Helpp...hardware knowledge required...please

[Hanamichi]

Originally posted by Demigod
[b]
Memory: 620 Mhz (310 DDR)
Memory width: 256-bit
Max memory: 256 MB

This is the speed (in Megahertz) that the memory chips run at. The Radeon 9700 Pro uses DDR memory with four 64-bit memory controllers, offering a theoretical memory bandwidth of 19.8 GB/s (without memory saving algorithms), almost twice that of the GeForce 4 Ti 4600 (10.4 GB/s). The maximum memory size is 256 MB, although most cards will come with 128 MB. The 256-bit DDR memory of the Radeon 9700 Pro is about equal to 1.24 Ghz 128-bit DDR (or DDR2) memory (used on all other cards, including the upcoming GeForce FX).

He's already explained it. An explanation probably 3 times better than one I could do. 620MHz 256bit DDR memory is basically 1240MHz 128bit DDR memory, or 620MHz 128bit DDR2 memory.
You cant "upgrade" a Video card's memory, they come with a fixed amount. I havent seen a 256MB 9700 though.

BTW, you should use the edit button and cram up all the unnecessary posts in one. Looks neater I guess.
Also, Demigod loves preaching hardware so you can count on him when it comes to that.

[beckham_m7u]

uh yeah...missed that part...sorry, Demigod!..

about edit button: I thought edit button's used when we're posting at the same time? No? My apologies then....

__________________
"Hyolee is my dahling"

[Demigod]

Originally posted by Han
He's already explained it. An explanation probably 3 times better than one I could do. 620MHz 256bit DDR memory is basically 1240MHz 128bit DDR memory, or 620MHz 128bit DDR2 memory.
You cant "upgrade" a Video card's memory, they come with a fixed amount. I havent seen a 256MB 9700 though.

Umm, not exactly. For the most part you're right but not the DDR2 part. DDR2 is just faster DDR memory. It doesn't offer anything new in terms of technology. 620 Mhz 256-bit DDR is equal to 1240 Mhz 128-bit DDR as well as 1240 Mhz 128-bit DDR2. The upcoming GeForce FX will use 1 Ghz DDR2 memory so it'll actually have less raw memory bandwidth than the Radeon 9700 Pro (GF FX = 16 GB/s, R300 = 19.8 GB/s).

I'm not entirely sure on FSAA algorithms. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information. I think supersampling is taking an image at a higher resolution and sampling it down, probably using bilinear filtering. Either that or it breaks each pixel into sub-pixels, calculates the color of each subpixel and averages it to get the final color. Multisample, I believe is rendering an image multiple times and merging them on a sub-pixel level. I'm not entirely sure about them. I'm going to have to do more research on it to get a definite answer. There also seems to be conflicting information on the FSAA method of the Radeon 8500. In its first set of reviews (at either THG or Anandtech) it's stated that it uses multisampling but in later articles it's shown as supersampling.

If anyone else knows the answer feel free to jump in.

__________________
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Mobo: Intel DX48BT2 Memory: 8192 MB PC10600 DDR3 Videocard: PNY Geforce 9800 GX2 Soundcard: On-board SigmaTel High Definition Audio Hard drive: 1 TB Seagate & 1 TB Hitachi Optical drive: LG GGW-H20L (2x BD-R DL) PSU: Nexus 1000 Watt OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)

---

Last edited by Demigod; January 14th, 2003 at 20:37..

[Kane]

IIRC, the 8500 used supersampling which is, as you say, rendering at a higher resolotion, then downsampling via whatever algorithm. This was proven when they compared the mage quality of the GeForce FSAA to that of the Radeons. You are also correct on Mutiosampling.
The GeForce 3 pictures exibited better removal of jaggies, but blurrier textures.
The GeForce 2 and Radeon pictures were nearly identical, exibiting sharper textures, but more apparent jaggies.

__________________

>Site Live<
Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators.
Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible
Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business
Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE
Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb

The Radeon 8500 uses Ordered Grid Super Sampling. Just like the Radeon 9000.

I really disagree with kane about Multi Sampling removing jagged edges better than Super Sampling. But thats another discussion =p

[Hanamichi]

Eh. I typed 620? :embl: Thanks for correcting me.

Sorry for bringing up this thread again but I thought I should ask: What kind of FSAA does the 9500np/Pro use? And how is its quality? I thought I should know since it does an excellent job at it without losing much performance and I most probably am going to get one when they're available in my place.
Thanks.

[Kane]

The R300 uses Multisampling.

__________________

>Site Live<
Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators.
Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible
Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business
Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE
Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb