SPARTAN VI]

Yeah its a good card, but doesn't match up to the XBOX's "enhanced" GeForce 3 (which I just call a GeForce 4 because the GeForce 4 IS only an ehanced GeForce 3). Too bad ATI didn't make the card for the XBOX, the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro is smearing Nvidia all over the place...

[Cannibal Corpse]

Actually the Xbox's graphic chip is a "hybrid" between GeForce3 and GeForce4 (since it has TWO Pixel Shaders). And wait till nVIDIA releases NV30 (code name for their next big thing)...It will knock every competition's socks off.

[SPARTAN VI]

Thanks for the info! It kinda dissapointed me when Id software turned down an overclocked GeForce 4 Ti 4600, (I think, watever, the best one that is out! yea..) nitrogen cooled and everything for an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. For a minute, I was reminded of the slow, cruel death of the 3DFX Voodoo cards... Nvidia better shape it up with that...N30 thinga-ma-jig!

[Cannibal Corpse]

Well ATI paid them to do so

Kidding aside, we all know that nVIDA is going to release THE card for DOOM III, when its released next year, so id had to give a decent chance to ATI.

Besides, competition is good, that is what made nVIDIA what they are today.

[datalink7]

Originally posted by Cannibal Corpse
Actually the Xbox's graphic chip is a "hybrid" between GeForce3 and GeForce4 (since it has TWO Pixel Shaders). And wait till nVIDIA releases NV30 (code name for their next big thing)...It will knock every competition's socks off.

The thing is, nvidia messed up. They shouldn't have waited to put the NV30 on the .13 dieset. If they hadn't done this, it would be coming out for the holidays.

Now they have missed a product cycle, and by the time the NV30 comes out (which WILL be 25-50% faster than the Radeon 97000 pro), ATI will be well into their next chipset development.

But, as you stated in your next post, competition is good. I figure it is about time nvida plays catch up for a while while ATI reigns king

[MerimacHamwich]

ATI's new card coming out might be better than the new Nvidia. I actually expect it to be.

[LynxFX]

For one thing, the graphics chip in the Gamecube is from ArtX not ATI. ATI just happened to purchase them before the cube went out the door and they attatched their name to it. The chip in the gamecube is more on par with a GeForce2 GTS and Radeon DDR running similar instructions to DX7 whereas the Xbox gpu is more on par with GF4 running DX8 with a few extra goodies attatched.

Still blows the PS2 away.

I'm glad nVidia is sticking to their guns and putting out the NV30 on a .13 die. They could have easily made their next product cycle by keeping it on a .15 die but the card would haven't been much of a leap as they are hoping for. So what if they miss their aggressive 6 month product cycle. Just know that when the card comes out that it will be the best it can be and with near airtight drivers. ATI has never kept up with their product cycle. When they try to, they end up releasing cards with unfinished drivers that end up crashing or have poor support. They are still good competition though, and if they can ever get a decent driver team will be a serious contender for the top crown. Spending an extra $150 on a card that gets a few more fps and whose best selling points are for features that support software that doesn't even exist (DX9) is pointless. Heck, Nvidia recently released new detonator drivers that boosted the performance of GF4 cards to close the gap even further on the 9700 pro. You can get one of those cards for half the cost.

Now the lowend and budget cards, ATI is king. The 9000 and 9000 pro wipe the floor against the GF4 MX series. Not only in price but in performance and features. Their All In Wonder cards are typically grade A as well.

Don't fear that Nvidia or ATI for that matter will go the route of 3dfx anytime soon.

[carlbme]

Originally posted by Lynxfx
For one thing, the graphics chip in the Gamecube is from ArtX not ATI. ATI just happened to purchase them before the cube went out the door and they attatched their name to it. The chip in the gamecube is more on par with a GeForce2 GTS and Radeon DDR running similar instructions to DX7 whereas the Xbox gpu is more on par with GF4 running DX8 with a few extra goodies attatched.

Still blows the PS2 away.

I'm glad nVidia is sticking to their guns and putting out the NV30 on a .13 die. They could have easily made their next product cycle by keeping it on a .15 die but the card would haven't been much of a leap as they are hoping for. So what if they miss their aggressive 6 month product cycle. Just know that when the card comes out that it will be the best it can be and with near airtight drivers. ATI has never kept up with their product cycle. When they try to, they end up releasing cards with unfinished drivers that end up crashing or have poor support. They are still good competition though, and if they can ever get a decent driver team will be a serious contender for the top crown. Spending an extra $150 on a card that gets a few more fps and whose best selling points are for features that support software that doesn't even exist (DX9) is pointless. Heck, Nvidia recently released new detonator drivers that boosted the performance of GF4 cards to close the gap even further on the 9700 pro. You can get one of those cards for half the cost.

Now the lowend and budget cards, ATI is king. The 9000 and 9000 pro wipe the floor against the GF4 MX series. Not only in price but in performance and features. Their All In Wonder cards are typically grade A as well.

Don't fear that Nvidia or ATI for that matter will go the route of 3dfx anytime soon.

Actually ATi is now coming out with the 9500 series. The current benchmarks are showing it to be just above the GF4-Ti 4600 in performance. Oh, and the fact that Best Buy will have them on the shelf for $219 compared to the Ti 4600 which goes for $300.

BTW: You can find the 9700 Pro for about $310 online. Oh yea, that $310 is after shipping too

[xboxaddict1226]

Only bad thing about ATI is that all their drivers suck big time if they fix that i may be a new customer for them but right now im with Nvidia

[LynxFX]

Originally posted by carlbme
Actually ATi is now coming out with the 9500 series. The current benchmarks are showing it to be just above the GF4-Ti 4600 in performance. Oh, and the fact that Best Buy will have them on the shelf for $219 compared to the Ti 4600 which goes for $300.

BTW: You can find the 9700 Pro for about $310 online. Oh yea, that $310 is after shipping too

Grabbing figures from all over the place doesn't make much sense or valid so I'll make it simple.

Pricewatch:
GF4 ti 4600: $212 free shipping
Radeon 9700 pro: $311 free shipping

No valid pricing on the 9500 pro yet but benchmarks show it below the TI4600 and TI4400 not above. Source dated October 24th

The 9700 pro is still the performance leader but at what cost? You can easily get by on a cheaper card until a game or program comes out that utilizes the power and features and then purchase that card for much less. Let alone you still have incompatibilities with drivers and hardware present with the latest ATI offerings.

[carlbme]

Originally posted by Lynxfx

Grabbing figures from all over the place doesn't make much sense or valid so I'll make it simple.

Pricewatch:
GF4 ti 4600: $212 free shipping
Radeon 9700 pro: $311 free shipping

No valid pricing on the 9500 pro yet but benchmarks show it below the TI4600 and TI4400 not above. Source dated October 24th

The 9700 pro is still the performance leader but at what cost? You can easily get by on a cheaper card until a game or program comes out that utilizes the power and features and then purchase that card for much less. Let alone you still have incompatibilities with drivers and hardware present with the latest ATI offerings.

The figures grabbing from all over the place was only to show that you could have a top of the line card for close to retail of what Nvidia had for theirs. Granted online both are cheaper, I was not trying to state that the 9700 Pro could be had for the same price, just a lower price. I appologize for not making that clear with the comparisons I did.

As far as your source, I normally find that site very reliable, and normally the place where I gather my information is near the same. However I'm not sure of the exact settings either one used, but read the following article anyway.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mzc0

And over all, ATi's driver program has came a long ways, and is currently pretty stable and performs rather well.

[hook-worm J]

I wouldn't touch ATI's drivers with a stick.........