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Today
we unveil the latest software technology to come
from nVidia, the Detonator 3 driver set and
their new 3D powerhouse, the GeForce 2 GTS Ultra.
The combination of these new products
yields the most impressive 3D experience for the
PC yet. The
Detonator 3 drivers, as was the case with older
Detonator driver revisions, are a unified set that
works across all nVidia products from the
TNT2 line and up
The driver interface for the GeForce2 GTS Ultra in
various settings, he been tweaked and enhanced
with more functionality. We are finally
given the tools needed to adjust more of the
features that have been marketed, like FSAA for
instance.
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| Installation
and the drivers of the
"new" GeForce2 |
| What
the first release should have been |
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The
driver interface and functionality itself hasn't
changed at all. In fact, nVIDIA has
just made available settings to the user in
OpenGL, that were unavailable, unless you were
willing to do some registry hacking. Direct
3D driver control has pretty much the same look
and feel but a little more descriptive interface.
Detonator
3 Drivers and Direct 3D FSAA Settings
OpenGL
FSAA and Texture Colot Depth Settings
As you
can see here, you are now able to adjust OpenGL
FSAA levels within its control panel. What
most users didn't know is that the drivers
historically defaulted to 1.5x1.5 FSAA which is
essentially equivalent to nVIDIA's 2X FSAA.
This resulted in an image quality that was hardly
worth the performance hit at the time. Now
you have the ability to change to 2x2
LOD BIAS and 2x2 mode as well. 2x2 LOD has
mipmaps drawn at the normal screen resolution and
2x2 has them at the super-sampled or higher
resolution. The latter of the two
theoretically gives you nVIDIA's best
OpenGL FSAA quality at present. We couldn't
see much of a difference frankly, between the two.
In
Direct 3D mode with respect to FSAA, you get a
myriad of options beyond the 1.5x.1.5 (or 2X)
setting, all the way up to 16X sample FSAA.
Here is a chart describing all of the settings.
Starting
from slider position 1 as slider position 0 is no
FSAA at all. From left to right...
- 1x2
- 2 sample FSAA, mipmaps at super-sampled
screen resolution
- 2x2
- 4 sample FSAA, mipmaps at normal screen
resolution
- 2x2
- 4 sample FSAA, mipmaps at super-sampled
resolution
- 2x2
- 4 sample FSAA, mipmaps at super-sampled
screen resolution special filter
- 3x3
- 9 sample FSAA, mipmaps at normal screen
resolution
- 3x3
- 9 sample FSAA, mipmaps at super-sampled
screen resolution
- 4x4
- 16 sample FSAA, mipsmaps at normal screen
resolution
- 4x4
- 16 sample FSAA, mipmaps at super-sampled
screen resolution
We
aren't exactly sure what the "special
filter" is but it was hard to see a
difference in our testing. In any event, a
32MB GeForce2 card will only be able to handle up
to the 4 sample FSAA settings, as it will run out
of memory at higher levels. On the other
hand, 64MB cards like this GeForce2 Ultra we
tested, will run all the way up to 16X FSAA.
What
is more important about these drivers is the
optimization they went through. In the
following pages, you will see that in addition to
having new levels of FSAA in OpenGL available,
performance has been greatly enhanced across the
board.
More
on this later. For now, we'll just ease into
this slowly with a little eye candy.
Direct
3D FSAA Visuals:
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Nascar
Heat No FSAA
GeForce2 Ultra
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Nascar
Heat 2x2 (4X) FSAA
GeForce2 Ultra
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Nascar
Heat 3dfx 4X FSAA
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The nVIDIAFSAA shot was taken at the 2x2
with mipmaps at the super-sampled setting. A
racing game like "Nascar Heat" really
shows off the power of good FSAA. From top
left to bottom, you are looking at shots with no
FSAA, nVIDIA brand 4X FSAA and 3dfx brand
4X FSAA. Obviously, the shot without FSAA
looks the worst. Beyond that it is your call
which looks better, 3dfx or nVIDIA's 4X FSAA, in
this Direct 3D based Racing Sim. For us, the
FSAA quality on the 3dfx Voodoo5 card is slightly
better. What you also need to consider is
the frame rate. The nVIDIA GeForce2
Ultra was running at about 43 fps on our P3-866
and the 3dfx card was running at 30 fps.
From that perspective, nVIDIA has the
edge. Again, you make the call here.
OpenGL
FSAA and Tech Demos
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