If you're looking for good performance in Direct X 10 games...

[quadomatic]

Don't buy a GeForce 8 Series card.

Wait for the GeForce 9 series to come out. GeForce 8 series is the FIRST generation of Direct X 10 cards. You're not going to get optimal Direct X 10 performance till the next generation of Direct X 10 cards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_9

It could be coming out as early as November. Blockbuster titles like Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis don't even come out till November. So, hold onto your money, and buy a GeForce 9 card later.

The way I see this, Is I'm comparing the GeForce 8 series to the GeForce 5 series. The GeForce 5 series, the first generation of Shader Model 2 cards from Nvidia, didn't have that great Shader Model 2 support. However, in just a while after, the GeForce 6 series came out, which were the 2nd generation of Shader Model 2 cards. They had much better performance.

I'm guessing that the GeForce 8 and 9 series are following the same path.

Here are the specs for 9800 GTX according to this:
http://www.anzacclan.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=71&t=2661

"G92" GeForce 9800 GTX specs.

- 65nm process technology at TSMC.
- Over one billion transistors.
- Second Generation Unified Shader Architecture.
- Double precsion support (FP64).
- GPGPU native.
- Over one TeraFLOPS of shader processing power.
- MADD+ADD configuration for the shader untis (2+1 FLOPS=3 FLOPS per ALU)
- Fully Scalar design.
- 512-bit memory interface.
- 1024MB GDDR4 graphics memory.
- DirectX 10.1 support.
- OpenGL 3.0 Support.
- eDRAM die for "FREE 4xAA".
- built in Audio Chip.
- built in tesselation unit (in the graphics core"
- Improved AA and AF quality levels

Release date : November 2007. There will be TWO products at launch: The flagship GeForce 9800 GTX and the second fastest GeForce 9800 GTS.

price for the GeForce 9800 GTX will be 549-649 USD.

price for the GeForce 9800 GTS will be 399-449 USD

I'll probably look into a 9800 GT. I'm hoping it'll be close to $300 with 768MB of memory.

[KingHanco]

I'm thinking about holding off on a new computer until next year.

GeForce 9 cards sound like a good promise to me.

[j.miller565]

That sounds awesome. Looking forwad to when it comes out

[Brynster]

having already bought an 8 series card, all i can say is your missing out.


As for UT3 not being good when it comes out, It doesn't run in DX10 it uses OpenGL so reformance will not be effected by its "lack of DX10 Support"

Pleas make sure your 100% certian of your facts

[aidanr]

Heh, sorry to break it to you but you won't be getting any DirectX 10 performance on ubuntu ;)

[hikaricore]

Heh, sorry to break it to you but you won't be getting any DirectX 10 performance on ubuntu ;)

I was so holding back from saying this for hours now. :lolflag:

[cogadh]

At least until Wine gets its DX10 implementation completed:
http://www.winehq.org/site/status_directx

[Tux0r]

Don't buy a GeForce 8 Series card.

Wait for the GeForce 9 series to come out. GeForce 8 series is the FIRST generation of Direct X 10 cards. You're not going to get optimal Direct X 10 performance till the next generation of Direct X 10 cards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_9

It could be coming out as early as November. Blockbuster titles like Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis don't even come out till November. So, hold onto your money, and buy a GeForce 9 card later.

The way I see this, Is I'm comparing the GeForce 8 series to the GeForce 5 series. The GeForce 5 series, the first generation of Shader Model 2 cards from Nvidia, didn't have that great Shader Model 2 support. However, in just a while after, the GeForce 6 series came out, which were the 2nd generation of Shader Model 2 cards. They had much better performance.

I'm guessing that the GeForce 8 and 9 series are following the same path.

Here are the specs for 9800 GTX according to this:
http://www.anzacclan.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=71&t=2661



I'll probably look into a 9800 GT. I'm hoping it'll be close to $300 with 768MB of memory.
Lol that's way < the price

[bastiegast]

At least until Wine gets its DX10 implementation completed:
http://www.winehq.org/site/status_directx

I thought they already started on DX10, it still says 0% completed. Where the hell did wine weekly news go? :p I Enjoyed reading it.

[cogadh]

They have started, it just hasn't gotten beyond the initial stages yet (i.e. project planning). I don't think any actual coding has been included in the Wine updates. I'd love to know what happened to the newletter myself, we are way over due for some new news.

[po0f]

Interesting read here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia#Shortcomings_of_the_FX_series). Basically, the FX series' failings were due to Microsoft's greediness.

[cogadh]

Hmmm, that was a very interesting read. Really explains a lot about the performance I used to get with my old GeForce FX card.

[Steveway]

The Geforce FX series cards actually have a pretty good OpenGL-prefomance.
I have a GeforceFX Go 5200 here in my Laptop and I can run most games with pretty high settings.
And I'm not gonna buy a new Laptop in this or the next year.
My next technical purchase will be a Gp2x, those Linux-powered Handhelds. (I can't wait to play my Snes and Genesis games mobile. :) )

[quadomatic]

Heh, sorry to break it to you but you won't be getting any DirectX 10 performance on ubuntu ;)

I figured that was pretty obvious...I was referring to anyone dual booting Windows and playing games in DX 10.

Whoops, I guess I didn't see that this board said its only for gaming in Linux...lol

My position still stands. It has OpenGL 3.0 support too. I'm sure that would work much better too than on GeForce 8 Series cards.

BTW: I really want a GP2X too :D

[hikaricore]

My position still stands. It has OpenGL 3.0 support too. I'm sure that would work much better too than on GeForce 8 Series cards.

Actually if I'm not mistaken OpenGL 2.0 hardware is going to be compatible with OpenGL 3.0.
3.0 is just going to be mostly a software update in the drivers, and there won't be hardware that actually is labeled to support 3.0 for close to a year, let alone titles that support it.

If I can find my source on this I'll post it, otherwise you'll have to look it up yourself.

[jacob01]

the thing is is that why does it matter if you get good dx 10 performance out of a dx10 card when quake wars doesn't even use dx it uses open gl and it is native to linux so it cant use dx. unless you are playing non native game through wine then the dx might be an issue

[bashveank]

Just a tip: you may be able to get a very good price on the 9800 if you buy from eVGA by using the 90 day step up program; just buy an 8800 from newegg or someplace similar for a price lower than retail, and use step-up to pay the difference between the 8800s retail price and the 9800s retail price and get $100 or so off the price of your 9 series card. Of course this is just in theory, I don't know enough about the program to know if this will actually work.

[hikaricore]

the thing is is that why does it matter if you get good dx 10 performance out of a dx10 card when quake wars doesn't even use dx it uses open gl and it is native to linux so it cant use dx. unless you are playing non native game through wine then the dx might be an issue

WINE converts DX calls as best it can to OpenGL if I understand the process correctly.

So even if you're playing in D3D mode, it's still OpenGL. Oddly sometimes for some users the conversion process works better than the standard OpenGL mode, I believe this may be a fault of the games in question though.

[Ferrat]

Actually if I'm not mistaken OpenGL 2.0 hardware is going to be compatible with OpenGL 3.0.
3.0 is just going to be mostly a software update in the drivers, and there won't be hardware that actually is labeled to support 3.0 for close to a year, let alone titles that support it.

If I can find my source on this I'll post it, otherwise you'll have to look it up yourself.

This is true OpenGL 3.0 is 90% making OGL2 more effective, faster, rewrite code that's been bundled up for years, strip away all redundant data, make the dataflow procedure more straight forward and simplifying further driver dev. and so on

And as you said the DX API in wine is more or less just a translator from DX to OGL so a DX card will never use DX in Linux anyway.

[sc3252]

actually for my next card I want opengl 3.1 or 3.2, supposing that Mt Evans is 3.2.

[hikaricore]

actually for my next card I want opengl 3.1 or 3.2, supposing that Mt Evans is 3.2.

That was a joke right?

Like the whole DirectX 10.1 thing put into perspective and contrasted with OpenGL in the form of humor?

[Tux0r]

Are you guys telling me I can't run/make GL 3.0 apps? That was what I was afraid of

[hikaricore]

Are you guys telling me I can't run/make GL 3.0 apps? That was what I was afraid of

Who said that? I was just saying that 3.0 hardware is just not needed to used 3.0 software.