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Albatron GeForce 7800 GTX Technology Below are some of the technical improvements you will see with the 7800 GTX architecture. We are just going to touch on some of these so you have some idea what's new at the table. The yellow colored explanations are simple copy/paste definitions off the NVidia website. CineFX 4.0 Subsurface Scattering: You have seen someone shine a flashlight through their hands before where it shines though the skin in varying degrees and not the bone. Subsurface Scattering is effectively the process of partial translucent lighting being rendered as it is with the example we just noted. Intellisample 4.0 Transparency Supersampling: Transparency adaptive supersampling and multisampling take additional texel samples and antialiasing passes to enhance the quality of thin-lined objects such as chain link fences, trees, and vegetation. These types of objects are generally rendered on very simple polygon models (or even one polygon). The complexity of the final image (a group of branches or vegetation) comes from the texture that is mapped onto the polygon. Conventional antialiasing does not help this situation, because the edges of the vegetation or branches are actually inside the projected texture. Pixels inside a polygon are not touched by current antialiasing methods. Intellisample 4.0 Transparency adaptive multisampling: Transparency adaptive multisampling also improves antialiasing quality—with even higher levels of performance because one texel sample is used to calculate surrounding subpixel values. Although transparency adaptive multisampling is not as high quality as the supersampling method, its increased efficiency balances improved image quality and high levels of performance. The visual improvements of adaptive supersampling are obvious when compared to generic supersampling/multisampling approaches. Radiosity is offered as the process by which light bounces off objects and the light's subsequently affected color being reflected onto other objects. For example, a gray object in a blue room will have a gray with a bluish hue in the final visual perception. Put the object in a red room and you get a red hue in the final visual perception. Performance As previously noted at the review’s beginning, we have revamped our testing methodology which will undoubtedly go through some continual change in the coming months. At present, we are shifting to measuring smoothness of game play. To do this, FRAPS is being used to record frame rates over a period of time (200 second segments) during a set sequence or map in each of several currently popular games. These include, Quake 4, Battlefield 2, Half Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry, and Unreal Tournament 2004. Multiple runs per game were recorded and compared to ensure the results recorded and graphed are what would be reasonably expected within the parameters of our test bed. Another shift you will see from this point forward here at the Penthouse Labs is that of our moving away ‘speed runs’ with advanced graphical features and eye candy turned off to get a maximum of raw flat out speed. Testing will be limited to 1600 x1200 resolution with settings set to higher quality levels with full screen antialaising and aniscopic filtering maxed out from within the settings of each game in an effort to really tax the 7800 GTX. We will no longer be doing Full Scene Anti Aliasing and Aniscopic Filtering comparisons between NVidia and ATi cards as each company goes at these processes in a different manner and a direct comparison focusing on performance would be an apples to oranges affair. We will however be looking at some screenshots to better evaluate the quality of the image rendered so the end reader can decide what looks best to them. The most recent NVidia drivers, v81.85 were used in all tests. Test Bed
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