Software vs Hardware for performance

[michaelmichael]

Hello guys
a need for a litle bit of clartification is required please.

excuse my engliush at tis time but a certrain mister walker 18 years old is a little in the way.

anyway here goes the question.

I understabd that games can be controlled Video wise by either the games software or the videocards hardware. that ius all of the processing ismdone via the hardware setting , in my case ATI X1900 xtx or the games software via the games sliders.
the later uses the systems resources and s;lows down the perfotrmance whilke the later gives good frame rates.

is that true and if so  how does a fellow make sure that it is the hardware i.e. the video card that is doing all the work and not the cpu/operating system.

michaelmichael

thanks guys  
 

[Politically Incorrect]

Put Johnny down and step away from the keyboard!

If I understand what your asking you want to know how to make sure that your hardware is controlling your display in game?
You should be able to do this by turning off AA and AF in game and setting it in the video card settings, if I am not mistaken hardware settings take priority over software settings although someone else may be more informed to clarify that.

[GunnerMan]

I do belive hardware takes priority over software or will it run the textures through AA twice once through HW and once through SW? Anyway if you can make everything run on hardware, you get better quality and performance.

[michaelmichael]

Thanks guys.

Yes i left Walker at home for the time being. By the way Wiser 18 years is a fine canadian whiskey.  straight from the bottle in a snifter glass excellent stuff taken that way.

your comments re hardware over software paid off. the game now runs better.

i turned off the antialliassing and anisotictropicking or what ever it is called in the game software and  turned it up in the vid card. bit improvement.

are there any other settings i should turn off in the software.  This particular game Gothic 3 has a shader slider i turned it off.

your comments are appriciated.

michaelmichael

[GunnerMan]

Thats really about it, I don't know what the shader thing in gothic is but it sounds like it should be off.  8-)