Pixel Shading...

Aamry · Post by **Aamry** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 6:01 am

My friends laptop has a video card that supports pixel shading. My desktop has a GeForce4 MX 440, which does not support pixel shading.

My question is, why do some support it and some do not?

I know it makes a huge difference in Morrowind, as my friends water looks like a mirror, and mine looks more like a fog.

Thanks =o)

Bruce · Post by **Bruce** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 6:51 am

This seems like a really silly question. Less features == cheaper. Simple.

SothThe69th · Post by **SothThe69th** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 6:31 pm

Maybe because your friend has a GeForce4 MX 440, which is one of the low end GF4 cards.

Aamry · Post by **Aamry** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 7:19 pm

Ehh, thats not quite what I meant.

I mean why do some support it and some don't, I know the ones that do cost more, but what does a card need in order TO support it. And how would I know whether a video card I wish to purchase will or not.

SothThe69th · Post by **SothThe69th** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 7:23 pm

I can't remember what NVidia cards support it, but I'm relative sure that the newer Radeons do.

ultrabot · Post by **ultrabot** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 7:28 pm

any GF4 Ti and the GF4 Go cards support pixel shading, the MX series dont because they're essentially overclocked GF2's. I'm not so sure of the Radeon 9500, but the 9700 and 9800 do have pixel shading, and the Radeon 9200 and 9600 do support it also, however they're downtuned versions of the 9800 core, which gives them (limited) DX9 support too. High-end vs. Economy models, thats all it is.

Post by **Martin Blank** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 7:35 pm

The pixel shader is actually a dedicated part of the chip, since pixel shading requires certain algorithms that are inefficient on a general chip architecture and would slow any graphics to a crawl. The GF4 MX line does not have this feature.

Aamry · Post by **Aamry** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 9:54 pm

Ahh, Thanks Martin, and thank you ultrabot and Soth for the cards that support it.

TopCat · Post by **TopCat** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 7:47 pm

Are you telling me that I have an overclocked GF2 in my system??

OH NO! I bet the next thing you tell me is that Santa Clause isn't real either...

billf · Post by **billf** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 8:22 pm

No, no one ever said anything about you. People try not to talk about you, they are afraid you might show up.

TopCat · Post by **TopCat** » Sat Aug 02, 2003 8:23 pm

[quote="billf";p="126783"]No, no one ever said anything about you. People try not to talk about you, they are afraid you might show up.[/quote]

BillF: one other question. Do you consider shorts to be a form of pants, because I usually wear shorts while computing. I'm just checking with the god of no-pants to make sure i'm inside the law.

short_sleeved_pants · Post by **short_sleeved_pants** » Sun Aug 03, 2003 1:26 pm

Shorts are most definitly a form of pants! They're just the slort sleeved variety.

Edit: Bah! Stupid me for picking that place to host my sig... ah well I'm just too lazy right now. Back from a three week break from everything that is internet and the gears just aren't turning as quickly in my head as is normal.

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