Re: Just a URL

David Crook (dcrook@commwerks.com)
Sun, 15 Mar 1998 12:19:26 -0800

Gregory Alan Bolcer wrote:
>
> Dual inputs allow you to daisy chain graphics cards and interleave the
> rendering. For instance, Graphics Blaster's new 12Meg 3Dblaster
> (4meg frame buffer, 8meg texture -- it's unclear how this configuration
> relates to an AGP which uses main system RAM for texture) based on
> 3Dfx's Voodoo2 chipset allows up to two cards. A single
> Voodoo2 graphics enabled card is good enough for 30 frames per second
> at 800x600 for a Pentium 333mhz. Putting two of them in comes
> 99% to doubling the performance (i.e. the coordination is built
> into the hardware). The beauty of the idea? One card renders
> the odd scan lines, the other the even. Some rocket scientist
> should win a Nobel for that one.
>
> http://www.voodoo2.com/3dblaster.html
>
> Some interesting bell curves.
>
> 97% of all people can't determine the difference
> for refresh above 85Hz.
>
> 97% of all people can't determine the difference
> for frame rates above 30 fps.
>
> 80% of all source code is user interface code.
>
> What this all means is that you can trade off refresh
> and frames for quality of rendering and detail. The
> whole point isn't to play Quake2 at 120 fps, but to
> utilize it to increase graphical immersion capabilities.
> Another aspect? In the computer of the future, it probably
> won't matter much what CPU you have in it, but what graphics
> processor you have. Now, I'm not recommending shorting
> Intel and buying 3Dfx, it's just a trend that seems to
> be taking hold or else why would all these CPU producers
> start putting graphics instructions on the CPU?

Shorting Intel would be a bad idea. The voodoo2 is going to help intel
sell more high end pentium 2 processors. The folks at 3DFX have created
a 3D chipset so fast that now the CPU is the bottleneck in the system.
Tom's hardward site has a great review on these cards (diamond makes a 8
meg card, Creative labs has a 12meg). Some interesting things about the
cards are that there was almost no performace difference between the the
8 and 12 meg versions, at least for current games running at 640x480 and
800x600. On 200mhz Pentium systems the voodoo2 wasn't all that much
faster framerate wise than the original voodoo, but it could perform
faster at 800x600 faster than the original card could at 640x480. But
when you try a voodoo2 card on a 300mhz pentium 2 it just blows away all
the other cards on the market. There was a quote in the review from
3DFX saying that the ideal system for running the voodoo2 hasn't been
created yet. I guess if you buy it now you won't be upgrading your
video card for a while.

I am quake fanatic. I have a Diamond monster 3D video card with the
original voodoo chipset. I don't plan to buy a voodoo 2 chipset card
for a while because they are going to be very expensive until more
competitors jump into the market forcing Diamond's and Creative Labs
prices lower and because I'd probably have to upgrade my system to see
any serious performace increases over what I see now.

Dave