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ATI First Again.

explicit4u

explicit4u

explicit4u

Man of Honour
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AMD has just finished off showing the world working DX11 hardware. There are some old things that are new again, such as tessalation again coming to the forefront, hopefully this time with the needed nativity it has lacked somewhat in the past. Much time was spent on non-3D as well in terms of Windows 7 acceleration and what the GPU can do for your video encoding. Overall little was said about the hardware itself, but we know one thing for sure...NVIDIA ain't got it yet.

Here is the full slide deck that was just shown to the press in Taipei.

Or visit This page for a demo

Here is the PR.

COMPUTEX 2009, Taipei — June 3, 2009 — At a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan today, AMD (NYSE: AMD) publicly demonstrated the world’s first Microsoft DirectX® 11 graphics processor. The series of demonstrations shed new light on the significantly improved computing experience set to debut at the end of 2009.1 The fusion of AMD’s new ground-breaking graphics processors with the forthcoming DirectX 11 programming interface is set to forever change both applications and PC gaming for the better. To illustrate, AMD showed numerous examples of faster application performance and new game features using the world’s first true DirectX 11 graphics processor.

Get ready for a revolution: Games and other applications are about to get a lot better as a result of AMD’s new graphics hardware and DirectX 11. DirectX 11 features such as tessellation will bring consumers higher quality, superior performing games making use of 6th generation AMD technology. Another DirectX 11 feature, the compute shader, will enable AMD’s DirectX 11 graphics cards to help make Windows 7 run faster in a wide number of applications and in a manner that’s completely transparent to users, for example, in seamlessly accelerating the conversion of video for playback on portable media players through a drag-and-drop interface.

DirectX 11 done right on AMD: The development of DirectX 11 has been broadly influenced by AMD graphics technology. Each new version of DirectX builds on the versions that came before it, and many of the capabilities of DirectX 11 were pioneered on AMD GPUs, including DirectX 10.1, tessellation, compute shaders, Fetch4, custom filter anti-aliasing and high-definition ambient occlusion shading.

Bringing consumers DirectX 11 sooner: The preview of the world’s first DirectX 11 graphics processor at Computex 2009 validates AMD’s commitment to delivering leading technologies to market before anyone else, and to continuing to foster innovation in computing.

Fueling developer demand: It’s not just consumers who are excited about the prospects of DirectX 11, game developers are also incredibly enthusiastic about taking advantage of new DirectX 11 hardware to bring even better games to market, in large part due to AMD’s readiness to meet their DirectX 11 needs. Many developers have indicated their commitment to building DirectX 11 games initially on AMD’s DirectX 11 hardware, delivering superior performance and compatibility.

"AMD has a long track record of delivering pioneering features that have gone on to become mainstays in the DirectX experience, and we’re doing it again with two mature, AMD-developed technologies in DirectX 11 – tessellation and the compute shader – both of which enable a better DirectX 11 experience for consumers," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President, AMD Products Group. "Today, we’re previewing AMD’s DirectX 11 graphics processor to build enthusiasm for this key technology so developers will have games available at launch and shortly thereafter. With the benefits it delivers to gaming, applications and Windows 7, developers are lining up to get their hands on our hardware, and we’re confident that consumers will too."

Here is that crazy Froblins demo again from 6 months ago. If you look very closely, it will give you some insight to some of the things being done, but unless you have perfect vision, it is tough to read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUtzOqgsLyE&feature=player_embedded
 
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A somewhat pyrrhic victory - considering they've had tessellation in one form or another since 2002 and so far theres 1 game on the PC and 3 console titles that use it in all that time...

I'm still a bit non-plussed at the attention on tessellation as despite the obvious benefits its completely counter to how the majority of game developers prefer to work and will remain that way for some time.
 
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Maybe it is time ati had their own version of TWIMTBP program and start lining some developers pockets with cash to kickstart things. As long as whatever card that comes out shouting dx11 compatability is actually able to play full dx11 games i don't care though i know it will be a while after their release that such games will come. Just don't want another round of so called ability that disappears as soon as you try and run the game with high settings like dx10.
 
It's pretty pointless when you consider there isn't a single game coming out in the next year that will actually push a modern gaming card. What we need DX11 for, I have no idea.
 
We do need DX11 - theres some features needed for cinematic gaming experiences that just can't be done with DX9 and earlier and need the extra performance and flexibility over whats available in DX10...

ATI does have its own version of the TWIMTBP - but only a few developers seem to get on with it, those I've talked to in the past seemed pretty disilussioned about it. ATI have a habit of pushing flashy features over what the developers are actually asking for and then dropping support for said flashy feature soon after the odd developer actually implements it.

One particular case I remember they were pushing 3Dc on a developer who was just asking for support for a basic (tho not much used) 24+8 texture format, that worked fine on nVidia and intel hardware but was corrupt on ATI, they did finally get it fixed a couple of weeks before the game was released - but they were actually shipping it with the assumption it would work as intended on ATI cards by the time the game came out.
 
seems like a lot of people dont like the fact that ati are gonna be first out with DX11 :S i bet if it was nvidea doing it, it would be blown up over every hardware website available with all you people raving about it. i think its great ati are bringing us these features so soon. will give the developers a head start into developing some really good DX11 games, cant see how people can even manage to complain about this good news :/
 
they have no choice. amd/ati are being squashed. they are trying to compete on price now. its a price war out there with intel. remember the day of athlon x2 processors. when AMD used to charge ridicolous prices. now their processors can be bought for £150 latest model. they trying to sway consumers now with latests tech
 
ATI's market share is sadly too low to really push development of games using new DirectX iterations. People have become mindless consumer drones and just think nvidia is the be-all-end-all of graphics cards. Think about it, how many times have you heard someone say "I just prefer nvidia" with no explanation?

Hopefully if r800 continues the great success of the 4850/4870, the balance of power might shift and we won't be stuck waiting on nvidia any longer.
 
They were first with DX10.1, which is apparently pretty much what DX10 SHOULD have been, however as Nvidia wanted to push a card out faster, they broadsided MS to change the requirements so they could justify calling thier new (8800 series) DX10 compliant, whereas ATI stuck with the original plan and produced the 2 series card which had additional features onboard, and which, with some minor modifications, supported DX10.1 (in the 3 series), for example a 2900 card was equipped with the hardware tesselation unit.

Due to this, ATI are claiming they are the first with DX10.1 (which is true, NV don't support it up til thier recently announced mobile chips, and none of the current range 8/9/2 series cards support this).

How much of the MS/DX10/NV story is true I don't know, however with both sides now supporting DX11, we should at least see developers starting to show interest in the additional features; I guess the true telling point will be how the current NV DX10 vs ATI DX10.1 cards scale in the future; if ATI cards scale better/drop off less, it would suggest there is was some forethought in the design, and it's more suited to direct x11 built games having access to some of the features, if not, well it would appear not to matter or the case against NV was a lie.

Im more interested in the developers bringing out games which show off the PC again to be fair!
 
Orangey said:
ATI's market share is sadly too low to really push development of games using new DirectX iterations. People have become mindless consumer drones and just think nvidia is the be-all-end-all of graphics cards. Think about it, how many times have you heard someone say "I just prefer nvidia" with no explanation?

Hopefully if r800 continues the great success of the 4850/4870, the balance of power might shift and we won't be stuck waiting on nvidia any longer.
Click to expand...

maybe people actually had problems with ati in the past and are afraid to give them another chance? Instead of calling people names you should consider other more logical explanations. You can claim that ati has sorted out their driver problems but you simply cant deny that they existed in the past...

Btw, pc hardware companies seem to live in their own little perfect world. In a world where they dont need to do and spend anything to attract video games developers, promote pc gaming and even laugh behind the back of the software industry in the case of piracy. PC games developers are jumping ship one after they other and I dont really know why DX11 even exists. If I was nvidia or ati I would develop a graphics card that can run console ports the best. WAKE UP!
 
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Sadly that comment is not without a good bit of truth...

When your done laughing... point me to a popular mainstream game that uses TruForm, any form of tessellation that ATI has implemented in the last 7 years, 3Dc, any major DX10.1 features other than edge sampling, or for that matter any other major feature that ATI has been touting.
 
LoadsaMoney said:
Just had to quote that for the hilarity, shoud have given that one some thought me thinks :D

Im howling here....
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In fairness I recall seeing the same daftness posted when NV launched the (alledged) DX10 cards......mind you, it wasn't far off the truth when you consider how many DX10 "killer apps" are out there.




And someone else said a wise thing.....some people are wary of ATI after hideous experiences in the past, that would definitely include me, but I still recommend ATI cards for anyone who asks me to spec out an economic but weaponous PC, I mean just cos I find the driver front end to be as much fun as sitting on a cactus, doesn't mean they will find the same.
 
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