Ok, so I've been a little bored today at work. Found this link and some interesting info, at least it might be to some of you. There's a bunch more links to this card that I can post or look up XGI on google. These cards don't look to bad, don't have the cash to go out a buy one to try it out but might be worth it to someone who's willing to get a card other then ATI or Nvidia. Finally was slow enough to check around and see what else is out there other then the two major ones.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=13188

Ok, should have read the complete thing before posting, they don't use any 3dfx patents, it was more "Voodoo like patents" but still close enough to mention. Also after looking at some of the bench marks, it's not quite up there but who knows, I'm going to keep looking for more info on this one. Still might be worth checking out.

Like I said, I'm bored. Speed looks like it's a little slower then the Radeon 9600 Pro but faster then the 5700 Ultra.

http://www.hardwareoc.hu/index.php/p/articles/y/58.html

About their slowness..

Remember when the 8500 came out?
It's drivers were so poor, that it performed somewhat near the GF3 TI500.
Nowdays it can easily beat up a GF4TI4400

true, this thing might very well be worth keeping an eye on just because it might offer something comparable to ATI and Nvidia which would really be nice.

well, haven't read the whole article yet, but concerning these voodoo-like patents:
the vsa-100 2-way/4-way renders per scanline, i.e. the chips work together on the same picture (suppose evryone here knows that  ;) )
the v8 duo is said to work another way, in fact, one chip render exactly one picture and after giving it to the ramdac, renders the 3^rd one (due the second chip has rendered the 2^nd picture already, and so on...so each chip must process harder than any scanline interleave)...to my mind 3dfx's method is more effective & i suppose xgi would have used it if they would have got the rights for.

it's really the same thing mate..

The XGI method (and ATI's MAXX technology) uses the laternative frame method, which means each chips renders every first frame, then the second is rendered by the other chip, etc'.

So if you have 2 chips that render 20fps each, u get a total of 40fps.

3dfx is the same when it comes to how much work is put on each VSA.. since it needs to render only every second line (thus reducing the load by 50%) each chip does 50% of the work (or in voodoo56k, 25%) which is the same as XGI :)

yeah, i know, 'cause that's exactly what i said..
anyway, yours is really theoratical, thus not containing the practical use --> think hereof:


Quote:

So if you have 2 chips that render 20fps each, u get a total of 40fps.

wrong in practise! let's say, one picture, rendered by the 1^st chip shows a detailed image of an explosion. that could take its time to be rendered. so the second chip has to wait...sure, it can render the 2^nd picture already, but can't send it to the ramdac before the 1^st chip has send his picture. another thing is, sometimes you got framedrops (frames already rendered but not of use anymore as the required scene has changed too fast).
that doesn't matter with scanline procedures: both chips work together to put the 1^st picture on the screen and then work together on the 2^nd one. you see, 2 chips render a picture faster the only one chip, but 2 chips rendering each another picture brings nearly no advantages..thought 3dfx's method brings 166% while xgi's must deliver about 125-133% of one chip's power
yet, i'm sure ati & xgi would like to use scanlines but quantum3d won't be so stupid  ;D

There is /never/ a life-death difference between two frames.

You [literally] have to play a game at 0.5~1fps to have that kind of difference..

Hmm...

I 'think' SLI does have a slight advantage over AFR in terms of efficiency, but I'd have to test it to be sure.

If I had the Time, I would do a Scalability test with a Voodoo2-SLI, Voodoo5 and an ATI Rage Fury MAXX.
Unfortunately, time has become a luxury, despite all the Hardware being readily available to me :P

Oki here's a simplified comparison between the two;

Two workers have to carry boxes from point A to point B.
Now there are two ways in which they can do it;

1) Two-per-box (SLI)
Each worker carries the box half the way, then they return to point A, pick up another box, and do the proccess again.
(note that the workers have to finish carrying their current box, and return to point A before they can carry another one)

2) Box-per-worker (Alternative frame)
One worker carries a box from point A to point B, when he's done - the second worker takes another box to point B, while the first worker is running back to point A and gets ready to take another box, when the second worker is done, first worker takes his box. And so on..
(note that while the first worker is running back to point A to get ready, the second one is already running with the box, making a much more efficent proccess)

The second one is better, imho.

What about SLI'ed triple buffering :o ;D How would you put THAT?  ::)

I have no idea.. ;D

wrote on 24.03.04 at 17:58:46:

I have no idea.. ;D

A hint: the triple buffering does exactly like "2) Box-per-worker (Alternative frame) " between 2nd and 3rd buffers.  ;D The 1st buffer is only for display. Now apply SLI to this scheme  :o

So I guess 3dfx made the right choice with SLI, cos is subect to further improvements (too bad they never made triple buffering a reality... although it was planned)  :P

daniel states it, get it.. here's another hint:


wrote on 24.03.04 at 13:02:59:

2) Box-per-worker (Alternative frame) One worker carries a box from point A to point B, when he's done - the second worker takes another box to point B, while the first worker is running back to point A and gets ready to take another box, when the second worker is done, first worker takes his box. And so on.. (note that while the first worker is running back to point A to get ready, the second one is already running with the box, making a much more efficent proccess) The second one is better, imho.

what if one worker falls to the ground or even gets a heart attack?! the other has to wait, by the way.
in sli, no one would get heart attack, as they have only to do the half work, just faster..  ;D