CompuServe Messages

The tangent of this string is going to help get a lot of issues out on the table as we all face system choices. Mark is certainly right about SGIs not being that fast, unless harnessed to a Reality Engine. I remember the REngine as being over $200G. However, the other day I saw advertized a new SGI maching and Reality Engine2 for 92G. I don't know the specs and realize that is a lot of money, but if that system delivers the kind of performance the previous REngine did then it clearly demonstratres SGI being very destablilized by NT/multi-chip configs running 3D software. It really does seem that NT/multi-chips are coming on strong. I understand that an upgrade for NT is due 1st Qtr 96 and is addressing (so to speak) driver issues. Regarding the 3-D accell hardware – I understood that they can not only assist in preview speed but also lend a hand in final render. Someone out there have the info on that? Does anyone know if P6 is going to require software to be specifically re-written, to some extent, to take *FULL* advantage of it's new architecture? The QUAD-P6 might be the winning ticket. I will really be interested in seeing Benchmarks of the Quad-P6 against ALPHA multi-325. For *not all THAT much money* we will be sitting on some serious compute power. When I think of all the time spent previewing anim sequences, effects and scene/model edits, let alone all the added flexibility of features/ routines that can be incorporated under NT – oh, lordy… if all this works I will be a happy camper <|;-) Jeffrey