With Id Software's upcoming Doom3 title looming on the not so distant horizon, we've been taking a sincere interest in Id's new game engine. Since it will obviously become a definitive tool in our benchmarking test suite, for next generation graphics products and related articles, we were also more than interested when our colleagues at Anandtech posted preliminary benchmark figures in their GeForce FX 5900 Ultra launch article. The scores represented here showed a significant lead for both the NV35 and NV30, versus ATi's Radeon 9700 and 9800 products. It piqued our interest for sure and we decided to ask NVIDIA what they felt may be attributing to the GeForce FX's obvious strength, at least currently, with Doom3.
The answer we got from Senior PR Manager, Brian Burke, was "UltraShadow"... It seems that Doom3's advanced lighting and shadowing effects place a heavy load on the graphics pipeline and NVIDIA feels that UltraShadow technology is a clear advantage in their architecture, versus other products on the market. We conducted a quick Q&A with Brian, on the topic of UltraShadow and Doom3, as well as its relative impact on performance in next generation game titles, that will also utilize the Doom3 engine. Before you dig in here, we suggest taking a look at NVIDIA's UltraShadow Tech Brief, if you need a refresher course on the technology.
News source: Hot Hardware
