server hardware for OpenGL / ATI or NVidia ?

Hello all,

since we don’t have a hardware related forum I decided to post this here.
If you want to build reliable realtime graphic systems that run 24/7 there is no other way but to use server technology/mainboards. My problem is, I am running out of options… (no more SLI support on modern server mainboards)

Not necessariely important, but I am looking for image quality improvement, not performance.

There are up to date server boards that support Crossfire, and, I never thought the day would come, I am considering to move to ATI graphic cards…
I thought you made the choice for life! :wink:

I don’t want to start yet another ATI vs. NVidia war, I would just like to hear some oppinions.

  • I don’t know how the SuperAA quality compares to SLIAA.
  • There used to be some differences concerning the usage of the back buffer after flipping?
  • Shader “interpretations” are different of course.

This is not an issue about consumer or workstation class graphics cards. That might be worth another thread…

Am I the only one with this problem?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

hi,

I will let other comments on SuperAA vs SLIAA; it is the same concept, afaik: jittered sample locations on each GPU, and compositing on swapbuffer.

for the back buffer usage after flipping, you can control this behavior with a pixel format option. (PFD_SWAP_EXCHANGE, PFD_SWAP_COPY)

for shader difference issues, we always recommend to contact both IHV with the specifics so that appropriate action can be taken (for nvidia to consider being more compliant, and for amd to consider being less compliant)

PFD_SWAP_COPY is a “hint” and was not supported on older ATI drivers and consumer cards as far as I know.