From: mbernat@gel.ulaval.ca (Marc Bernatchez)
Subject: Re: TECH: 3D cards
Date: Thu, 04 Apr 96 15:15:21 GMT
Organization: dep. de Genie electrique



What I pointed out has nothing or very little to do with the RAM vs
resolution Kim. What I meant is that even if he sees *some
acceleration* but very minimal, it is mostly probable that it's
because his card has fast 2D performances. If it was really 3D
accelerating his application, he would have seen _much_ higher levels
of performances. I.e. such a card performing 3D acceleration can
output 200,000 poly/sec and up (in optimum conditions). This is much
more that the usual 3,000 to 6,000 poly/sec that a Pentium PC based
could do by software only. Such a difference would be easy to
distinguish at first sight.

If it was just a question of RAM, he could not have used an unsuported
resolution if he didn't had enough memory anyway. In his case, the
640x480 and the 800x600 modes should be very fast compared to a PC
with a 2D only card.

So Barrett must make sure he has the OpenGL driver from Matrox AND be
using a GL implementation of the VRML browser he is using. I'm not
sure that the card directly ships with this driver so please verify
with them on that matter.

Please see my 3D card analysis for more details at:

http://www.imaginative.com/VResources/vr_artic/marcb_ar/3dcards/3dcards.html

Bye

 Marc Bernatchez             |  E-mail: mbernat@gel.ulaval.ca
 C.O.P.L. (local plt-00307)  |============================================    
 Dep. Genie electrique       |  http://www.gel.ulaval.ca/~mbernat
 Universite LAVAL            |  http://www.imaginative.com/VResources
 Quebec, Canada              |============================================
 G1K 7P4                     | Virtual Reality is the future of computers