Quote:Original post by zedzeek
keep in mind nv4x ie gf6xxx are more advanced than ati x700 + x800 cards
for playing games this aint important but since this is a game development site u might wanna keep this in mind

This is true in the PS2.0 vs ps3.0 range. I am curious though if the ps3.0 stuff for the gf6xxx is sufficiently fast to actually use? I know when they released the 5200, their ps2.0 stuff was seriously hampered!

Quote:Original post by Steven Hansen
This is true in the PS2.0 vs ps3.0 range. I am curious though if the ps3.0 stuff for the gf6xxx is sufficiently fast to actually use? I know when they released the 5200, their ps2.0 stuff was seriously hampered!

Well, of course some features of sm3.0 are practically useless. (Like the higher instruction limits. If you hit those instruction counts, you're in big trouble no matter what)
But others have no performance penalties, or are even more efficient ways to do the same things.
(Dynamic branching can be used to merge shaders, so one SM3.0 shader can replace several 2.0 ones, meaning fewer API calls to load new shaders)
Or geometry instancing, allowing you to batch a bunch of render calls, again speeding things up.

Quote:
This is up for serious debate. Better to say, "I've used X, and it's worked well for me, but lots of people have nice things to say about Y as well."

Not always. That only works if people have said nice things about Y, and those nice things are relevant. And considering the OP wanted a card capable of "new shaders and effects like HDR", I'd say that something SM3.0-capable is a must. Which means X700 or X800 is out.