Video Card Bias?
WhiteZero
That Guy Join Date: 2004-06-24 Member: 29511Members, Constellation
That Guy Join Date: 2004-06-24 Member: 29511Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">nVidia or ATi</div>This is a big issue in PC gaming, so it needs to be asked for NS2 and it's engine:
At this point or are their future plans to have NS2's engine optimized twords nVidia or ATi graphics?
Many games seem to do this. Example: Half-Life 2 engine was always a bit better on ATi cards and Crysis engine games always worked a bit better on nVidia cards.
I guess a good question would be: What video cards have the devs been running? Or has there actually been testing to make sure they run fairly equally on each type of card?
At this point or are their future plans to have NS2's engine optimized twords nVidia or ATi graphics?
Many games seem to do this. Example: Half-Life 2 engine was always a bit better on ATi cards and Crysis engine games always worked a bit better on nVidia cards.
I guess a good question would be: What video cards have the devs been running? Or has there actually been testing to make sure they run fairly equally on each type of card?
Comments
I would be happy if the graphics wars were set aside and it just worked great for any brand.
I would be happy if the graphics wars were set aside and it just worked great for any brand.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Generally it works better for one or the other. Just something that happens when an engine is developed.
Yup, but you'll need this to run it in Glide mode:
<img src="http://curmudgeongamer.com/uploaded_images/v5-6k-747267.JPG" border="0" class="linked-image" />
The idea of this thread was to get their commentary on it. Their busy guys, I'm not going to bug them via eMail on this issue.
If they have time, they can answer it here.
Good ol' days with no video cards.
Never heard that from the Devs.
Flame War! We all know AMD CPUs and ATI Graphics Cards are the best, but in all seriousness...
I've never understood what this was all about. If a game company wants to ship their product that supports only a small subset of hardware, then that is their right. Nothing good will come of that though, at least not from sales. I don't think there is a fair way to compare video card performance. I'm not a gfx expert, but the architecture of Nvidia cards versus ATI cards are different right? Probably not by a lot, but enough to make a difference in certain cases. Then the drivers would be written differently, and while I don't imagine that they would cause any significant problems very often, but my theory is that they may account for some subtle differences in performance. So there is that, then there is the differences with the actual graphics card; power, performance, etc.
If the devs are going to want to make some money, they're going to need to make NS2 as cross-hardware compliant as they can for todays market. Surely they can't afford to focus all of their time optimizing their engine for one type of video card, I would think that they would write the engine so that it will work on *most* video cards right away and apply fixes for the borderline cases if it is deemed appropriate. Personally, I think all of that "omgzor, you should get a gfx card from company X because they run our game SOOO much better..." is just marketing crap, where the game company might get a generous sum for "officially" supporting one type of hardware.
If the devs are going to want to make some money, they're going to need to make NS2 as cross-hardware compliant as they can for todays market. Surely they can't afford to focus all of their time optimizing their engine for one type of video card, I would think that they would write the engine so that it will work on *most* video cards right away and apply fixes for the borderline cases if it is deemed appropriate. Personally, I think all of that "omgzor, you should get a gfx card from company X because they run our game SOOO much better..." is just marketing crap, where the game company might get a generous sum for "officially" supporting one type of hardware.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Woah, woah, woah there, man. No one is talking about "supporting" only one type of hardware. All I'm asking is if the engine is better optimized (runs a bit better) on one type of card or the other. Again, pretty much every game/engine runs better on one or the other (between 5% - 20% improvement).
It's a very typical issue in the industry. I'm sure NS2's engine will run great on either card, but chances are it's going to run a little bit better on one more than the other. It's not always something that the dev does on purpose, it just happens.
So really, if all the devs are using one particular set of hardware, that's going to answer my question here.
It's a very typical issue in the industry. I'm sure NS2's engine will run great on either card, but chances are it's going to run a little bit better on one more than the other.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Didn't meant to come across that way. Merely stating the worst case (albeit unlikely) scenario. I just don't understand why that "bias" has to exist in the first place though.
Well, either it happens because one manufacture or the other is sponsoring the game (aka the "nVidia: The Way it's Meant to be Played" logo) or the way the engine implements graphics rendering is coincidentally done better by one of the types of cards.
Although, if they were going to bias anyways, if they were smart they would optimize for NVIDIA.
<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/" target="_blank">http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/</a>
65% NVIDIA users on steam
27% ATI
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
What about me D:
At this point or are their future plans to have NS2's engine optimized twords nVidia or ATi graphics?
Many games seem to do this. Example: Half-Life 2 engine was always a bit better on ATi cards and Crysis engine games always worked a bit better on nVidia cards.
I guess a good question would be: What video cards have the devs been running? Or has there actually been testing to make sure they run fairly equally on each type of card?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It depends on who pumps money into the development. Considering UW still isn't the big kid on the block, ATI and Nvidia are unlikely to put much money into the development. With such barren system requirements, I would be surprised to see if the game actually did run better on a budget end modern card. I mean the 4830 runs oblivion just fine along with assasins creed, I doubt there will be any "useful" improvement with one card compared to another.
NVIDIA has (for the past few years at any rate) been creaming ATI however in the power department.
Also for thos of you saying AMD chips are better. On similar chip benchmarks (same GHz, same # cores) Intel always wins. (Granted you also end up paying much more for an Intel chip.)
ATI is more stream processor centralized, which can be a double edged sword if a game is not made for that.
ATI has had the better drivers for a while now.
Nvidia cards have quieter fans.
And now my friends you've been brought up to speed of the past 5 years or so.
In general how an engine is coded, and how well a cards drivers interpret the code is how well the game will run. When optimization is done, you optimize for the hardware you are using. ie. simple process of "does this tweak make the game go faster?". Big developers do this on different rigs with different cards.
Personally I'm an ATI guy because I know people who work there, and I get free cards, or drastically marked down ones. Overall though, I have no bias. Currently they are both neck and neck.