CompuServe Messages

Just thought I would drop a note concerning all this tech stuff since I've doing a lot of research lately for the same reason: MAX and World Builder 1. Did a demo of the new SGI Indigo2 Extreme last week with the brand new video subsystem. It knocked my socks off. SGI has another video subsystem in the works due out November and its 2-3 times faster than the one I saw. The basic box starts at $35,000. 2. Talked to Intergraph also and was inpressed with the GLZ video subsystem. They are going to do a demo for me later. 3. The 3D Demon GLint board has some good spec for those on a tighter budget plus you can buy the board separately. 4. Got info on the AccelGraphics board. They advertise it as faster than the GLint stuff at 250K triangles/sec versus 150K for the GLint. Basically I came to this conclusion: If you want to go to 3D MAX the Mips processor is probably the ultimate since it has better floating point performance. Also the 10000 series processor will be out next year. Cost is astronomical. Windows NT on SGI? You could run 3D MAX and Alias on one machine. Hmm….. The Alpha is next. 300Mhz due shortly and I can get a 275Mhz basic box right now for around $5000. Probably the best overall solution but the video (OpenGL) card is the unknown. What going to be available? GLint only? We will see… Another solution is Intergraph with their workstations. They have the GREAT OpenGL cards ready now. Again, cost is high. Dual pentiums and P6s, Alphas…$24000 for dual Pentium 100s Finally, do the Build-It-Yourself thing which is what I do. Pick and choose conponents you want, etc… Dec Alpha 300Mhz, Accel OpenGL card, Micropolis SCSI-3 9 GIG, 128 MB RAM, … Around $12000. Much cheaper this way. Again, the OpenGL card is the unknown and that is the key. The new dual pipeline video streams for the SGI really makes it scream now. Too bad Intergraph won't sell their OpenGL cards separately since that would be the answer. Build-It-Yourself with an Alpha and an Intergraph card. Oh well…