Stupid question

[Lezmaka]

I know that no one would actually ever want to do this, but just something I wondered. And I don't really have any idea if what I'm thinking of makes sense in the real world.

The 9700 can kill the Ti4600 where bandwidth is needed, like AA @ 1600x1200, etc. Now, what I was wondering is if the speed of the 9700 in that kind of situation is due to pure bandwidth or efficiency. Now here's something I thought of doing, but since I have neither a Ti4600 or a 9700, I can't do it. Hell, I don't even know if it makes any sense. And that is to downclock the ram on the 9700 to the point where the bandwidth on it is the same as the Ti4600 and see how they compare.

Now that I think about it more, it doesn't really make sense.

[StealthHawk]

one of the secrets of ATI's R9700 super fast FSAA is also hyper Z3, so just downclocking the ram wouldn't really compare bandwidth in FSAA situations well.

[jbirney]

Your forgetting that at 16x12 your also fill rate limited. The 9700 has 8 pipes vrs the GF4 4 so it has a fill rate advatage as well....

[Fotis]

IMO geforce designs are more efficient than radeon's.Many people say that radeon 8500 is to be compared to geforce3 but lets not forget that radeon 8500 has two vertex engines so it should be compared to gf4 ti 4400.As for memory efficiency let say hyperz=crossbar.Lets take those two cards, same clocks same features but gf4 is plenty faster.
Just an opinion of a non expert.

[jbirney]

Fotis,

yes the GF3/4 desgins use a more efficent approach than the 8500. However ATI also uses the crossbar plus its HyperZ3 to help it in MB department for the 9700. Also the 8500 had more features than the GF4 cards. Now weather or not they will be usefull is a completly different issue :)

[Mono]

Originally posted by Fotis
IMO geforce designs are more efficient than radeon's.Many people say that radeon 8500 is to be compared to geforce3 but lets not forget that radeon 8500 has two vertex engines so it should be compared to gf4 ti 4400.As for memory efficiency let say hyperz=crossbar.Lets take those two cards, same clocks same features but gf4 is plenty faster.
Just an opinion of a non expert.

lol....
Well, I downclocked my 9700 pro to 200core/200mem and ran it with 6x aa + 16x quality af and it still got about 4000 points. Imo, the 9700 is more efficent then any gf card so far.. and why wouldn't it be.. new technology, duh :p

[Fotis]

Lol Mono comparing a next gen card with gf4?Did you bench a gf4 while you tested your 200/200 radeon 9700?I was comparing equal tech cards.Forgeting also that gf4 has half the pipes.I'm not saying that radeon9700 is slower than gf4 it's hell faster but we are talking about efficiency and comparing equal tech cards.

[Mono]

Well the thread starter was asking if anyone thought the GF4 was more efficent then the 9700Pro and I stated my thoughts on it.... :p