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Having the FPU operate in full precision mode does not mean that you have to send doubles to the GPU. I'm using 32 bit floats for geometry too. This flag only means that internally, the FPU computes everything in single/double precision. Besides, this 580FPS is an ill test case, normal apps don't run at this rate. So it is probably limited by CPU, in which case, I think that setting and resetting the FPU registers in every API call probably hurts a bit (even then, 3.5% is nothing). If DirectX just didn't touch it, it would probably be fine. I don't think there's any speed difference internally. Modern FPUs do most instructions in one cycle.. Sure, if you do software transforms (god forbid rasterizing), then it _might_ give you an edge, but I just don't think it's worth the trouble. Besides, DirectX was designed by humans too, it's not without design flaws...



andras


On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 07:35:18 -0700, Framework Studios: Hugo <hugo@framework-studios.com> wrote:

Well, one number I found on the decrease of Direct3D's speed with and without the FPU preserve flag:

http://discuss.microsoft.com/SCRIPTS/WA-MSD.EXE?A2=ind0504b&L=directxdev&D=1&P=3121

with: 560 fps
without: 580 fps

However I think it is a bit beside the point to 'prove' this with numbers since DirectX more or less already chose single precision for us (for a good reason, I trust). Also it seems logical for a 3D API to be faster when using float-s in stead of double-s because twice the data can be pushed to the GPU with the same bandwidth / stored in VRAM. Isn't this the same for OpenGL?

Looking at the performance of double vs float on modern CPU-s should be interesting though. Are double-s faster, slower or the same compared to float-s on 32-bit and 64-bit CPU architecture? What about the CPU-s people are actually using on average at the moment? (to sell games we need to look at what is average on the market, not only to what is top-notch :)

        Cheers,
                Hugo