Graphic card buying guide!

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What I meant by comment on was just commenting whether or not the general idea/concept of having a "Graphics Card History" resource would be & how indepth it should go & what kind information the resource should encompass as a whole. Such a resource can be anywhere from a measly 5 to an extensive 200+ pages (depending on how wide each subject is covered). Honestly, I don't care how long it is, but if y'all prefer a really indepth detail to be included, I'm willing to do so. What I'm trying to figure out right now, is to see who & how many Graphics Forum regulars like the basic concept of having a "Graphics Card history" resource.

Oh & if y'all want an extremely extensive source, expect alot of "Alpha" & "Beta" vesrions of the Document that would exist for up to a year as information is gathered.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
I still am not sure what you mean by 'history'....If your talking about writing down the features of a riva tnt, a radeon ddr, or something like that...I dont know how usefull it would be:)

<b>I help because you suck</b>
 
If your talking about writing down the features of a riva tnt, a radeon ddr, or something like that...
:lol: Ha Ha, ummh no. What I was thinking of working on was something more of a narrative value. Its really simple to download a bunch of PDF files for hundreds of different Graphic cards & then cut & paste the features tables into a single file. Getting something like that done would be easy, extremely easy. In fact I'm already assigned to do something like this. If someone wants to take the Features list project & work on that instead of me, I could devote more time to the "history" project (that is dependent on how extensive THGC as a whole desires this project to be. Now, I was thinking something "sort of" like telling a story (NOT like a fiction story BTW, a history story.). I would start back in the days of monochrome and explain what is was like using display technology back then & the limitations of the day. Slowly I would work my way up to the present. Basically the "story" I want to present is <b><font color=green>"The Evolution of PC Display Technology"</b></font color=green>

What's really going to be a chore is how I decide to organize this project because there's so many items I would want to discuss & so many possible ways to approach "history". Also, while I am willing to make this extensive, I cannot go back & include every benchmark of every card in every review of every reviewer. I would discuss performance, but that's not the whole point of such an article. To get some things off my chest, I am providing a list of items I want to discuss:

Display types:
Monochrome
CGA
VGA
SVGA
(ETC.)

Expansion slot types:
PCI
AGP
ISA
PCI-X

APIs:
Different Revisions of OpenGL
Different Revisions of DirectX
Good ole Glide of course

Types of Graphics Cards:
Integrated
Prior to Expansion card displays possibly
2D Only
3D Only add-in
2D/3D Combo

Admittedly, 3D Graphics chip Features As well:
MIP Mapping
Vertical Sync
Multitexturing
Hardware T&L
Vertex Shaders
Pixel Shaders
Full Scene Antialiasing
Ansiotropic Filtering
(Etc, the list is endless)

Other Items as well too of course :)

Such an article by no means can be done on a chip by chip basis. It has to be more broad & flexible in the basic levels of Division. So, what I'm going to have to decide on is dividing the my "chapters" into basic eras of development. How to divide the technology into eras won't really be a cut-&dry decision at that unfortunately. As you will see by my outline, I decided that dividing it all up by the "expansion slots" isn't the best option, even as basic of division as that seems at first. Heck, even PCI Graphics hasn't "officially" died as of yet, as much as I would have liked it to have have by now. Even PCI FX 5600 cards can be found, so there's just by far too much co-development that has existed expansion slot-wise.

In my next post, I will cut & paste my outline.



My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
Okay GW, (& everyone else) You can now officially have your go at tearing up my arse. (I know GW probably will & have plenty of fun in the process :tongue:

While y'all creamating the remains of my arse, keep in mind that this is only outline is as tentative as much as it is primative (So that means that it will be incomplete & plauged with errors & typos):

D.J. Mac Farlane
Computer Literacy
Professor Springer
15 October 2003

<font color=green><b>Tentative Outline for The History of Graphics Card Development</b></font color=green>

I. ISA Video Cards
A. Monochrome ?E2 colors
B. CGA ?E4 color cards
C. VGA ?E16 color & 256 color

II. PCI Video Cards
A. 2D only cards
B. 3D only add-in cards
C. Combo 2D/3D cards
1. S3 Virge & Rendition Verite
2. Voodoo Banshee

III. AGP Video Cards

IV. PCI X16 ?EThe Future of Graphics Technology


<b><font color=green>Alternative Outline</b></font color=green>
I. 2D Only cards
A. ISA
1. Monochrome
2. CGA
3. VGA
B. PCI - SVGA

II. 3D add-in cards only
A. PCI
1. 3dfx Voodoo ?Ethe first true 3D accelerator
2. Voodoo2 ?EThe second Quantum Leap in Speedy 3D Graphics

B. AGP ?Elimited to the Voodoo2 series & extremely rare at that

III. The Beginnings of Combo 2D/3D cards
A. ?ED Decelerators?E?ES3 Virge & Rendition Verite
B. The Emergence of Mainstream Cards ?EThe Voodoo Banshee
C. The nVidia Riva TNT & Riva TNT2 lines


IV. Modern 2D/3D cards ?Ebegins with T&L
A. ATi Radeon & nVidia GeForce 256 spells doom for 3dfx with the introduction of High performance cards with Hardware T&L units and DDR RAM
B. The increasing importance of Ansiotropic Filtering & Full Scene Antialiasing
C. Vertex & Pixel Shaders + GPUs with Programmable T&L Spells the biggest recent developments in Directx 8 & 9 & OpenGL
1. DirectX 8 & 8.1/Open GL 1.3 ?EThe Emergence of Pixel & Vertex Shaders with GeForce 3 & Radeon 8500
2. Vertex Shaders & Pixel Shaders Redefined by the Introduction of ATi Radeon 9700 with PS 2.0 & VS 2.0.
3. Will the XGI Volari series compete?

V. PCI-X: The Future of Graphics Card Platforms



My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
Hell no...No one goes to that gay forum...especially to mention anus. They're liable to get anus raped if that be the case....er...uh..maybe that is.

----------
<b>I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me, Superman! </b> <i>Homer Simpson</i>
 
No comments on my new idea? 🙁

Oh, & which forum are you talking about, I'm a little lazy to weed through about 140 posts.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
LOL, almost every post you've made today in this forum had "gay" in it.

We should dub you the "Gay Poster". :tongue:

--
<A HREF="http://www.lochel.com/THGC/album.html" target="_new"><font color=blue><b>This just in, over 56 no-lifers have their pics up on THGC's Photo Album! </b></font color=blue></A> :lol:
 
We should dub you the "Gay Poster". :tongue:

Let's leave that title reserved for RobD, Wingding's Padawan Learner, or phial :evil:

Okay, phial I'm prepared to be officially arse-raped by the time your done murdering me.


My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
Where the hell is Phial anyways damn it.
That poofta has been away for a while. He didn't....betray us did he?

--
<A HREF="http://www.lochel.com/THGC/album.html" target="_new"><font color=blue><b>This just in, over 56 no-lifers have their pics up on THGC's Photo Album! </b></font color=blue></A> :lol:
 
Comeone guys, I have two long replies, & would like some feedback about these concepts.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
Oh yes, of course you'll get some work. At this moment, I'm giving you data collecting job.

Collect data in following format:

Core Clock:
Memory Clock:
Memory Bus:
Memory Type:
Memory Bandwidth:
Fill rate:
Pixel Shader version:
Vertrex Shader version:
DX support:
Max. AA:
Max. AF:
RAMDAC:
AGP Interface:
Other features: (like video capabilities etc. etc.)



Collect Data for following cards:

GeForce3 / Ti200 / Ti500
GeForce4 MX 420/440SE/440/460
GeForce4 Ti 4200/4200-8x/4400/4800SE/4600/4800
GeForce FX 5200/5200 Ultra
GeForce FX 5600/5600 Ultra/5600 Ultra rev.2
GeForce FX 5800/5800 Ultra
GeForce FX 5900/5900 Ultra
GeForce FX 5950

Xabre 400/600

Radeon 8500/8500LE
Radeon 9000/9000 PRO
Radeon 9100
Radeon 9200
Radeon 9500/9500 Pro
Radeon 9600/9600 Pro
Radeon 9700/9700 Pro
Radeon 9800/9800SE/9800 Pro
Radeon 9800XT



After collecting data, send them via PM.
<font color=red>Have you gotten any of this work done yet UFO?</font color=red>


<b>I help because you suck</b>
 
Haven't got any PM from him

----------------
<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86" target="_new">My Website</A></b>

<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/myrig.html" target="_new">My Rig & 3DMark score</A></b>
 
I thought good ole spitty didn't want me to turn anything in UNTIL I have collected everything. Oh yeah & another good reason is there is an unanswered question I had to spitfire about what type of documenf file he preferred. Y'all might want to have a look at that post and answer my question.

Not to make excuses or anything, but I AM in school, & school comes on a higher priority than this project because there are specific deadlines that if I don't meet, my grade could be affected for the courses. THat doesn't mean that I haven't given any thought to that project.

Oh & GW, I wasn't chewing you up for not helping, it was more or less for calling this a spam thread.

It is of primary importance for me to know if Spitfire has a version of Microsoft Excel XP (or compatible Spreadsheet Application) for me to start compilling a Database. Does this make sense to u guyz? It's now the "weekend" for me & I will have some stuff in soon, but plz answer that question first.

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
Don't worry about time, just make sure that it doesn't take too long.

I have M$ Excel. It would be good if you send the data in excel format.

Since you can't attach files with PM, send it as e-mail attachment.

----------------
<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86" target="_new">My Website</A></b>

<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/myrig.html" target="_new">My Rig & 3DMark score</A></b>
 
Okay, one last question is this this still a valid email address?

<A HREF="http://spitfire_x86@hotmail.com" target="_new">http://spitfire_x86@hotmail.com</A>

My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!
 
LOL. Use <email> tag instead of <url> for making clickable e-mail links.

And yes, <A HREF="mailto:spitfire_x86@hotmail.com">spitfire_x86@hotmail.com</A> is still a valid address

----------------
<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86" target="_new">My Website</A></b>

<b><A HREF="http://geocities.com/spitfire_x86/myrig.html" target="_new">My Rig & 3DMark score</A></b>
 
That's good advice. Doh! I'm 2000+ poster & I didn't even know that 😱


Oh, & I'll get started. Do you want me to do it segments at a time, (by generation for instance) or do you want everything to be compiled into a single document?
My OS features preemptive multitasking, a fully interactive command line, & support for 640K of RAM!