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Radeon 8500 best for Nintendo Gamecube emulation ?

Toni

New member
Hello,

Is the 2D/3D graphics engine in the "Flipper" chip of the Nintendo Gamecube based on ATI Radeon 8500 technology ?

If so, and anticipating future Gamecube emulators (if any), would it make more sense to buy a Radeon 8500 now, instead of a Geforce 3 (Ti) ?

Toni
 

conkerman

conkerman
yes, it uses the ati flipper, possibly based on the 8500 technology but it is probably far superior as i think it does a lot more than just graphics

i doubt buying an ati radeon 8500 will do anything. the dreamcast has a powerVR-based card if i remember correctly and it wont help at all i think. We arent close to dc emulation and for sure having a powerVR card or whatever wont be such an advantage. by the time gamecube starts to get emulated, i think that the radeon 8500 will be like what the old 2d graphics cards are like. this is just my opinion and some facts, but i really think its not gonna make a difference

conkerman
 
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Toni

New member
..... the radeon 8500 will be like what the old 2d graphics cards are like.
I guess your right about this. I didn't consider it.
I'll probably do what's most save, and stick with NVIDIA.
Good performance AND drivers ;) .
 

blizz

New member
It's a shame ATI cannot produce good drivers, they've got the hardware to compete but not the drivers.
 
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Toni

New member
Blizz,

You're right!
IMHO, if someone should now how to get the best out of hardware, it should be the manufacturer.
But if they can't, they deserve to be taken not too seriously, and as a result loose sales. And if they know they are going to loose sales because of this, why not spend some extra effort and money to be #1.
I realise a bad reputation is hard to shake, but AMD did !!!
I'll wait for faster and more compatible ATI drivers till the end of January 2002. Otherwise I'll buy a nice superduper sexy NVIDIA Geforce 3 Ti card.
 

Cyberman

Moderator
Moderator
ATI has always made nice hardware, they have always been weak on support for the hardware. It's kind of sad, perhaps they should pay an independant company to make the drivers under a nondisclosure agreement?

Cyb
 
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Toni

New member
That's a good idea. But maybe too late for the 8500.
IMHO, such a company would have to be involved while developing the hardware, so they know it inside out and/or can provide input.
I think it's too late to train employees of another company for this card. Better drivers will probably take months.
ATI's predator will be eaten alive by NVIDIA during its evolution.
 

Huzza

err hello?
Hmm I would think that the new ATI cards are based on the GC hardware becuz development for the GC would have taken a bit of time.

and Xbox Hahaha I would give it about 1 year till some one finds out how to copy the Xbox OS and install it onto a PC bam there we have it a Xbox unlike N64 and other systems the Xbox is just a pc in a box and the only thing which lets it run the games are its OS HAHAHAH poor old MS they have no hope.

And one more thing this is wired when I typed Xbox in to word xp it changes the X to uppercase and it’s in the spelling thingy word has hmmmmmmmm.
:) :colgate: :plain:
 
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pj64er

PJ64 Lubba
Flipper was made by another company (not ATi)

ATi bought the said company, and therefore they also get the credit for making the Flipper.

...so the Flipper should be nothing like Radeon 8500!
 
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Toni

New member
pj64er,

if that's the case, I hope ATI puts the employees of this company to work at their future cards.
Because personally I have never heard of a game console needing a firmware upgrade to provide better performance, or compatibility, or to activate disabled features.
So these programmers must have it right from the start.
They have much more time to do their thing, but NVIDIA is proving over and over again that not much time is needed.
But I'll be forgiving for a while, and see what ATI is coming up with in January.
 

blizz

New member
the next generation of ATI cards are being designed by ARTX (the flipper guys) so look for good stuff there, however ATI better get their arse in gear when it comes to Drivers.
 

Raging Fuel

The jumbles man, the jumbles
Yeh ArtX designed the whole card, and near the end ATi bought them. ATi had almost no input into how the card turned out.
 

zeus

New member
The Flipper isn´t based on ATI technology since the sillicon was ready when ATI bought ARTX, however small amounts of ATI tech. could/should have been integrated into it, but it seems like a longshot. I can´t imagining them adding new feat. to a finished design. Newer ATI products are likely, atleast more likely then any other video card, to contain Flipper technology making them ideal for GC emulation? :plain:

In a couple of years I guess w´ll find out, that´s another beauty of console emulation. When PC hardware and architecture evolve the console has a fixed set of feat. and hardware. Eventhough a fixed hardware design doesn´t mean that all games will be emulated.

Take a quick look at n64 emulation, it has a long way to go before becoming as perfectly emulated as the snes. Eventhough it´s very enjoyble in it´s current state.;)
 

Eliminator

The Eliminator
I think there's alot more than just as OS that runs the games for Xbox....I mean it's Microsoft we're talking about here.
 
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speedbutt

Guest
yeap the dreamcast runs on Win Ce and there's still no emulator that have suceed emulated dc games perfectly yet.
 

DuDe

Emu64 Staff
speedbutt said:
yeap the dreamcast runs on Win Ce and there's still no emulator that have suceed emulated dc games perfectly yet.
"perfectly", lol. There isn`t a DC emu that can actually run a game in ANY way, no to mention in a PERFECT way. That will take a while I believe. It took 3 years until the first N64 emu ran commercial games, and I don`t expect the DC to take any less... And the DC was released at 99, wasn`t it?
 
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speedbutt

Guest
Well there suppose to be a game name namco museum or something, that run on dreamemu i think so thats why i add the word "perfectly".
 

Reznor007

New member
WinCE and Dreamcast emulation have little in common. The DC uses a Hitachi SH4 CPU, which is unemulated(other than early DC emu's).

Xbox uses a standard x86 CPU, which is fairly simple to emulate(yet hard at the same time because of a bug that prevents it being able to self-virtualize). With emulation of x86 you can HLE quite a few things fairly easily though.

A Radeon8500 can't do everything Flipper can, so it won't be the best target for Gamecube emulation...Geforce3 even lower than that. The next-gen Radeon(R300) should be able to do everything though.
 

Raging Fuel

The jumbles man, the jumbles
Oleg Zaks said:

"perfectly", lol. There isn`t a DC emu that can actually run a game in ANY way, no to mention in a PERFECT way. That will take a while I believe. It took 3 years until the first N64 emu ran commercial games, and I don`t expect the DC to take any less... And the DC was released at 99, wasn`t it?

I think it was actually '98. So maybe we might see a working emu this year... (or maybe not)
 

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