C&C games never change....

[Phreakly 0]

Like NVIDIA, ATI don't make the cards, they just make the chips (the GPUs). Its the companies, in this case Sapphire, that buy these chips from NVIDIA and ATI and make their own video cards.

 

You're wrong ATi does build their own boards, which are generally more expensive and better engineered but work best at the intended ranges, and shouldn't be used when you want to overclock the card and make it faster.

 

nVidia on the other hand only build chips and don't worry about it, which is usually why they're cheaper, which makes them more prevalent despite currently being the weaker product.

[Thierry 0]

Ditto on that.

Well, in any case, I'm just glad that I can play Generals perfectly.

[Sonic 296]

You're wrong ATi does build their own boards

Well then, I stand corrected

[Thierry 0]

OK, so what is it now?

Dooes Sapphire get the board from ATI and change them a bit to Sapphire or something?

Is Sapphire is bit good at that? :?

[Phreakly 0]

Sapphire and other card makers buy chips and build their own cards, just like what nVidia does.

[Thierry 0]

Aha.

Thought so

Is Sapphire compared to Hercules and Asus etc a bit and the good side :?

[Rogue Leader 0]

Sapphire makes a good product for ATi, although as Phreakly mentioned ATi's own board has slightly better performance.

 

As for Nvidia builders, Asus is considered to be one of the best although they cost usually $10-20 more than the competition. Gainward has taken some good steps with the Golden Sample line of cards, although they too are more expensive than the competition.

[Thierry 0]

That good for me.

I wonder what comes after the 9800 Pro/XT?

9900?

10000?!!

[Phreakly 0]

The 10k won't come out untill DX10 does

[Thierry 0]

DX 10? Thats Direct X 10, right?

When do you think that will show up?

[Gazdude 0]

Should'nt be that far away surely....

[Shocker 0]

I'm betting that we won't be seeing DX10 for quite some time - years.

[Gazdude 0]

Why's that then? DX9 has been out for a while.... :?

[Thierry 0]

Yeah, there is already a Direct 9Xb out.

Couldn't take that long then...

[Phreakly 0]

Microsoft has another priority: a proper 64-bit OS. First they'll convert XP, and then they'll make something proper(at least most people hope they will), then they can focus on making DX10 to mesh with the new OS.

[Thierry 0]

Yeah, but are the any good (affordable) motherboards out there that use 64bit?

[Shocker 0]

Yes, there are plenty of cheap motherboards that support AMD64 processors.

 

Regarding DirectX 10:

 

DX10 (also known as DirectX Next) is slated to ship with the next-generation Windows OS, codenamed Longhorn. Current projections for Longhorn estimate a release date in mid-2006.

 

Besides, DirectX 9 is still largely untapped. There is plenty of tech in DX9 that developers haven't used yet - like version 3.0 shaders.

[Thierry 0]

Yeah, I've heard about longhorn. Well, I geuss that means that my 9800 Pro won't be old anytime soon. :lol:

[Koen 2]

Perhaps the X-Box 2 will have DX10 - with the new XNA and all.

[Thierry 0]

Well, if it does, I geuss we will find out soon enough.

I'm just wonder what games are going to need it 8)

[Rogue Leader 0]

DirectX 8.1 is still a powerful force. My Geforce 4 Ti4600 still plays new games at 1024x768 at high detail. Granted, HL2 and Doom 3 would rape my card, but I've had it for two and a half years and until recently was still considered high-end.

[Sonic 296]

I'm running FarCry at 1024x768 (medium settings) on my GeForce4 Ti4200. This leads me to think that Half-Life 2 will be ok with some of the advanced options turned off.