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"With the NVIDIA 6800 Ultra you have the most powerful, most technologically advanced, and most flexible 3D graphics card that you can get. The 6800 Ultra brings the best in new technology like Shader Model 3.0, along with more than enough performance head-room to satisfy the most avid gamers. No matter what you might be hearing, the 6800 Ultra is the best, and I'll tell you why." - Keith Rochford, Chief Engineer, EVGA.com Corp.

With the launch of a new generation of graphics cards, there is always the accompanying debate as to whose design is better. That endless debate recently received new life with the launch of the NVIDIA 6800 series and the ATI X800 series of cards. Almost predictibly, a number of review sites began posting different benchmark results, that in many cases showed the new offering from ATI in a much better light. However, many of you who are old hands with video card launches already know that these intial reports can be somewhat misleading. Quite often, new technology is tested with programs that were designed against the last generation of graphics cards, and don't really show the whole story.

With that being said, let's take a look at both NVIDIA's and ATI's latest offerings and see what's really going on under the hood.

NVIDIA 6800 Ultra vs. ATI X800 XT Technology Comparison
  NVIDIA 6800 Ultra ATI X800 XT
Vertex Units 6 6
Shader Units 16-32 16
Texture Units 16 16
Shader Model 3.0 Support Yes No
64-bit FP Frame Buffer Blending Yes No
64-bit FP Texture Filtering Yes No
On-Chip Video Processor Yes No

From this we can see right away that the NVIDIA offering contains a significant number of technological improvements as compared the the ATI offering. The most important of those differences is in the support for Shader Model 3.0 - this is the very thing that will allow life-like games and 3D simulations to come alive with complex shading routines that were not even close to possible under the previous versions.

The importance of Shader Model 3.0 cannot be overstated, it allows for incredibly powerful graphics routines to be written that generate an evolutionary leap in 3D realism. So important is Shader Model 3.0 that even ATI has publically admitted it's benefits:

"Pixel Shader 3.0 allows longer shader programs, which in turn implies more realistic materials and better quality lighting."

"...it makes sense to believe it'll take less time before games make use of it. New games that enter development after the launch of Pixel Shader 3.0 hardware will probably hit the shelves six to 12 months later."

-Richard Huddy, Director Developer Relations, ATI
Custom PC Magazine, May 2004

So what is it that makes Shader Model 3.0 so much better? Is it a small change or is it one that will really make an impact? Take a look at the chart below to see just how dramatic a change it really is:

Pixel Shader Feature Shader 3.0 Shader 2.0 Description
Shader Length 65535+ 96 Allows more complex shading, lighting, and procedural materials
Dynamic Branching Yes No Saves performance by skipping complex shading on irrelevant pixels
Shader anti-aliasing Built-in derivative instructions Not supported Developers can calculate the screen space derivatives of any funciton, allowing them to adjust shading frequencies or over-sampling to eliminate artifacts
Back-face register Yes No Allows two-sided lighting in a single pass
Interpolated color format 32-bit floating point minimum 8-bit integer minimum Higher range and precision color allows high-dynamic range lighting at the vertex level
Multiple render targets Required Optional Allows advanced lighting algorithms to save filtering and vertex work - thus more lights for minimal cost
Fog and specular Custom fp16-fp32 shader program 8-bit fixed function minimum Shader Model 3.0 gives developers full and precise control over specular and fog computations, previously fixed function
Texture coordinate count 10 8 More per-pixel inputs allows more realistic rendering, especially for skin
Excerpted from "Shader Model 3.0 - No Limits", by D. Sim Dietrich Jr., Nvidia, Microsoft Windows Hardware and Driver Central

In short, Shader Model 3.0 is a huge step forward in terms of ease of use, performance, and shader complexity; which in turn allows developers improved performance and simplified development opportunities.

Upcoming (and Present) Shader 3.0 Titles

  • FarCry
    •
  • Lord of the Rings, Battle For Middle-earth
    •
  • STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
    •
  • Vampire: Bloodlines
    •
  • Tiger Woods 2005
    •
  • Madden 2005
    •
  • Grafan
    •
  • Painkiller
    •

 

-Keith Rochford, Chief Engineer, EVGA.com Corp.