3 Dfaq
3 Dfaq
v 0.9
27 September 1995
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[*]http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~bm/3dcards/3d-cards1.html
[*]http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~bm/3dcards/3d-cards2.html
[*]ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/pub/bm/3d-cards.1
[*]ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/pub/bm/3d-cards.2
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TODO:
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Contents of Part 1
[*]Introduction
[*]Disclaimer
[*]Section I: Frequently Asked Questions
Contents of Part 2
[*]Section V: Other boards
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Introduction
I haven't seen or used many of these cards, and all figures are the
manufacturers own, as near as I can verify. I am not promoting
any one card or company over any other. Any anecdotes, speed
comparisons, etc., that I collect will be included on a purely
informational level. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Of course, I will
not include anything I do not believe or know to be false.
No representation is made as to the accuracy of these figures/technical
specs. If you are going to buy/bet the farm/otherwise invest
in one of these products, CONTACT THE MANUFACTURER first and
make sure that what you want is what you'll get!!!
CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!
All trademarks etc are copyright of their respective owners etc.
etc.
Furthermore, many of these boards are not yet available, so you
should find out delivery dates before getting your heart set on
any given one.
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Section I: Frequently Asked Questions
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Q01) Are there any 3D graphics accelerators for PCs?
I'm glad you asked. There are quite a few, with more coming out
all the time. See the rest of this document for more information.
(Ok, it's a stupid question, but I needed something in the FAQ section)
Check out
[*]http://sunsite.unc.edu/gpc/gpc.html
for information about the GPC activities.
Unfortunately, the GPC Quarterly is about US$200/year, which is beyond
my budget. Thus, to get their benchmark results, you'll have to
talk to them. However, the benchmarking tool they use to measure
OpenGL performance, called Viewperf, is available for free. From
the README that comes with Viewperf:
First, a comment about the GLINT 300SX chip, which I will make because
it was not clear to me when I first read their specs. They mention
texture mapping acceleration, but on the 300SX texture maps are held
in host memory and per pixel information is sent to the chip which
performs the necessary interpolations and applications. For the upcoming
300TX, the texture maps are held in local memory on the graphics
card (the "localbuffer") and the host just sends per vertex information
to the chip which performs all the texture mapping calculations.
Information on the 300SX can be obtained from the 3DLabs home page
at
[*]http://www.3Dlabs.com/3Dlabs/ or by sending email to [*][email protected].
The technical specs below were copied directly from the page [*]http://www.3Dlab
s.com/3Dlabs/300SXinf.html
GLINT 300SX Overview
3D ACCELERATION
SPECIAL FEATURES
DISPLAY MODES
Resolutions up to 2560x2048
8, 16 or 32-bits per pixel RGBA and 4 or 8-bit color indexed
Packed 8, 16 and 32-bit pixels
Supports advanced modes: double buffering, stereo and overlays
Gouraud shading
Depth buffering
Anti-aliasing
Dithering
Depth cueing and fog
Texture mapping
Scissor and stipple masking
Alpha blending
Logical Operations (e.g. XOR)
LOCALBUFFER CONTROLLER
The localbuffer holds optional off-screen information for each pixel
including; depth (Z) values, stencil data, arbitrary window clip
planes, plus a control field for fast window clearing. The format
for each field is user defined, up to a maximum of 48 bits.
2D Graphics performance
1M 10 pixel vectors/sec
500K 10x10 pixel, flat shaded rectangles/sec
500K 9x13 pixels characters/second
Scroll Rate 48M pixels/second - 8 bits/pixel
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CS02) Lockheed Martin Real3D
The chip set provides faster processing through its patented hardware
design which incorporates geometry processing, rasterization and
texture mapping. The R3D/100 embedded floating point geometry processor
removes significant processing burden from the host CPU. The patented
texture processor applies color mipmapped texture to polygons in
true 3D corrected perspective.
Designed as a true polygon processor with texture processing and
scaleable texture memory from the outset, the R3D/100 chip set includes
dedicated hardware acceleration of mipmapped texturing that provides
continuous high fidelity image quality. This chip set simulates spotlights,
fog and realistic curved surfaces. Additionally, improved image quality
is provided with multi-pass anti-aliasing.
The R3D/100 chip set directly interfaces with Microsoft 3D/DDI and
supports all 3D/DDI-compliant APIs, such as OpenGL(tm) and comes
with device driver software and a device driver kit.
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CS03) S-MOS SPC1500 3D Graphics Geometry Processor
Information on the 3GA can be obtained from the ARTIST Graphics home
page at
[*]http://artgraphics.com/
The technical specs below were copied directly from that page.
Features
High performance 3D graphics processor
Windows 3.1, Windows NT, Windows '95, OS/2 2.1 and OS/2 Warp
AutoCAD
Hoops
OpenGL
3D APIs: Argonaut BRender, Criterion Software RenderWare, Rendermorphic
Reality Lab, Inter 3DR
System Overview
A graphics system designed around the 3GA graphics accelerator requires
only VRAM, a video DAC, clock generator, and a small number of external
buffers. The 3GA graphics accelerator supports a 64 bit wide data
path to its local memory array and contains interfaces to an external
clock generator, DAC, and ROM BIOS.
Performance
Estimated performance, based on 8 bits per pixel, 10 pixel lines,
50 pixel triangles, 90 MHz Pentium CPU, PCI bus.
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2D lines........................................1,600,000 lines/second
3D lines (shades, Z-buffered).....................280,000 lines/second
2D texture mapped triangles........................75,000 triangles/second
3D texture mapped triangles (Z-buffered)...........65,000 triangles/second
3D Gouraud shaded triangles (Z-buffered)..........110,000 triangles/second
Screen-to-screen BitBLTs.......................80,000,000 pixels/second
Memory-to-screen BitBLTs (color expanding)....245,000,000 pixels/second
Fill rate...................................1,100,000,000 pixels/second
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Section III: Boards using Chips in Section II
The 3DEMON provides workstation class 3-D graphics and high performance
2-D acceleration using the GLINT (tm) 300SX 3-D processor from 3Dlabs.
Frame buffer:
Local buffer:
4 or 8 Mbyte DRAM
Software Compatibility
Hardware Compatibility
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Steve Gillaspy
Omnicomp Graphics Corp.
1734 W. Sam Houston Pkwy N.
Houston, TX. 77043
Phone: 713-464-2990
Fax: 713-827-7540
email: [*][email protected]
COMMENTS: From Chris Hinch ([*][email protected]):
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These guys are brilliant - they are responsive, and have been really
helpful in my own research, often pointing me in the direction of
other people and companies who can help, as well as showing a solid
technical understanding of my requirements and making recommendations
based on that understanding.
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CONTACT INFORMATION:
Joy Li
ELSA Inc. Graphics Corp.
2041 Mission College Blvd.
Suite 165
Santa Clara, CA 95054
Phone: 800-272-3572
Phone: 408-565-9669
Fax: 408-565-9650
email: [*][email protected]
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GLINT04) Omnicomp 3Demon VR
(was Media Labs Inc. 3DMedia)
Formerly the Media Labs Inc. 3DMedia. The name changed when Media
Labs was aquired by Omnicomp. The former 3DMedia SR (which I'll call
the 3Dmedia VR (SR?)) is a true high performance 3D accelerator based
on the 3DLabs GLINT 300SX chip.
The 3Demon VR (formerly the 3DMedia SX) provides the same features
as the SR, plus additional features such as genlocking to eliminate
annoying scrolling bars due to magnetic interference between two
monitors in a dual-headed configuration. Furthermore, in provides
an on-board studio quality encoder which outputs video in NTSC, PAL
or S-Video formats.
3Demon VR (SR?)
3D Acceleration:
Flexible output:
Optimized Bandwidth
Product Specification:
3Demon VR
Phase locking:
Hardware - 3D Acceleration
Hardware - 2D Acceleration
Video Modes
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Resolution Color depth (bit/pixel) Line Frequency (KHz) Refresh Rate (Hz)
---------- ----------------------- -------------------- -----------------
640 x 480 8, 16, 32 31,5 - 52,5 60 - 100
800 x 600 8, 16, 32 37,9 - 64,0 60 - 100
1024 x 768 8, 16, 32 48,4- 80,9 60 - 100
1280 x 1024 8, 16, (32) 64,0 - 100,0 60 - 95 (75)
1600 x 1200 8, 16 74,5 - 84,6 60 - 68
The 3DE-300SX from Force Inc. combines the GLINT 300SX with 4 Mbytes
of VRAM and up to 8 Mbytes of DRAM. Both IBM PC-AT Japanese DOS/V
and NEC PC98 are supported plus Windows NT 3.5, OpenGL and RenderWare
1.4.
Available now in Japan. For more detailed information, please contact:
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NVIDEA01) Diamond Edge 3D Accelerators
The information on these boards were obtained from Diamond Multimedia
Systems home page at
[*]http://www.diamondmm.com/
They contain the [*]NVidia/SGS-THOMSON NV1/STG-2000 chipset.
The boards are PCI-based and sport a digital gameport for precise
joystick control, as well as two video gameports that allow specialized,
multi-player versions of Sega Saturn titles, such as the arcade hit
Virtua Fighter Remix, to be played on Windows 95 PCs. It is expected
to be initially shipped in late October at consumer prices starting
from $249 - $299.
With Diamond Edge 3D accelerators, game developers can support resolutions
as high as 1024x768 with 65,000 colors while still achieving fast,
realistic action. In the past, this type of technology was available
only to engineers and designers with prices topping $2,000.
The 3D functions of the Diamond Edge 3D were designed specifically
for the consumer multimedia market where the primary application
is interactive entertainment. Traditionally, 3D graphics were created
by drawing large numbers of successive polygons using the CPU, which
resulted in a tradeoff between detailed graphics and speed of interactivity.
With the Diamond Edge 3D, the hardware engine accelerates polygon
rendering of real-time, texture-mapped 3D images at the highest possible
frame rates without unduly slowing the CPU. In addition, the Diamond
Edge 3D can create realistic 3D graphics by using nine control points
to create a curved surface, called quadratic texture mapping (QTM).
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Section V: Other boards
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B01) AccelGraphics AG300 and AG500
The AG300 and AG500 are very similar. I'll describe the AG300 first
and then outline the differences. Both support a dual screen configuration
with two of the same card.
ACCELGRAPHICS AG300
Performance
Benefits
Hardware Features
Open GL
HOOPS and 3DR planned for early 1995
Supported Applications
ACCELGRAPHICS AG500
Contact Information:
Corporate Headquarters:
AccelGraphics, Inc.
1942 Zanker Road
San Jose, CA 95112
408-441-1556
408-441-1599 fax
Western Region:
Kim Rawlings
714-589-2453
714-589-2483 fax
[*][email protected]
Central Region:
Dan Vitale
513-858-1400
513-858-2905 fax
[*][email protected]
Southern Region:
John Caravello
407-834-7275
407-834-9052 fax
[*][email protected]
Europe:
David Holman
011-44-1635-40122
011-44-1635-551-147 fax
[*][email protected]
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B02) ISC PowerGL
The PowerGL card is the Accelgraphics AG300 being sold OEM by ISC,
which is described above. Since the AG300 and the PowerGL are the
exact same card, I won't repeat the specs here. Talk to both companies,
see which one better suits your needs.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
International Software Corporation (ISC)
Suite 275
433 Park Point Drive
Golden, CO 80401
Orders: 1-800-488-4721
Fax: 303-526-0581
E-mail: [*][email protected]
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B03) Evans & Sutherland Freedom
PRESS RELEASE:
Monitor
Video timing supports any monitor capable of displaying the listed
resolutions in non-interlaced mode. 15 pin D-shell VGA connector
Availability
The Freedom Graphics product will be initially sold through OEM's
and Value-Added Resellers, who will be announced along with the product.
The product will be available on the product announcement date.
Freedom Graphics is a trademark of Evans & Sutherland Computer
Corporation. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics
Inc. All other products are trademarks of their respective companies.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Jennifer Hughes
Evans & Sutherland
[*][email protected]
Phone: 1-800-367-7460
Facsimile: (801) 582-0524
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B04) Matrox Impression Plus
FROM THE SPEC SHEET:
Windows Features:
40 million Winmarks
175 MHz DAC or optional 220 MHz DAC
1600 x 1200 in 256 and 65K colors
1280 x 1024 in 16.7m colors
110 Hz refresh at 1280 x 1024 resolution
120 Hz refresh at 1024 x 768 resolution
Windows resolution and colours: (* requires 4Mb VRAM)
Multimedia Features:
Support for VESA Media Channel (VM Channel) video expansion standard
and PowerPlay64
32 bit connector for increased video datapath (100 Mb/second)
1600 x 1200
1280 x 1024
1152 x 882 256*
1024 x 768 256*
800 x 600 256, 65k*
640 x 480 256, 65k*
Models Available:
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MGA-IMP+/P: PCI Bus
2Mb VRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
1600 x 1200 in 256 colors
800 x 600 in 16.7m colors
VM Channel upgradable
MGA-IMP+/V: VL Bus
2Mb VRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
1600 x 1200 in 256 colors
800 x 600 in 16.7m colors
VM Channel upgradable
MGA-IMP+/A: AT Bus
2Mb VRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
1600 x 1200 in 256 colors
800 x 600 in 16.7m colors
VM Channel upgradable
MGA-IMP+/P/220: PCI Bus
2Mb VRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
220 MHz DAC for 85Hz @1600x1200
Other specifications same as MGA-IMP+/P
MGA-IMP+/V/220: VL Bus
2Mb VRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
220 MHz DAC for 85Hz @1600x1200
Other specifications same as MGA-IMP+/V
MGA-IMP+/A/220: AT Bus
2Mb VRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
220 MHz DAC for 85Hz @1600x1200
Other specifications same as MGA-IMP+/A
MGA-MOD/2Mb/1 2Mb upgrade for MGA Impression Plus
1600x1200 in 256 and 65K colors
1280x1024 in 16.7m colors
MGA-MOD/VMC VideoLogic PowerPlay64 video accelerator chip
1280 x 1024 at 30 frames per second
MGA-MOD/VMC/2MB 2 Mb upgrade for MGA Impression Plus and VideoLogic
PowerPlay64 video accelerator chip for 1280 x 1024 at 30 frames per second.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Telephone 1-800-361-1408
Matrox Graphics Inc.
1055 St Regis Blvd
Dorval, Quebec
Canada H9P 2T4
Telephone: 514.685.2630
Facsimile: 514.685.2853
COMMENT: From Chris Hinch ([*][email protected]):
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I heard comments on comp.sys.opengl that, at the moment, the Impression
Plus doesn't have "true" OpenGL support under Windows NT. I don't
know if this is correct or not.
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From Blair MacIntyre:
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This is partially true. Someone from Microsoft posted saying that
NT 3.51 will include the appropriate driver for OpenGL for this card.
TrianGL Features
Specifications
Software Support
Oki supports TrianGL on PC and RISC PC platforms with host software
drivers for Windows NT 3.5. OpenGL and DDI support are available
for Intel and Mips platforms. Other popular APIs, including AutoCAD,
will be supported in future software releases.
Look for future TrianGL versions with higher resolution, and a PCI
bus interface.
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B06) Intergraph GLZ Series
GLZ5--cost-effective photorealism
Our GLZ5 offers the same high-performance shading and geometry acceleration
as does GLZ6. With 12 MB of VRAM, GLZ5 supports resolutions up to
1,152 x 864. Two megatexels (8 megabytes of texture memory) provide
more than enough texture storage for adding patterns to furniture,
waves to water, or trees to parks and forests.
GLZ5's low price may even tempt you to invest in dual screens and
LCD shutter glasses for a stereoscopic adventure into virtual reality!
GLZ1, GLZ3, and GLZ5 support Intergraph Computer Systems' 17- and
21-inch multi-sync monitors at resolutions up to 1,152 x 864. The
following table indicates the currently supported screen resolutions
in full 24-bit, true-color, double-buffered mode.
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Resolutions Colors Maximum
supported supported refresh
6.8 M rates
1,152 x 864 X 72 Hz
1,024 x 768 X 85 Hz
800 x 600 X 85 Hz
640 x 480 X 85 Hz
PRICING
ProVision Merlin - PC/DOS based graphics System, Pentium Option
PVMVPX1-PM: US$19,400
The ProVision Merlin is an advanced virtual reality, simulation,
or entertainment computer system with the VPX Pixel-Planes(tm) graphics.
This 66 MHz Intel(R) Pentium(R) PC includes a compact, rugged, industrial-
class chassis, 300 watt power supply, 4 available EISA slots, a keyboard,
mouse, 16Mbytes RAM, 500Mbyte Disk, 14" color monitor, MS DOS, MS
Windows, and a VPX-Mono image generator board. The ProVision Merlin
supports mono head mounted displays and NTSC video monitors. The
graphics system includes Division's dPL graphics runtime library
for the VPX. One VPX-Mono image generator is included in this system.
Q02) added pointers to the OpenGL home page and the Viewperf
ftp directory
Changed entries: