#These confusing PCs
6 messages in this thread
I am an Illustrator. I've been using various Mac 3d programs for years (Sculpt,
Swivel, etc.) to do book covers, book art, posters, and that sort of thing.
After finally and truly getting fed up with the limitiations in Mac
applications I've decided to get into 3D Studio (it seems to be the emerging
low-end standard, like Photoshop)
I am not nearly as well informed about PC hardware as I am the Mac.
And so, to segue into a few questions.
1. Will the forthcoming Pentium be available as a motherboard upgrade. Could
you purchase one and replace your old motherboard with it? If so, would It be
a true Pentium machine (I'm not so interested in patches, like the various
sockets that you seem to find on many 486s' now, unless it would be as powerful
as a true Pentium)
2. How does this clock doubling thing work? Is a 486 66 just a 33mhz machine
on steroids? Is it in actuality faster in all regards than a 486 50? Is the 486
50 a true 50mhz machine or a doubled 486 25? If not, is doubling technology
coming that will turn a 486 50 into a 486 100 anytime soon? Would that be a
better option than a Pentium?
3. Will 3D Studio run under the forthcoming Alpha chip? Would an Alpha chip
machine be a completely different animal or is that an upgrade option as well?
4. Do different graphics cards speed up the redraw speed in the construction
windows, or is that solely a function of the CPU?
5.And lastly, is their any equivalant to the various RISC cards for the
Macintosh (Daystar w/Sculpt or ElectricImage for example) that will radically
accellerate rendering speed with 3D studio?
Thanks in advance to anyone who bothers to answer this posting. And if any of
you have questions on the state of Mac 3D, I'd be happy to fill you in.
1. No. You need a Pentium motherboard. The sockets in the current 486 boards
are for a not-yet-released Pentium-based overdrive chip.
2. A doubled chip communicates with the motherboard at the lower speed, but
actually runs at the faster speed internally. For CPU intensive tasks, like
rendering, it's VERY helpful. A 486/50 could be a true 50 or a 2/50, which is a
clock doubled 25. If there will be a 100 out there, who knows whether it'll be
faster than a Pentium? We'll have to try it.
3. Alpha chip… I dunno
4. Yes.
5. No (except graphics cards.. see #4)
Welcome to the PC arena! Let's go with the questions:
>1.Will the forthcoming Pentium be available as a motherboard upgrade. Could
>you purchase one and replace your old motherboard with it? If so, would >It
be a true Pentium machine (I'm not so interested in patches, like the >various
sockets that you seem to find on many 486s' now, unless it would be >as
powerful as a true Pentium)
The Pentium technology is really pushing computers makers to their tops. I'm
sure that there will be motherboards with the Pentium chip, but i'm also sure
that an entire Pentium machine will be better. Engineers are "fighting" with
the Pentium "problems" (because the structure of the chip, the motherboard will
be more complicated than 486 boards designs). Making a Pentium motherboard will
not be as easy as taking the chip, the chipset by Intel and put them in a piece
of plastic along with bus. I think that Pentium machines will be only available
from top vendors for a long time.
It could be more effective to buy a new pentium machine now and get your HD,
SIMMS and boards to the new one. If you are going to buy a PC I recommend you
to buy an upgradable one (at the bus level, not a
put-the-new-chip-in-the-socket style). Compaq has now their 64 bit bus Triflex
PC and Triflex Systems machines. Acer has also a 64 bit machine that will
accept any 64 bit chip (but it's multiprocessor). There are also other vendors
planing or releasing 64bit machines. The sockets that you are talking about are
not for the Pentium but for an special version to be released on 1995 (i
think).
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[Continued]
>2.How does this clock doubling thing work? Is a 486 66 just a 33mhz machine
>on steroids? Is it in actuality faster in all regards than a 486 50? Is the
>486 50 a true 50mhz machine or a doubled 486 25? If not, is doubling
>technology coming that will turn a 486 50 into a 486 100 anytime soon? >Would
that be a better option than a Pentium?
The double clock chips run at twice the speed of the motherboard. The trick was
thought by Intel when they saw that making motherboards at high clock speeds is
very difficult/expensive to engineers and companies. According to Intel
benchmarks and our Eurotest, the 486 pure 50 MHz is slower than the doubled
clocked 486/66 (66MHz the chip, 33MHz the motherboard). Wait for tripled
clocked versions of the chip (one will come from IBM) that will outperform the
Pentium at 60 MHz.
>3. Will 3D Studio run under the forthcoming Alpha chip? Would an Alpha chip
>machine be a completely different animal or is that an upgrade option as
>well?
For the first question, you will have to ask the Yost Group or Autodesk. if
there will be a Windows NT version of 3DS, it'll easier to see an Alpha ported
version of 3ds. Now DEC and Jensen has EISA based Alpha AXP machines that
currently runs NT. Also, I won't be a surprise to see upgrades to 64bit bus
machines to the Alpha. The DEC policy is to make the Alpha available as the
engine for all platforms. There's also a Compaq-Intel "alliance" or strong
relation which is reflected in the colaboration of Intel developing the Triflex
architecture so it's not sure to see an upgrade for the compaq…but there are
always third vendors 🙂 Seriously, I don't know it is technically possible.
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[Continued]
Regarding the last one question (nothing about the fourth one, sorry), I have
read in the forum that there's a board, the SPEA based on the Intel RISC chip
i860 (I think), that gives you previews on real or nearly real time. But for
this one you will have to ask to the SPEA guys or other in the forum. it's a
pity that there are not drivers or support for other coprocessing cards on 3ds.
What about the Matrox MGA, with a bunch of Texas Instruments 34020 and custom
ASIC chips? That board could do realtime gouraud on AutoCAD (really
impressive). There are a Silicon Graphics graphics engine for PC computers
(sure that it's as expensive as a Crisom with the Elan adapter 🙂
I hope all this will help you.
Ana
Thank you, Ana.
I appreciate the Information. I'll try for the Compaq 5/66, but impatience may
drive me to get a 486/66 (that my dealer assures will be upgradable w/ a
Pentium motherboard).
Any other Info as to cards (RenderEngines & Video Favorites) would be welcome
as well.