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StealthHawk
03-08-03, 05:38 AM
In Anand's blurb on the r9600 found in his review, he says that r9600 has a more optimized memory interface than the r9800. Is this true?

no one else has mentioned it, in fact, everything else i've heard about the r9600 says it has HyperZIII, the same as in the r9700/9500. is Anand wrong, or is everyone else wrong?

The RV350 doesn't stop there, and actually features a superior Hyper-Z engine to what is found in the R350; the reason being that with a 0.13-micron chip you've got more room to play around with and ATI wasn't as constrained with the design of the RV350 as they were with the R300. The end result is that the RV350 features a higher Z compression ratio (8:1 vs. 6:1) and an overall more efficient memory controller; we will have to wait until the 0.13-micron successor of the R350 before see an improved version of the RV350 memory controller in ATI's flagship line.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1794&p=4

I haven't noticed any other threads on this.

Uttar
03-08-03, 05:50 AM
Good catch, Stealth!
I didn't notice that before you posted this...

It makes sense, actually. nVidia prooved that they had a very efficient FSAA algorithm with the NV3x ( it could be on par with ATI sometimes, even though it got 20% less bandwidth! )
So, considering ATI wasn't sure of how much a threat the NV31 & NV34 were, they added this just in case.
Sounds good to me.


Uttar

ZoinKs!
03-08-03, 06:22 AM
Yes that's a very good catch. I hadn't noticed it before and don't recall seeing it discussed on any threads anywhere.

FiringSquad mentions (http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/ati_radeon_9800_pro/page3.asp) it also: "...for the 9600 family ATI has integrated an enhanced memory controller as well as new 8:1 loss-less Z-Compression." That makes at least two separate sources for the info, assuming they didn't just copy each other.

Hopefully some upcoming 9600 reviews will investigate/explain it further.

StealthHawk
03-08-03, 07:56 PM
interesting, i didn't read FiringSquad.

anyone "in the know" care to comment?

sebazve
03-08-03, 08:04 PM
the r350 also have this;)
they call it Hyper Z III+ and Smoothvision 2.1...

http://www.nordichardware.com/reviews/graphiccard/2003/Radeon9800Pro/index.php?ez=3

StealthHawk
03-09-03, 01:58 AM
Anand explicitly states that RV350 has better Z compression than R350.

my question is whether that is correct or incorrect.

MuFu
03-09-03, 07:42 PM
...the reason being that with a 0.13-micron chip you've got more room to play around with and ATI wasn't as constrained with the design of the RV350 as they were with the R300.

Sounds like a bunch of crap to me. I'd attribute the improvement purely to tech advances since R300.

MuFu.

DaveBaumann
03-11-03, 09:46 PM
The 6:1 quote is the ratio for colour compression, not Z compression.

fastguy94416
03-11-03, 11:30 PM
yes, but it also uses a 128 bit bus, so optimization is very nessecary