3dm2k3's new policy; WHQL or official drivers only, NO MORE CHEATING!

digitalwanderer · Mar 24, 2003, 11:44 AM

YES!!!

There's a blurb at Futuremark about how they have disabled (at least for the time being) all current submitted results using the questionable drivers, Detonator 42.67, 42.68 and 42.69.

Gratuitous blurb that I loved:

Quote:

The reason for this is that the drivers have been officially stated as optimized for 3DMark03, and we can not verify the purity and integrity of the drivers. We are investigating the drivers and their effect on 3DMark03 - both performance and the rendering quality (ie. image quality).

Credit goes to galperi1 over at R3D for his post about it and for giving me the opportunity to point it out to the folks at nVnews. (It should provide for a fun afternoon of arguing.

)

Erroneus · Mar 24, 2003, 12:42 PM

Nice enough, no more shitty optimized 3dmark drivers from Nvidia sacrifising quality

but isn't easy to cheat about what driver version your using...

***Zardon*** · Mar 24, 2003, 01:00 PM

about time that happened.

***Zardon*** · Mar 24, 2003, 01:01 PM

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...dmark03_8.html

Quote:

First of all, we should congratulate NVIDIA and the company’s software developers. Their 42.68 drivers helped GeForceFX 5800 Ultra based card to outrun its main rival, RADEON 9700 PRO nearly in all the tests and resolutions. We won’t say anything about the price-to-performance ratio of the two leaders in the current graphics card market, as the price of GeForceFX 5800 Ultra has not yet been finalized. You can only be sure that it’s going to be VERY expensive.

~~Asuka~~ · Mar 24, 2003, 01:54 PM

It really was already high noon they did something about nVidia's foul cheating! After they realized that their GeFarce FX sucks donkey balls and they're too stupid to do something about it the ordinary way, they started with this foul behavior as a last resort... how shameful!

***Zardon*** · Mar 24, 2003, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Asuka
After they realized that their GeFarce FX sucks donkey balls and they're too stupid to do something about it the ordinary way

lol, next time stop sitting on the fence man, say what you mean !!!

~~shai~~ · Mar 24, 2003, 01:56 PM

why does it realy matter nvidia gets the worst marks anyway...

shuki · Mar 24, 2003, 02:04 PM

but somehow nvidia will come out looking alright. they always seem to end up on top somehow... remember that inquirer article about nforce mobo's and they were blaming mobo mfgr's on this BIOS freeze issue and laid no blame on nvidia's doorstep...

*CATALYST maker* · Mar 24, 2003, 02:16 PM

And at this point CATALYST MAKER jumps up and down with joy, and declares to the world that

"ALL CATALYST POSTINGS WILL BE WHQL CERTIFIED, AND THEY WILL BE POSTED 10 TIMES A YEAR"

and walks off in the sunset......

riles9262 · Mar 24, 2003, 02:21 PM

sleazy buggers...its their fault if their new hi perf card licks balls...they knew what ati brought to the table for many months b4 they released their fx...they shouldnt have to sink to this level to ensure hi scores...

riles9262 · Mar 24, 2003, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CATALYST maker
And at this point CATALYST MAKER jumps up and down with joy, and declares to the world that

"ALL CATALYST POSTINGS WILL BE WHQL CERTIFIED, AND THEY WILL BE POSTED 10 TIMES A YEAR"

and walks off in the sunset......

amen CM, amen

shuki · Mar 24, 2003, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CATALYST maker
And at this point CATALYST MAKER jumps up and down with joy, and declares to the world that

"ALL CATALYST POSTINGS WILL BE WHQL CERTIFIED, AND THEY WILL BE POSTED 10 TIMES A YEAR"

and walks off in the sunset......

ROTFL

digitalwanderer · Mar 24, 2003, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CATALYST maker
And at this point CATALYST MAKER jumps up and down with joy, and declares to the world that

"ALL CATALYST POSTINGS WILL BE WHQL CERTIFIED, AND THEY WILL BE POSTED 10 TIMES A YEAR"

and walks off in the sunset......

Da CatalystMaker is da man!

riles9262 · Mar 24, 2003, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
Da CatalystMaker is da man!

i second that!

~~Asuka~~ · Mar 24, 2003, 03:20 PM

Originally posted by CATALYST maker
And at this point CATALYST MAKER jumps up and down with joy, and declares to the world that

"ALL CATALYST POSTINGS WILL BE WHQL CERTIFIED, AND THEY WILL BE POSTED 10 TIMES A YEAR"

and walks off in the sunset......

At which point nVidia is ultimatively hopelessly lost... they could only reconsider their target market and sell their GeForce FX to Rap bands: "Yo, nVidia, bring the noise!"

Chaos · Mar 24, 2003, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CATALYST maker
And at this point CATALYST MAKER jumps up and down with joy, and declares to the world that

"ALL CATALYST POSTINGS WILL BE WHQL CERTIFIED, AND THEY WILL BE POSTED 10 TIMES A YEAR"

and walks off in the sunset......

hummm sounding pretty cocky for a dude who's company released the Rage chipset!!!!

Yes ATi is kickin' butt ATM but so is the USA, only time will provide the real truth

And just incase your curious I own an ATi card and the USA is my next door neighbour......

hehehehe I just felt rebellious and needed a place to vent my frustration, or I have read to many of DIGI's rant's and thought I'd join in on this one

Matth · Mar 24, 2003, 03:40 PM

Aiming for **WHQL DRIVERS ONLY**

Now that is NOT a great move, since tweaked/tuned drivers are a valid facet of graphics benchmarking.

The obvious answer, would be to make some quality tests part of the main benchmark, or to confine any nonstandard setups to a second "open" section.

If 16 bits improves the speed, with a qulity loss noticeable only on static image comparison, then it is a valid method of improvimg performance.

~~Optimummind~~ · Mar 24, 2003, 07:24 PM

Those who are slamming nVIDIA are absolute morons. nVIDIA didn't even play a role in the 3DMark03 fiasco. So what if their BETA drivers got leaked? It wasn't their official or WHQL'ed drivers that were under suspicion. nVIDIA reps didn't tout anything about those BETAs. I'm surprised even Zardon is making such stupid comments.

Soloboy · Mar 24, 2003, 07:53 PM

I had to sign up on the forum just to get in on this.

I gotta agree with Optimummind. These are there beta drivers. The ones they have in their lab and try out all sorts of different settings on. Its not like these were ever officaly released or even endorsed by nvidia. For all you know nvidia was just experimenting with other settings and just lowered the quality so it was easier to determine how well other optimizations work by making benchmarks less gpu limited. Experimenting isnt a bad thing at all.

Besides I dont remember anyone getting this worked up even when ATI released drivers for the 8500 that had a SPECIFIC reference to Quake3 so that it could lower the image quality.

Whats worse? ATI making a specific references to a game in order affect quality/performance or some leaked beta drivers that probaly arent even for public use useing some different settings?

Not to mention the slew of problems ATI drivers have had in the past. If I'm not mistaken the lastest Catalyst 3.2 causes games that run on the Half-life engine to lock up.

Im not saying Nvidia is great and ATI sucks. God knows that the Det 40's atleast had some issues. I also believe that the 9700/9800 is superior to the GFX and that the GFX was a dissapointment.

Like they say "He who has no sins may cast the first stone"

Soloboy

BWX · Mar 24, 2003, 08:57 PM

I liked Nvidia BEFORE the GFFX debacle, I think that is about the time they turned into a good company /w a good product/DRIVERS into a company that grew complacent w/ their success of the GFti series and earlier cards.

Now they are embarassed and were/are trying to 'cheat' to save face w/ the optimized drivers for 3DMark03 (which they KNEW would be leaked). let's not turn into a bunch of OSTRICHES!

They are still a good company that works hard (especially in the driver department) which I appreciate. The next year will really show what Nvidia is made of.

I believe FutureMark had every right to pull the scores, the drivers were obviously a "cheat" in a way. Although it does make my wonder if they are in kahoots w/ ATI on other levels.

digitalwanderer · Mar 24, 2003, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Soloboy
I had to sign up on the forum just to get in on this.

I gotta agree with Optimummind. These are there beta drivers. The ones they have in their lab and try out all sorts of different settings on. Its not like these were ever officaly released or even endorsed by nvidia. For all you know nvidia was just experimenting with other settings and just lowered the quality so it was easier to determine how well other optimizations work by making benchmarks less gpu limited. Experimenting isnt a bad thing at all.

Besides I dont remember anyone getting this worked up even when ATI released drivers for the 8500 that had a SPECIFIC reference to Quake3 so that it could lower the image quality.

Whats worse? ATI making a specific references to a game in order affect quality/performance or some leaked beta drivers that probaly arent even for public use useing some different settings?

Not to mention the slew of problems ATI drivers have had in the past. If I'm not mistaken the lastest Catalyst 3.2 causes games that run on the Half-life engine to lock up.

Im not saying Nvidia is great and ATI sucks. God knows that the Det 40's atleast had some issues. I also believe that the 9700/9800 is superior to the GFX and that the GFX was a dissapointment.

Like they say "He who has no sins may cast the first stone"

Soloboy

One problem with that......these sets WERE the ones that nVidia was pushing the review sites to use......

The_Neon_Cowboy · Mar 24, 2003, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by digitalwanderer
YES!!!

There's a blurb at Futuremark about how they have disabled (at least for the time being) all current submitted results using the questionable drivers, Detonator 42.67, 42.68 and 42.69.

Gratuitous blurb that I loved:

Credit goes to galperi1 over at R3D for his post about it and for giving me the opportunity to point it out to the folks at nVnews. (It should provide for a fun afternoon of arguing. )

so doesthat mean they better ban drivers most drivers? ATI and Nvidia optumze for 3dmark in one way or anther it just a matter of who gets cought ... last time it was ati on 3dmark2001/SE/quake 3 etc... that got cought cheating so this means so very little to me...

some info on the old quake 3 cheating...
http://www4.tomshardware.com/blurb/2...s_ati_cheating

I frgot were I fond the artical on how to mod 3dmark2001/se to do the same things....

The_Neon_Cowboy · Mar 24, 2003, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Soloboy
I had to sign up on the forum just to get in on this.

I gotta agree with Optimummind. These are there beta drivers. The ones they have in their lab and try out all sorts of different settings on. Its not like these were ever officaly released or even endorsed by nvidia. For all you know nvidia was just experimenting with other settings and just lowered the quality so it was easier to determine how well other optimizations work by making benchmarks less gpu limited. Experim