Pipelines - How important for AH2?

[Kev367th]

Owned both ATI and nVidia can't really say there's a lot to choose between them performance wise.
Last 4 cards -
Ti4600
9800SE softmodded to 9800pro
6800GT
7800GS

Only thing I consider better are the nVidia drivers (just my opinion), and they are more frequent with their updates.
Saying that ATI has come a long long way from their way back in the past dismal drivers.

For me now it comes to whats the best for the money I want to spend and will cause the least hassle.
Until I move to the new AMD socket (M2) later this year there was no ponit buying a new SLI mobo and card.
When I do change I will see which SLI video card is the best for the money and get it, be it ATI or nVidia.

[acetnt367th]

How are you Kev. It's been a long time since I've got time to log on.

Have a quick question. I have a 9800pro and was wondering what difference would I expect if I upgraded to a 7800GS (I have an AGP board). Will it be worth the upgrade?


Cheers

Acetnt

P.S. I have an A8V MB and and Athlon 64 3400+ cpu 939

[38ruk]

I would think that a 9800pro to a 7800GS is a good jump , you should have noticibly  better fps , and the ability to use more antialiasing . I *think* this will be the last high end card from nvidia ,  they said they werent going to produce any 7 series agp and they did lol. If you have an AGP board with a decent cpu , i would grab one because it could possibly be the best your going to get .     38

[Krusty]

Is there some webpage out there that has a progression of the chips along a timeline? So that one can look at it and say "Hrm... an x800 came after a 9800" or "Hrm... the Ge6800 Ultra came after the 6800 but before the 6800GT" or anything like that?

I get confused with all the different names Nvidia and ATI use. I wish they'd just start at 1 and count upwards, instead of adding all these other letters and such.

[Kev367th]

Hi Acetnt, yup you'll see a difference.

[Casper1]

Krusty - search around http://www.tomshardware.com ->  I think i have seen somethign like that on that site before.

[StarOfAfrica2]

If you look in their video card roundup charts, the chipsets are usually in order of progression, even if the names of the cards arent always.

[Nemeth]

Originally posted by OOZ662
The below computer runs full sliders/full vis range, 512 textures at 30-70 FPS.

Note that it's a regular 6800; the apparently "inferior" one. Running Omega drivers. Also note that AH is more CPU dependant than video card dependant.

I have a AMD 2100 (1.66 gig)
1 meg of ram (400 mhz)
GfX Nvidia 5200
and i get 30 - 70 FPS in AH2 while having the Res. on 1280 x 1024 and 1024 textures w/ hi-res textures all the In-game grafics
levle of detail 75%
Desplayed Objects 100%
Ground detail 100% (or 3k)
only time i have 2 change my levle of detail is when there r 4 or more fires within 3k of me or if there is nothing but trees and im 1-2k above the ground

so i would say any of those vid cards will do u just fine 4 AH2 but myself i would get the highest profroming vid card out of the three Nvidia cards

[Kev367th]

Originally posted by 38ruk
I would think that a 9800pro to a 7800GS is a good jump , you should have noticibly  better fps , and the ability to use more antialiasing . I *think* this will be the last high end card from nvidia ,  they said they werent going to produce any 7 series agp and they did lol. If you have an AGP board with a decent cpu , i would grab one because it could possibly be the best your going to get .     38

Yup the 7800GS is likely to be the last AGP card made by nVidia, but who knows.
They said they wouldn't make a 7800 for AGP, but they did.
I think they underestimated the amount of AGP systems still out there, so if the 7800GS sells well you never know, we may see an AGP 7900 sometime.

[Bronk]

Originally posted by Nemeth
I have a AMD 2100 (1.66 gig)
1 meg of ram (400 mhz)
GfX Nvidia 5200
and i get 30 - 70 FPS in AH2 while having the Res. on 1280 x 1024 and 1024 textures w/ hi-res textures all the In-game grafics
levle of detail 75%
Desplayed Objects 100%
Ground detail 100% (or 3k)
only time i have 2 change my levle of detail is when there r 4 or more fires within 3k of me or if there is nothing but trees and im 1-2k above the ground

so i would say any of those vid cards will do u just fine 4 AH2 but myself i would get the highest profroming vid card out of the three Nvidia cards

Go take a flight in the AvA arena and fly low over lenningrad then post your results.




Bronk

[Kev367th]

Just tried flying over Leningrad, I'm down to the low 40's!!!!!

Current settings -
1280x1024x32
Ground vis range - max
Detail sliders - All way to left (max)
Texture size - 1024
Displayed objects - 100%

In nVidia profiles
4xAA
Vsynch - on

When does nVidias new 300 pipeline, 50 vertex shaders, 9900000ultra come out lol.

[StarOfAfrica2]

I run mine in 1024x768.  I've been using that desktop resolution for years, its the one I'm most comfortable with.  I dont see the point in pushing the card harder (for me) just to cram a few more pixels in.  However, I did kinda want to push my new setup a little harder than usual and see how high I could get things, for curiousity sake.  In the MA I was running 1024 (high res textures), all the ingame sliders at full, 4xAA and 4xAF (mainly because I could never run AF before, wanted to see if it worked lol) and Vsync on.  I'd be in the mid 40s to low 50s sitting on the runway of just about any airfield I tried.  By the time I hit 5k I was maxxed out at 85 fps.  Furballs I'd be in the mid 60s until I got below 5k, then it would drop into the 40s.  Considering how high I was running my settings, I could live with that.  Visually it was incredible compared to the old settings I was running.

On the new AvA map, same settings, I was in the single digits sitting on the runway lol.  To keep the frame rates livable even in a furball on the deck, I had to drop the ingame sliders to about 75-80%, drop to 512 on the texture size, and turn my AA and AF to application preference.  I also had to turn on the optimizations for filtering and mip mapping.  With that done, I havent gotten the frame rates below 34 fps on that map.  I think my old setup would have just surrendered.  

System all at stock speeds and timings, no overclocks.

Sempron 64 2800+ @ 1.6 Ghz
Biostar Tforce 6100 motherboard (socket 754)
1GB Corsair PC3200 RAM
Geforce 6800GT 256MB

People on the AMD forums are overclocking this CPU up to 2.4 Ghz on this motherboard.  If I chose to do so, I could probably squeeze more out of it, but I'm enjoying CPU temps down in the low 30s lol.  Performance is acceptable, why push it?  I also noticed my card is running bone stock at 6800 Ultra speeds (and is detected as such by Windows).  I could probably push that too, but I'm having some cooling issues already and need to stabilize that.  I dont want to ruin a new card for a few extra mhz of speed.

[Kev367th]

From speaking to Skuzzy -

No point using AF, game doesn't support it.

1280x1024 is the games sweet spot, it is what it is designed for. Doesn't mean you should or can run at that res and get decent fps.

I will prob go back to 1024x768 just because things look too small at 1280x1024.

[Nemeth]

Originally posted by Bronk
Go take a flight in the AvA arena and fly low over lenningrad then post your results.




Bronk

just tell me where 2 DL it and i will, cuz i dont play ma (after converting its $25 a month way 2 much 4 me) and i havnt seen any1 host it in H2H

[Bronk]

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171177

Link for the map is in this thread.




Bronk