SoftQuadro4 vs SoftGL in Maya 4.5

Discussion in 'RivaTuner Advanced Discussion forum' started by augie, Mar 28, 2003.

  1. skelter

    skelter Guest

    Performances of GF are almost the same as Quadros in Maya in benchmarks.
    the big differences are the support of some usefull pro features that benchs really don't take advantage.
     
  2. Flax

    Flax Member

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    Hi mattu,

    What driver are you using?
    My Softfiregl X1 is faster than the real Quadro 900 XGL in the next desk! Even with a slower system(Athlon 1700+ against xeon 2200).
    And I play DX9 games @1280~1600 with antialiasing and anisotropic filtering!
     
  3. Samiam

    Samiam Member Guru

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    from what I've seen at least until recently the ATI cards weren't doing so great on GL benchmarks.

    Maybe the drivers are improved now and someone will officially benchmark them and post the results instead of just making vague claims.

    Also, if someone has proof of HW overlays not being accelerted in SQ4 then please post the facts here. That could be an offical statement, an unwinder remark, etc. I'm sure everybody would like to know. Otherwise, it's just conjecture in the usual forum he said she said, my computer, my card... blah blah blah.

    Thanks
     
  4. Flax

    Flax Member

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    Take a look here:

    http://www.spec.org/gpc/opc.data/vp7/summary.html
     

  5. Samiam

    Samiam Member Guru

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    nice. Thanks for the link!

    Looks like the FireGL has a slight lead. This certainly makes sense going on the hardware specs and it's game performance, guess they got the drivers sorted out.

    Anyone have a link on image quality for the ATI cards?

    Back to the question in thread topic: IMHO either card are still good choices.

    After 10 yrs of 3D experience I say don't get too caught up on hype, in the end if you're using it for Maya it's about the artist not slight variations in numbers.

    At the time I got my card (GF4 4200 overclocked above 4600) a high quality GF4 4200 was a way better value than an ATI by about $100+ and the ATI drivers sucked. Also, I'm familiar and confident in Nvidia so unless there is something compelling I'd stick with a brand that's always worked for me.

    Again, since new ATI drivers (assuming they're stable and good image quality) either seem good to me. The only things that are compelling for decision IMO are in decending order: differences in image quality, major differences in features, vast difference in performance (which there isn't) and lastly price.

    If I bought a new card today, I think it would be a toss up. I could go either way but a slight performance increase in terms of real end user productivity isn't much. OTOH driver stability and reliability is a big deal IMO.

    I know SQ4 doesn't do full AA lines acceleration without the script. Realistically not a big deal to me as I prefer non-AA image quality for precision anyway. AA lines are too fuzzy to work with in dense meshes IMO. 2-sided lighting is a bit of a drag, but not really as I usually run with that off too, which is always faster regardless, unless I'm running low poly stuff (which might have 2S surfaces for economy, in which case it doesn't matter. Lastly, overlays are somewhat important, but again to be honest I really don't use overlay intensive things that much.

    Does anyone have any FACTS oin HW overlays as opposed to rumor and conjecture?

    Thanks.
     
  6. mongoled

    mongoled Guest

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    Ok I have some results from my system if anyone is interested. My specs are in my sig.

    Here are my results from specviewperf 7.0

    Run All Summary

    ---------- SUM_RESULTS\3DSMAX\SUMMARY.TXT
    3dsmax-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 16.69

    ---------- SUM_RESULTS\DRV\SUMMARY.TXT
    drv-08 Weighted Geometric Mean = 89.53

    ---------- SUM_RESULTS\DX\SUMMARY.TXT
    dx-07 Weighted Geometric Mean = 129.0

    ---------- SUM_RESULTS\LIGHT\SUMMARY.TXT
    light-05 Weighted Geometric Mean = 25.90

    ---------- SUM_RESULTS\PROE\SUMMARY.TXT
    proe-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 21.67

    ---------- SUM_RESULTS\UGS\SUMMARY.TXT
    ugs-01 Weighted Geometric Mean = 27.81

    I only really use max so I cant comment on maya, but max works great. Something else I think I must say is that the driver support for the fireGl driver is improving immensely. Each new driver is bringing significant performance boosts and they are still some way from attaining the performance the hardware CAN attain. So im holding on for newer drivers which hopefully Unwinder (thanxs 4 the great work dude) can 'fix' for us.

    Im very happy with my card, It is originally a Saphire 9500 bought for £142. I have it running as a 9700Pro using 9800 driver path on my games OS and as a FireGl X1 on my workstation OS.

    I must say I am one happy bunny!!

    :D

    Anyway I hope this info may help anybody looking into upgrading.

    L8rs dudes.
     
  7. Flax

    Flax Member

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    Wow! Very good results, mongoled!
    I'm very happy with my card too, and hope Unwinder go on with softfiregl!
     
  8. augie

    augie Active Member

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    Are you overclocking the core/ram that much to get up to pro speeds? If so, wow, that's sweet.

    Augie
     
  9. Samiam

    Samiam Member Guru

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    thanks for posting the bench results. They seem really high, almost as high as the official Spec results of a 3Ghz FireGL system. What is a XP2200 equivilent to on a P4?
     
  10. mongoled

    mongoled Guest

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    thanxs guys,

    here are some comparissons I have done for you using sisoft against P4 systems.

    [​IMG]

    Hope that helps u see the performance this overclocked xp1700 gives me.

    :p

    L8rs
     

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