GeForce 3 vs GeForce 2

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Can anyone answer the following questions for me ?1. Does 4x FSAA with a GeForce 3 significantly reduce texture shimmering compared to 2xFSAA with a GeForce 2 ?2. Is the GeForce 3 capable of anisotropic filtering in Direct 3D ?Best Wishes,Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[JimmiG 244]

1. FSAA on the Geforce3 does not take care of the texture shimmering. It only smooths the edges.2. Yes, but you need a separate program, like RivaTuner, in order to enable it.With 4x FSAA and the highest level of anisotropic filteing, the texture shimmering is completely gone, and the textures also seem sharper. The Aniso is great at removing texture shimmering. The jaggies are also gone thanks to FSAA. The difference is quite amazing.I play FU3 at 1024x768 with 4x FSAA and "Level8" anisotropic filtering set in Ruva Tuner and it looks pretty darn good. The FSAA on Geforce3 does not cause the banding in the sky colors, like it does on Geforce2 and Radeon (I'm sure you have seen it with your GF2).

[Guest glidernut]

Hi Chirs,I have a GeForce 2 with no shimmering at all and I dont use any haze.I use 4 times AA, and I have no jaged lins at all,All the linse are smooth. Averedge frame rate is 20.The diferens is, I have the GeForce 2 Ultra with 64 MB and the 4.13.1.1290 drivers and tweaker, and over kloked by 10%In anser to your queston, the GeForce 3 or 4 would stop yourshimmering, if only bicous thay have more MBs and probably beterdrivwes.Considering the number of times youv brort up this queston,its about time you treeted your self to an up grade.glidernut.:-wave

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Thank you John. I will let you know when I finally upgrade ! My 35th birthday is a month from now, so I may well treat myself.Before I get a graphics card, I just want to make sure that it will improve the image quality in Flight Unlimited 3, as well as increasing framerates in first person games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The most important aspect here is to get rid of the texture shimmering (which still exists with my GeForce 2 at 2xFSAA). Anisotropic filtering and 4xFSAA sounds like the way forward, and I believe that I can get a GeForce 3 Ti 200 for around

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Thanks Jimmi. It sounds like I should get a GeForce 3 Ti 200 as soon as possible ! I will probably have Riva Tuner or GeForce Tweaker on a demo CD somewhere.Best Wishes,Chris Low,ENGLAND.

[Guest jonpoint]

Chris,What? You still haven't won the card? May as well buy one I suppose :-) . Just before you fork out that money:After upgrading my processor/motherboard, I'm putting the video upgrade on hold for a while. Reason is, I set up the card again with Rivatuner for better performance. Before, with the old MB, if I tried any tweaks at all, the framerate suffered too much. Now I have 4x FSAA (1.4x1.4), anisotropic filtering enabled and a few other tweaks I got from the Leadtek site and wooooowwww! I get 20fps with all sliders on 100%. At high altitudes/nightime I've seen 45fps... Gee, all I did was change the processor/MB!The sky banding effect is barely noticeable since I tweaked the DirectX settings in Rivatuner. The other settings I changed were in bios. The Leadtek site has some great info on getting the best out of their cards and I can say this: with JUST the Rivatuner changes, I noticed a substantial improvement but couldn't get better than 15fps @1024x768, no matter what slider positions I used. I thought that the card was 'maxxed out' - then I did the bios changes and BANG! - I only get 15fps flying between buildings in Seattle during a thunderstorm. Pretty impressive. So the old GE2 gets another lease of life for a while :-) Oh yeah! I now run Motocro$$ Madne$$ 2 at 1024x768 with 'graphics quality' on 10 with NO jitters... And no, I haven't overclocked it yet!Jon Point*************************(effyouthree@hotmail.com)*************************

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Jon,I can't enable 4xFSAA with my GeForce 2 GTS, even with utilities like GeForce Tweaker or Riva Tuner. For some reason (maybe because my card doesn't actually support this), I can't get any more than 2xFSAA. That also apples to anisotropic filtering. Enabling this with GeForce Tweaker actually makes the image WORSE ! That simply means that it doesn't work.Other advantages of the GeForce 3 will be improved framerates in action games, far more compatibility with fancy graphical effects in DirectX 8.1, and more efficient anti-aliasing.I should receive my GeForce 3 Ti 200 tomorrow (