R300 and Z buffering

[MUYA]

Hey guys,

I am seriously thinking of getting a 9700 after having enough of the nv25 and its depressing performances with AF enabled and I would like to ask r300 owners if there are any issues with z-buffer. I do not know the full monty of the mechanics behind this problem but I am under the impression (falsely or correctly...please correct me if I am wrong) that, r300 has certain problems with z buffer that it affects game in that there is textures missing, texture flashing etc ...i think those are associated with zbuffer being at only 16bits? I think Derek Smart highlighted those problems in the b3d forums. Has this been fixed ? How can r300 owners get round this? More importantly how do recent game releases work on it like Splinter Cell, U2, Freelancer (especially this game since has a vast open type universe etc and not closed environmenst such as FPS), Sim City4 etc ? I know of ut2k3 benches etc because most review sites have those numbers and well they blow the nv25s away and nv30s for that matter. It also seems that r300s has problems with the CTF-face3 map? I think K.I.L.L.E.R posted a screen shot of texture missing in some map a few weeks back.

Anyways, I so want that blistering speeds of the r300 with AA and AF enabled but am scared that I might have to pay a price in other areas as the missing textures etc. Please owners of r300s please be honest in your response and also pls state your overall experience with the r300s...especially those who have gone from nv25s to r300s!

Regards and thanks in advance for any replies and suggestions that you guys may have for a potential r300 owner.

MUYA

PS- how bad is texture aliasing in r300s? lately with new drivers for nv cards I have seen more and more texture aliasing for the ti4200 i have....might just be me though.

[5150 Joker]

Originally posted by MUYA
Hey guys,
I am seriously thinking of getting a 9700 after having enough of the nv25 and its depressing performances with AF enabled and I would like to ask r300 owners if there are any issues with z-buffer. I do not know the full monty of the mechanics behind this problem but I am under the impression (falsely or correctly...please correct me if I am wrong) that, r300 has certain problems with z buffer that it affects game in that there is textures missing, texture flashing etc ...i think those are associated with zbuffer being at only 16bits? I think Derek Smart highlighted those problems in the b3d forums. Has this been fixed ? How can r300 owners get round this? More importantly how do recent game releases work on it like Splinter Cell, U2, Freespace (especially this game since has a vast open type universe etc and not closed environmenst such as FPS), Sim City4 etc ? I know of ut2k3 benches etc because most review sites have those numbers and well they blow the nv25s away. It also seems that r300s has problems with the CTF-face3 map? I think K.I.L.L.E.R posted a screen shot of it a few weeks back.
Anyways, I so want that blistering speeds of the r300 with AA and AF enabled but am scared that I might have to pay a price in other areas as the missing textures etc. Please owners of r300s please be honest in your response and also pls state your overall experience with the r300s...especially those who have gone from nv25s to r300s!

Regards and thanks in advance for anu replies and suggestions that you guys may have at a potential r300 owner.

MUYA

PS- how bad is texture aliasing in r300s? lately with new drivers for nv cards I have seen more and more texture aliasing for the ti4200 i have....might just be me though.


You should post this in the Rage3D forums, you'll get more responses. As for my own personal experience, I haven't noticed any Z-buffer errors but that's not saying there aren't any. The games I play include BF1942, AA, Splinter Cell, Rallisport Challenge, Quake 2, and MOH:AA. Games that I tried in the past that exhibited some issues were Mafia with shadows for the cars flickering and during beta Asherons Call had some stutter issues above 1024x768. I never bothered to go re-check those games since the latest catalyst releases (post 2.5) to see if the issues were resolved or not.

[Hellbinder]

Z-buffer is not 16bits. Zbuffer is 24bits.

24 bits with 8 stencil bits

[Lamentation]

If you're willing to spend the money, there is no reason not to get the r300. I was kinda worried about possible problems...until I got the card in my machine.

[Kruno]

LOL! I don't even play Face3. :)
I only like Lavagiant in UT2003. :)