FX reactions anyone?

digitalwanderer · Jan 27, 2003, 04:56 PM

I started a condolence thread over at nVnews in regards to the FX launch. It was inspired by a different thread I started up at a major ATI support/enthusiast site about the FX's bombi...I mean the FX's launch.

So what are the reactions around here? So far I've like Ananananananananda Tech's review the best and laughed the most at Tom's.

Zardon · Jan 27, 2003, 05:08 PM

id rather not say to much, except im really more than a little disappointed. im meant to be getting one soon to play with so ill be giving my first hand impressions.

Zardon · Jan 27, 2003, 05:13 PM

Quote:

An interesting phenomenon we discovered while attempting to overclock the GeForce FX was that when the card got too hot (courtesy of our overclock), it automatically throttled itself down to its 2D speed (300/600MHz) and reduced the fan speed accordingly in the middle of a game. We're not exactly big fans of this method of protection, since it would make more sense to reduce the clock speed to its 3D default setting and not the significantly slower 2D clocks.

If you are curious, the card underclocked itself after running at a 540MHz core clock for a matter of minutes, and we couldn't get the memory up above 1100MHz too reliably either; as expected, there's not much headroom in the GeForce FX 5800 although that may change over the life of the chip as the manufacturing process is tuned.

UberLord · Jan 27, 2003, 05:22 PM

The only reaction I've got is that I'm incredulous that nVidia actually expect people to buy it at that price

DriveEuro · Jan 27, 2003, 05:25 PM

Well, it's still so early. As we know the speeds aren't all that impressive. Well, what happened to cinema quality stuff? 128 bit color? Where is the quality?

digitalwanderer · Jan 27, 2003, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DriveEuro
Where is the quality?

Currently embroiled in a financial scandal...

Zardon · Jan 27, 2003, 05:48 PM

This is also an interesting snippet from the anandtech review:

We benchmarked the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra and the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro on every single 266MHz FSB Athlon XP to produce an interesting CPU scaling chart. The tests were conducted at 1024x768 with no anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering enabled in order to increase the dependency on the CPU and driver subsystems. The results were interesting to say the least:

The interesting thing is that the GeForce FX never overtakes the Radeon 9700 Pro, it consistently falls behind by 4 - 6%. With a higher core clock, the only explanation for the GeForce FX falling behind here would be that the Radeon 9700's raw memory bandwidth advantage helps it out. We debunked this theory by increasing the FX's memory bandwidth by 10% (read: overclocked it to 1100MHz memory) and noted no more than a 0.2% increase in performance, so this test was clearly not saturating the memory bus of the GeForce FX. In theory, the GeForce FX should be outperforming the Radeon 9700 Pro here, but in reality it was not at all.

All evidence points to the GeForce FX's drivers holding it back, but this seems rather atypical of NVIDIA, or does it? Historically, NVIDIA has always provided a driver release 3 - 6 months after the launch of a new GPU that has improved performance anywhere from 10 - 20% on average. With the GeForce FX being a relatively new core, we'd expect to see something very similar from them down the road. The difference this time around is that NVIDIA has a much more powerful competitor in ATI, the Radeon 9700 Pro is no sitting duck. With very mature drivers and solid performance across the board, the GeForce FX vs. ATI's Radeon 9700 is almost reminiscent of the Radeon 8500 vs. NVIDIA's GeForce3 Ti 500, but with the roles reversed.

Zardon · Jan 27, 2003, 06:13 PM

and one last point, did any of you guys download the MP3s of the fan noise???

I certainly dont think I could live with that. I thought the 9700 was loud enough.

digitalwanderer · Jan 27, 2003, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zardon
and one last point, did any of you guys download the MP3s of the fan noise???

I certainly dont think I could live with that. I thought the 9700 was loud enough.

Hell, even my homebrew experiment with 4 fans on me 8500 wasn't that loud...my 10" fan wasn't that loud!

Now I know why nVidia has been so close-mouthed and difficult to get a hold of lately, I would be too.

dipstick · Jan 27, 2003, 06:44 PM

Definitely a big letdown. I really hope new drivers get some perf. out of this card, but how much can you really get out of just drivers? Also that fan has definitely gotta go; I trully don't know what they were smokin when they chose to put that on the card. Not all of us like our PCs sounding like a freakin vacuum and we still have reasonably good hearing. Which makes me think that they have lost their hearing by running 8 case fans and a dustbuster on their heatmaking GFFX's for the last 6 months trying to find a way to lessen the gap that was set upon them by the 9700.

DriveEuro · Jan 27, 2003, 07:28 PM

I am not surprised. I bitched from day 1 about the 128 bit memory. For the prices all of us will be picking up R9700 pros......damn. Maybe even non pros.

X-Reaper · Jan 28, 2003, 12:52 AM

Just heard the GFFX booting up over at TomsHardware review. GOD, it's LOUD!!! 2 slot card with this much noise, not for me. How could I sleep at night as I leave my computer on 24/7.

Booting up: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...fx-boot-hq.mp3

3DMark: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...-3dmark-hq.mp3

Vampyromaniac · Jan 28, 2003, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by UberLord
The only reaction I've got is that I'm incredulous that nVidia actually expect people to buy it at that price

You can get one for $39.95

http://castle.pricewatch.com/search/...ne=9427&l=9381

Vampyromaniac · Jan 28, 2003, 02:49 AM

Wow, I just read the post an nVnews

I noticed Ryoko changed his avatar back, I guess now I know why

I wonder if there's any career change in his future, as well?

Quote:

well, sorry all friendly nvidiots, but i am now a fanATIc.

kinetic · Jan 28, 2003, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zardon
and one last point, did any of you guys download the MP3s of the fan noise???

I certainly dont think I could live with that. I thought the 9700 was loud enough.

The cooling system is very similar to my card and yes, it is very noisy

I have got used to it but, if you're looking for a quiet system you're gonna have to look elsewhere.

Vehicon · Jan 28, 2003, 11:12 AM

That sound is horrible.And to think i pre ordered mine 3 days ago.DOH!!!Thing sounds like a freaking vaccum cleaner!

merry · Jan 28, 2003, 11:15 AM

Even if future drivers will improve performance with 10-20%, it's still only say 20% 'better' then the 9700, which is modest at this price. One would have expected a bigger increase given the much higher speed.

UberLord · Jan 28, 2003, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zardon
and one last point, did any of you guys download the MP3s of the fan noise???

I certainly dont think I could live with that. I thought the 9700 was loud enough.

C'mon - thats not going to be anywhere near accurate.
I could put a sensitive mic upto my CPU's "near silent" HSF and crank up the recording volume so it would sound like a vacuum cleaner on normal playback.

What we need is a certified dB rating of the cooling system

Zarathustra · Jan 28, 2003, 03:20 PM

Uber has a point there, but you can just tell by the design and transistor count that thing is going to be damn hot and will need to be damn loud to be properly cooled. I think the Tom's review mentioned the passive sinks on the back run at about 131F

Anyway I think Nvidia has shot themselves in the foot with this one unless newer drivers will fix the IQ and give it more speed.

RIV@NVX · Jan 28, 2003, 03:32 PM

I would like to see what will some NVIDIOT (I know who I mean, but I will not write then name) tell about this. After all, now seriously, does anyone see any similarites with NV vs 3dfx? Maybe second company theory works here?

konjini · Jan 28, 2003, 05:49 PM

What loud?

ROFL
Thx to bert for sharing this with us

.

shuki · Jan 28, 2003, 05:52 PM

http://www.dslreports.com/r0/downloa...d3/blower1.jpg

http://www.dslreports.com/r0/downloa...33/blower2.jpg

konjini · Jan 28, 2003, 06:00 PM

Ya letz photoshop rape this mofo

HsuGotaQ · Jan 28, 2003, 06:09 PM

Freakin hilarious konjini.

The second I get back to my flat. I'm photoshopping all night!

HsuGotaQ · Jan 28, 2003, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RIV@NVX
I would like to see what will some NVIDIOT (I know who I mean, but I will not write then name) tell about this. After all, now seriously, does anyone see any similarites with NV vs 3dfx? Maybe second company theory works here?

Actually, wasn't the GeforceFX co-developped with the leftover 3DFX crew (that decided to stay or was able to continue with Nvidia) after Nvidia bought whatever was left of 3DFX? If so then this would be the perfect example of how 3DFX would have still gone down the drain even if the Voodoo5 6000 (nice piece of hardware, but not consummer friendly and not powerfull enough).

DaSnIpE · Jan 28, 2003, 11:00 PM

R350 Anyone?

Raymond Lin · Jan 28, 2003, 11:27 PM

Nanananana !

Vampyromaniac · Jan 29, 2003, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by UberLord
C'mon - thats not going to be anywhere near accurate.
I could put a sensitive mic upto my CPU's "near silent" HSF and crank up the recording volume so it would sound like a vacuum cleaner on normal playback.

What we need is a certified dB rating of the cooling system

Uber, 2 of THG's sound files could be compared directly: one was FX booting up, the other was 9700 booting up; they were both recorded at the same levels.

Not to give an impression of the actual volume, but you can compare the two to see how much louder the FX is than the 9700.

Rayder · Jan 29, 2003, 10:41 AM

It seems that ATI has turned the tides and now Nvidia is the one who is struggling to keep up. I think that if Nvidia's drivers don't give significant improvement to the card in future updates, they will be forced to come out of the stratosphere on their prices that they are charging for their cards just to maitain market share.

It pretty much all adds up to some great competition between the two top video card makers and zippety-doo-da speed for consumers.

As for that fan noise issue, I guess you can say that Nvidia fan really blows.

Sounds to me that they have already overclocked the hell out of the card as a default just to get the performance that we're seeing in the benchmarks. That's why they need so much cooling power. And that could be why those reviewers were having such a hard time overclocking it.

Could be anyway.....

Jan 27, 2003, 04:56 PM	#1
digitalwanderer Colour Commentator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Highland, IN USA Posts: 5,619 Rep Power: 0	FX reactions anyone? I started a condolence thread over at nVnews in regards to the FX launch. It was inspired by a different thread I started up at a major ATI support/enthusiast site about the FX's bombi...I mean the FX's launch. So what are the reactions around here? So far I've like Ananananananananda Tech's review the best and laughed the most at Tom's. __________________ WTF is up with the sigs?

Jan 27, 2003, 05:22 PM	#4
UberLord A Legend in Underwear Join Date: May 2002 Location: Unknown Posts: 5,255 Rep Power: 0	The only reaction I've got is that I'm incredulous that nVidia actually expect people to buy it at that price __________________ Gentoo Linux - Developer (baselayout) Read my blog "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." Stephen Roberts

Jan 27, 2003, 05:25 PM	#5
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	Well, it's still so early. As we know the speeds aren't all that impressive. Well, what happened to cinema quality stuff? 128 bit color? Where is the quality? __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Jan 27, 2003, 07:28 PM	#11
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	I am not surprised. I bitched from day 1 about the 128 bit memory. For the prices all of us will be picking up R9700 pros......damn. Maybe even non pros. __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Jan 28, 2003, 12:52 AM	#12
X-Reaper Postal2.com Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 37 Rep Power: 0	GFFX Is freaking LOUD! Just heard the GFFX booting up over at TomsHardware review. GOD, it's LOUD!!! 2 slot card with this much noise, not for me. How could I sleep at night as I leave my computer on 24/7. Booting up: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...fx-boot-hq.mp3 3DMark: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...-3dmark-hq.mp3 __________________ Sof2 Multi name: {HAZARD}X-Reaper Snipers 4 Ever!

Jan 27, 2003, 05:08 PM	#2
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	id rather not say to much, except im really more than a little disappointed. im meant to be getting one soon to play with so ill be giving my first hand impressions.

Jan 27, 2003, 05:48 PM	#7
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	This is also an interesting snippet from the anandtech review: We benchmarked the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra and the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro on every single 266MHz FSB Athlon XP to produce an interesting CPU scaling chart. The tests were conducted at 1024x768 with no anti-aliasing or anisotropic filtering enabled in order to increase the dependency on the CPU and driver subsystems. The results were interesting to say the least: The interesting thing is that the GeForce FX never overtakes the Radeon 9700 Pro, it consistently falls behind by 4 - 6%. With a higher core clock, the only explanation for the GeForce FX falling behind here would be that the Radeon 9700's raw memory bandwidth advantage helps it out. We debunked this theory by increasing the FX's memory bandwidth by 10% (read: overclocked it to 1100MHz memory) and noted no more than a 0.2% increase in performance, so this test was clearly not saturating the memory bus of the GeForce FX. In theory, the GeForce FX should be outperforming the Radeon 9700 Pro here, but in reality it was not at all. All evidence points to the GeForce FX's drivers holding it back, but this seems rather atypical of NVIDIA, or does it? Historically, NVIDIA has always provided a driver release 3 - 6 months after the launch of a new GPU that has improved performance anywhere from 10 - 20% on average. With the GeForce FX being a relatively new core, we'd expect to see something very similar from them down the road. The difference this time around is that NVIDIA has a much more powerful competitor in ATI, the Radeon 9700 Pro is no sitting duck. With very mature drivers and solid performance across the board, the GeForce FX vs. ATI's Radeon 9700 is almost reminiscent of the Radeon 8500 vs. NVIDIA's GeForce3 Ti 500, but with the roles reversed.

Jan 27, 2003, 06:13 PM	#8
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	and one last point, did any of you guys download the MP3s of the fan noise??? I certainly dont think I could live with that. I thought the 9700 was loud enough.

Jan 27, 2003, 06:44 PM	#10
dipstick HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3,609 Rep Power: 71 System Specs	Definitely a big letdown. I really hope new drivers get some perf. out of this card, but how much can you really get out of just drivers? Also that fan has definitely gotta go; I trully don't know what they were smokin when they chose to put that on the card. Not all of us like our PCs sounding like a freakin vacuum and we still have reasonably good hearing. Which makes me think that they have lost their hearing by running 8 case fans and a dustbuster on their heatmaking GFFX's for the last 6 months trying to find a way to lessen the gap that was set upon them by the 9700.

Jan 28, 2003, 11:12 AM	#16
Vehicon The Cable Guy Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: USA IL. Posts: 466 Rep Power: 62 System Specs	That sound is horrible.And to think i pre ordered mine 3 days ago.DOH!!!Thing sounds like a freaking vaccum cleaner! __________________

Jan 28, 2003, 11:15 AM	#17
merry gargouille Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha Posts: 962 Rep Power: 0	Even if future drivers will improve performance with 10-20%, it's still only say 20% 'better' then the 9700, which is modest at this price. One would have expected a bigger increase given the much higher speed. __________________ There is a war between the ones who say there is a war and the ones who say there isn't. ~~Leonard Cohen Last edited by merry; Jan 28, 2003 at 11:23 AM.

Jan 28, 2003, 03:20 PM	#19
Zarathustra Elite Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: The Confederacy Posts: 841 Rep Power: 0	Uber has a point there, but you can just tell by the design and transistor count that thing is going to be damn hot and will need to be damn loud to be properly cooled. I think the Tom's review mentioned the passive sinks on the back run at about 131F Anyway I think Nvidia has shot themselves in the foot with this one unless newer drivers will fix the IQ and give it more speed.

Jan 28, 2003, 03:32 PM	#20
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,476 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I would like to see what will some NVIDIOT (I know who I mean, but I will not write then name) tell about this. After all, now seriously, does anyone see any similarites with NV vs 3dfx? Maybe second company theory works here? __________________ -- Vedran

Jan 28, 2003, 05:49 PM	#21
konjini DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Heerlen (NL) Posts: 85 Rep Power: 0	GeforceFX applications. What loud? ROFL Thx to bert for sharing this with us . __________________ iMMortal Clan (WA) Sponsored by: www.extremegameservers.net

Jan 28, 2003, 05:52 PM	#22
shuki DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: in the hidden place Posts: 1,975 Rep Power: 0	http://www.dslreports.com/r0/downloa...d3/blower1.jpg http://www.dslreports.com/r0/downloa...33/blower2.jpg

Jan 28, 2003, 06:00 PM	#23
konjini DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Heerlen (NL) Posts: 85 Rep Power: 0	Ya letz photoshop rape this mofo __________________ iMMortal Clan (WA) Sponsored by: www.extremegameservers.net

Jan 28, 2003, 06:09 PM	#24
HsuGotaQ Hydrogenated Dumbass Join Date: May 2002 Location: Canuckland Posts: 755 Rep Power: 0	Freakin hilarious konjini. The second I get back to my flat. I'm photoshopping all night!

Jan 28, 2003, 11:00 PM	#26
DaSnIpE Driverage Snipe Join Date: May 2002 Location: Montreal, Canada or NYC, USA Posts: 372 Rep Power: 0	R350 Anyone? __________________ Antec SX1030 Case - Enermax 431 W Whisper PS - 4 Case Fans -ThermalRight AX-7 With Panaflo Ultra Fan - Sb Audigy / Logitech Z-560 Speakers / Sennheiser HD497 Headphones WD 80GB 7200 rpm HD - Samsung SyncMaster 955DF - LG 16x10x40x Burner / Pionner 16x Slot DVD View my rig http://nl.dodhq.net/Rig/

Jan 28, 2003, 11:27 PM	#27
Raymond Lin DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Posts: 74 Rep Power: 0	Nanananana ! __________________ Raymondo [COLOR=deeppink]AMD Athlon 2200+ xp, ASUS A7V-333, 128MB ATI 9700 Pro, Maxtor D740X 80GB HD 7200RPM, 1536MB PC2700 RAM, Sound Blaster Audigy, Xp Home SP1, Samsung 616 DVD, CyberDrive Cd-RW, 420W PSU[/color] My Photographs on www.Photo.net, Click HERE / Email / MSN

Jan 29, 2003, 10:41 AM	#29
Rayder Mostly lurking lately.... Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 2,161 Rep Power: 73	It seems that ATI has turned the tides and now Nvidia is the one who is struggling to keep up. I think that if Nvidia's drivers don't give significant improvement to the card in future updates, they will be forced to come out of the stratosphere on their prices that they are charging for their cards just to maitain market share. It pretty much all adds up to some great competition between the two top video card makers and zippety-doo-da speed for consumers. As for that fan noise issue, I guess you can say that Nvidia fan really blows. Sounds to me that they have already overclocked the hell out of the card as a default just to get the performance that we're seeing in the benchmarks. That's why they need so much cooling power. And that could be why those reviewers were having such a hard time overclocking it. Could be anyway.....