Conclusion
I am not trying to be negative - I really like the GeForce board I have
in my machine. But NVIDIA seems to be trying too hard. It seems like they
want to be best no matter what, and if numbers turn out to be less positive,
they will twist and turn themselves to get it their way no matter what.
My conclusion is this: 3Dmark2000 is cool; use the standard settings since
they show that good software T&L can be really fast. NVIDIA's Hardware
T&L is cool too, but it's NOT perfect and it's time we realize that.
I would say that NVIDIA's GeForce is a T&L supporting accelerator,
but is a T&L accelerator with a big T and a relatively small L. The
facts to support this are out there, found in NVIDIA's own documentation.
The main thing to remind you of is that this "software test under discussion"
is a peak test; these peak software numbers are only reached when your
CPU does nothing but T&L. We know that this is not true in real life;
the CPU has to do much more in a true game situation. And this is why
GeForce will be faster in games: it takes load away from the CPU. So what
if the GPU is a bit slower than what the main CPU could do on its own
in some special peak test. The point is, in a game the GeForce will help
out and your game will run faster.
NVIDIA's defensive arguments are pushing it a bit - call it fanatical.
We found out that by using more lights, especially non-directional lights,
is very expensive (performance drops more than a whopping 50%!). Also,
using a lot of point lights and spotlights is probably a big no-no on
the GeForce, unless you would like to see a slideshow using Hardware T&L.
3DMark 2000 shows this hit, and NVIDIA doesn't like it. 3Dmark also shows
that software T&L can be optimized to offer good performance (although
it won't beat the GPU in a real game).
I do expect serious improvements in the T&L domain from NVIDIA, but
also from other companies. Imagine having 4 to 8 full speed local lights!
Hmm, things will only get better in the future. And if we, as consumers,
reveal the issues, we know for sure that companies will tackle them!