Author Topic: Wow... Just Wow!  (Read 7630 times)

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Offline AV8R

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A quote from that article:

"Ever since the early 1990s Intel has used existing geographical, non-trademarked places in the United States or Canada that can be located on a map for codenames."

Apparently, Intel had to be careful about using names of cartoon characters, movies and deceased famous peoples' names as code names (the article mentions the "Zappa" debacle - as in Frank Zappa). Using rivers and small town names (Clarkdale, Lynnfield, Bloomfield, Gulftown, etc) ended up being a safer bet - less of a chance of trademark infringement and litigation.

Makes me wanna go out a trademark the word "trademark" - this way everybody has to pay me to name their products!  :lol:

 

Offline jr2

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I think someone should just go Max Payne on those responsible for the trademark / patent mess.  Protecting your inventions is one thing.  Being an asshole at the expense of everyone else is another.

 

Offline AV8R

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I think someone should just go Max Payne on those responsible for the trademark / patent mess.  Protecting your inventions is one thing.  Being an asshole at the expense of everyone else is another.

*cough* Apple *cough*

 :nono:

 

Offline Swifty

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You wouldn't happen to be BeachAV8R from SimHQ?

 
That's why I opted for a "professional" series video card in my new rig that could handle the latest OpenGL features and has drivers super-optimized for OpenGL (that and many sims I play are OpenGL-based).

Now I'm curious. Is there really a significant increase in performance running OpenGL applications with a FirePro (or Quadro) compared to "normal" consumer cards? I mean, the price difference can be pretty huge. Is the gain worth the price?

 

Offline AV8R

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You wouldn't happen to be BeachAV8R from SimHQ?

Nope. Not an anti-Apple fanboi either (in fact I really like the iPad). I just read jr2's comment and Apple's insistence that it solely created the "touchpad" and its subsequent litigious stand against all things touchpad-related from any other manufacturer is the first thing that came to mind. Yes, old news, but true.

 

Offline AV8R

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Now I'm curious. Is there really a significant increase in performance running OpenGL applications with a FirePro (or Quadro) compared to "normal" consumer cards? I mean, the price difference can be pretty huge. Is the gain worth the price?

Professional series video cards (and their drivers) are super-optimized to render OpenGL graphics programs (CAD, GIS, medical imaging, etc) far better than their consumer-type video card counterparts (which are DirectX optimized). It's simply a matter of need/choice - if most of the software you run is graphically DirectX-based, then a consumer-type video card would work best for you. Likewise if most of the software you work with is graphically OpenGL-based, then a Professional series card might be a better fit.

Since most of the sims I play are OpenGL-based (like FSOpen), I wanted a card that could render OpenGL graphics most efficiently - so I chose a FireGL card instead of the Radeon card. Another reason is I don't play any modern DirectX games that require a super-optimized DirectX video card. The older DirectX games I do play work fine on the FireGL card.

Besides, it sure makes all of those FSOpen graphics look pretty....  ;)

EDIT: Both consumer and professional series cards are price competitive - and decent entry-level consumer card (~$100) costs about the same as an entry level pro card (~$100). My mid-level AMD FirePro 3D 4800 w/ 1GB of GDDR5 memory cost $150. And yes, high-end pro cards can be $500+ but so can high-end DirectX cards (seen how much a Radeon 7970 costs?)
« Last Edit: July 05, 2012, 12:18:10 pm by AV8R »

 
Now I'm curious. Is there really a significant increase in performance running OpenGL applications with a FirePro (or Quadro) compared to "normal" consumer cards? I mean, the price difference can be pretty huge. Is the gain worth the price?

Professional series video cards (and their drivers) are super-optimized to render OpenGL graphics programs (CAD, GIS, medical imaging, etc) far better than their consumer-type video card counterparts (which are DirectX optimized). It's simply a matter of need/choice - if most of the software you run is graphically DirectX-based, then a consumer-type video card would work best for you. Likewise if most of the software you work with is graphically OpenGL-based, then a Professional series card might be a better fit.

Since most of the sims I play are OpenGL-based (like FSOpen), I wanted a card that could render OpenGL graphics most efficiently - so I chose a FireGL card instead of the Radeon card. Another reason is I don't play any modern DirectX games that require a super-optimized DirectX video card. The older DirectX games I do play work fine on the FireGL card.

Besides, it sure makes all of those FSOpen graphics look pretty....  ;)

EDIT: Both consumer and professional series cards are price competitive - and decent entry-level consumer card (~$100) costs about the same as an entry level pro card (~$100). My mid-level AMD FirePro 3D 4800 w/ 1GB of GDDR5 memory cost $150. And yes, high-end pro cards can be $500+ but so can high-end DirectX cards (seen how much a Radeon 7970 costs?)


Ah okay, alright. Well, considering pricing, I had something like this in mind: http://www.alternate.de/html/product/PNY/Quadro_6000/574428/?
;)

 

Offline AV8R

  • 28
Ah okay, alright. Well, considering pricing, I had something like this in mind: http://www.alternate.de/html/product/PNY/Quadro_6000/574428/?
;)

Ok, maybe a slight bit of overkill for what we're talking about here....  :p

Keep in mind, just due to driver optimization, a low-end pro card will give a high-end consumer card a run for its money in OpenGL graphics performance. Of course, in that case, the consumer card will trounce the pro card in DirectX performance but again, it's what you're looking to accelerate - OpenGL or DirectX.

 

Offline Mikes

  • 29
Having owned a thinkpad with the professional series graphics card... the (gaming) performance difference to regular/consumer cards of the same "caliber" wasn't all that noticable - if at all noticable - from my experience.

Admittedly... I never benchmarked it, just played games on it. ;)

 

Offline The E

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Which is not a surprise, given that the chips used are the same. The only difference are the drivers, at least in theory.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline jr2

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If that's the case, then you should be able to install drivers for the pro optimized version with a little fiddling, and get it to work as long as the model you selected has the same GPU as your consumer card, right?

 

Offline AV8R

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In some cases, "fiddling" would mean flashing the card's BIOS to fool the drivers into thinking its a different model card (like I did with my old ATI Radeon 9500 to make it think it was a 9700). If it works, great. If not, you have a PCB paperweight.

There are safer "soft mods" which use tweaked drivers to achieve the same affect. Check out a short article about it here:

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

Edit: Ok the article is a little dated, but you get the picture.  :P
« Last Edit: July 06, 2012, 06:57:07 pm by AV8R »

 

Offline LordMelvin

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I think someone should just go Max Payne on those responsible for the trademark / patent mess.  Protecting your inventions is one thing.  Being an asshole at the expense of everyone else is another.

*cough* Apple *cough*

 :nono:

*cough* Disney *cough*
Error: ls.rnd.sig.txt not found

 

Offline AV8R

  • 28
Ok, a better AMD/ATI article here that discusses every chipset/video card they ever made:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ATI_graphics_processing_units#FireGL_series

Actually when comparing my FireGL 3D v4800 with the newer low-end v3900, I discovered there aren't a lot of differences. Other than using GDDR3 instead of GDDR5, which effectively halves the bandwidth from 57.6GB/sec on the v4800 to 28.8GB/sec on the v3900 (which is certainly no slouch), it would still probably be a great OpenGL performer. And for a little over $100US, it's alao a bargain! :yes:

 

Offline Mikes

  • 29
My old rig is tough and able to handle most games alright, but I want something to actually handle huge battles without choking. I have an early generation 2GB VRAM card that has a lot of space, but it doesn't process very efficiently. I've been saving up for the past few months to grab a $1000 computer that will last much longer than my hand-built rig.

1000$ computers generally do not last longer than handbuilt rigs - quite the contrary ;).

lol.

 

Offline jr2

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1000$ handbuilt rigs, however, usually hold their own for 2-3 years, and do alright for ~5, if upgraded enough.

 

Offline Klaustrophobia

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if you have to max out all the latest games all the time, sure.  but if you do your homework and are willing to turn the settings down slightly as time goes on, a $1000 can last a LONG time.  my $700 from when i started college would still be kicking (and is for a different user) but i wanted to splurge a little.  the graphics card in my new one is likely the only thing that will get upgraded in the next several years.  maybe some RAM when i see a deal that's just too good to pass.
I like to stare at the sun.

  

Offline LHN91

  • 27
My 6-700 dollar build from almost 3 years ago is still kicking, though I have upgraded it a few times (4Gb of better RAM, Radeon 4870 used for $50, and a 1TB secondary hard drive). Most brand-spanking new games need to be brought down to medium-high/high from Ultra, but still.