So all this is making my head spin, but I want to go 3D

[ziggy]

I've been doing a lot of reading about different 3D technologies and products. I am very sure that I want to go polarized, as I tried out active glasses at the Game Developer's Conference and while it was cool, I don't like the darkened image and I don't know if the shuttering would induce headaches after a long enough period of time.

I've tried out both IZ3D's drivers and TriDef, mostly in anaglyph mode. From what I found TriDef's drivers work WAY better on my system, yielding better performance AND better visuals.

I have the following set up:

Dell XPS 400

Windows XP Pro 32 bit

4 GB Ram

ATI Radeon HD 4890 with 1 Gig of VRAM

I've been looking at Zalman's 3D monitors and I've heard good things about them. I have not yet been able to figure out if I'd be able to use TriDef's drivers with a Zalman monitor though. If Zalman's drivers are as efficient as TriDef's I guess it wouldn't matter, but I just don't want to get it all set up and find that I lose framerates like I do with IZ3D.

Does anybody here have experience with Zalman monitors? How do they perform?

I appreciate the help!

[cybereality]

Yeah, I have a Zalman monitor and I am really happy with it. The Zalman drivers were just the Nvidia drivers but it seems their contract has run up. However the Zalmans work fine on either the iz3d or DDD drivers. I happen to prefer the iz3d drivers because they support more games but I find that the DDD drivers do a great job with the games they do support. Either way you are going to lose performance, that just goes with the territory, but certain games can be worse than others. Best to get both drivers and just use the better fit on a game-by-game basis.

In terms of polarized vs. active, its hard to say. Both technologies will reduce light output, depends on the glasses to say which is worse. Personally I think all things being equal polarized is better but there are trade-offs you have to make. If you are looking for a good all around product than the Zalman is a great choice (especially bang for your buck). However you do sacrifice some resolution (but its not as bad as you think). Overall a good buy. I paid over $700 when it first came out and I am still happy with it.

[ziggy]

Thanks for your response!

One of the first games I tried out with IZ3D was Oblivion, running at 1680x1050 with all the settings maxed. I think at best I was getting 4 FPS which was of course unplayable. Yet there is little to no impact with TriDef in anaglyph or any other mode available at the same resolution and maxed settings. It makes me wonder if maybe I was doing something way wrong in the settings with IZ3D? The only way I could alleviate the problem was to strip back ALL the detail settings, then it would return to normal framerates with IZ3D.

Anyway, if the Zalman monitor works with both driver sets, then I would probably do what you suggest and use both where fitting.

What video card are you using out of curiousity, Nvidia or ATI?

[cybereality]

I am using an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 512MB however I just snagged a used GTX 285 on eBay. My reason is that I primarily game with the Nvidia driver which works with the Zalman but only on Windows Vista/7. However the iz3d/DDD drivers work equally with ATI or Nvidia and also XP/Vista/7.

[Okta]

Thanks for your response!

One of the first games I tried out with IZ3D was Oblivion, running at 1680x1050 with all the settings maxed. I think at best I was getting 4 FPS which was of course unplayable. Yet there is little to no impact with TriDef in anaglyph or any other mode available at the same resolution and maxed settings. It makes me wonder if maybe I was doing something way wrong in the settings with IZ3D? The only way I could alleviate the problem was to strip back ALL the detail settings, then it would return to normal framerates with IZ3D.

Anyway, if the Zalman monitor works with both driver sets, then I would probably do what you suggest and use both where fitting.

What video card are you using out of curiousity, Nvidia or ATI?

There is something else very amiss if you are getting 4fps in Oblivion with a 4890, regardless of 3d impact.

[yuriythebest]

[img]There%20is%20something%20else%20very%20amiss%20if%20you%20are%20getting%204fps%20in%20Oblivion%20with%20a%204890,%20regardless%20of%203d%20impact.[/img]

indeed. I have a 4870 and from what I recall I had a decent frame rates at I think medium settings

[GHG]

To improve performence in 3D turn off AA. Its not needed in 3D and will vastly improve your performence if turned off.

[ziggy]

Well I used up my trial of TriDef, and all in all it wasn't too bad.

I noticed that anti-aliasing was automatically disabled with some games (such as Oblivion) when in 3D mode. The jaggies really aren't noticeable in 3D, and I wouldn't mind it being off in that case. However, I was still forcing it with the ATI control center, yet it was having no visual effect. Is it possible that forcing AA anyway could result in a performance hit?

[tritosine5G]

This is the bare minimum for 3d , someone can lend me a quake wars acc to try? You can create 3 with 1 cdkey.
2x GTS250 beats a GTX285 very bad.
2x underclocked GTX275 == GTX295
1x GTX295 == GTX480 , in most of games, where the 295 not geometry limited and 480 not texture limited.

So 480 is about only , only 50-60% faster than 2x GTS250 !!! SLI awfully close to 5850 .


you can count in 1024 resolution as some form of 720p + AA.

[cybereality]

I noticed that anti-aliasing was automatically disabled with some games (such as Oblivion) when in 3D mode. The jaggies really aren't noticeable in 3D, and I wouldn't mind it being off in that case. However, I was still forcing it with the ATI control center, yet it was having no visual effect. Is it possible that forcing AA anyway could result in a performance hit?

The TriDef driver automatically adjusts settings for the best experience. They usually do this when the game settings cause serious bugs or large performance hits for the 3D driver, like in some cases disabling shadows or, in your case, disabling AA. I don't think there is any way to get around this, and even if you could, its probably disabled for a reason.