LOSTCIRCUITS

Overclocking

As shown earlier, MSI 3D Turbo allows theoretically to overclock the MSI StarForce 822 to 350 / 579 MHz (core / memory). In reality, however, overclocking is limited to about 230 / 530 MHz before serious errors start. These numbers actually show the quality of the components used. Keep in mind that Infineon just showcased their 300 MHz SGRAM with production still being in the (near) future. Anyway, as a result of overclocking, 3DMark2001 benchmarks increased from 5468 to 6088. The question is whether it is really necessary to overclock the GeForce3 since, even at clock speed, the StarForce 822 is powerful enough to handle all applications with supreme speed, at least in everyday's use. For the sole purpose of benchmarking, yes, a bit of overhead would is nice but seriously, the gains are rather diminishing since, once again, the system becomes the bottleneck. Also, one needs to keep in mind that in standard game play, the workload is always less than in benchmarks and, therefore, there is really no concern that the GeForce3 (in this case, the MSI Starforce 822) will ever hit the limit on any commercially available or home-built system.

nVidia is trying to make everybody believe that the GeForce3 is the answer to all 3D questions and, in many ways, they are correct. The programmable Pixel and Vertex Shader are in a league by themselves and whoever has watched the Nature scene in 3Dmark2001 or the Pixel Shader will not only agree but also start wondering when acting in movies will become a thing of the past since all action elements can be recreated with photorealistic accuracy. In reality, it is not quite like that. It is still easier to have an actor pose in front of the camera and there are other reasons why the above mentioned scenario will not become mainstream reality, at least, for the moment.

There are other issues with the GeForce3, the biggest being the lack of software support for the hardware features of the GPU. When nVidia first came out with the GeForce256, the world was in awe about treemark and almost everybody expected to see this kind of visual effects incorporated in the next generation of game. That was 2 years ago and we are still waiting.

During the Game Developers Conference, I had the pleasure to have a few brief moments with Sanford Russel, Senior Director of Partner Management at nVidia who wholeheartedly disagreed with my take of the situation. Essentially, nVidia, MicroSoft and a few other game developers are putting huge efforts incoming out with 3D applications that make the GeForce3 shine in the brightest light.

Still, good games are not just created on demand, otherwise, there would be more of them around. Creativity is still largely confined to individuals with ideas and all graphics effects cannot cover bad story lines in the long run. That doesn't mean that there are no good games with good graphics, rather, it means that there is an additional delay between the capabilities of the hardware and the software that can make use of it. One other problem is that the game developers are not willing to write code exclusively for one particular graphics adapter which would preclude anyone else to use their game or if they did, it wouldn't look too good. At present there are some 50 games that take advantage of DX8, by the end of this year, the number will have increased to some 200. Thus, there is a good chance that some of these games will be interesting.

With regard to the MSI 8822, it is a GeForce like most other GeForces and that, by itself is already a guarantee for excellent features and performance. With the VIVO / capturing daughter board and the software bundle one can hardly go wrong with purchasing one, that is, if one really needs it.

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