CompuServe Thread

Jerry: << I have already ordered a 100Mhz Pentium PCI and would like to find the best card to match this. >> Sounds like a great machine! <<I have heard that the Matrox Impression + would be a suitable card, but i wanted to clarify a few things first. There seem to be at least 4 different versions of this card selling right now which would be the best for CDK>> I don't know all the details of the Matrox product line, but I the card that has been of most interest to me is the MGA Impression plus. It's got their award winning 2D chip set coupled with a HW Z-buffer for 3D acceleration at a great price point. The only limitation is that there is no support for HW accelerated texture mapping- so its shaded triangles only. <<2. Would the CDK benefit from the extra ram in the 4meg version.>> Possibly. But, I have used the CDK extensively with 2MB boards and have had excellent results. Would an extra 2MB hurt? I'm sure it wouldn't, but I also can't tell you what the incremental benefit would be. (Don't know if it's $ well spent or not.) <<3. What about Glint based boards – are there any currently available and would any be considered better for CDK>> The Glint-based boards promise higher polygon throughput and support for texture mapping. Many of our customers say that texture mapping is very important, so I have to presume its important as an 3D HW accelerator feature. With that said, we are currently working with Glint reference HW to develop drivers. I recently heard that Fujitsu expects to have a Glint product available in March. While I have very high expectations for 3D HW this year, I don't see all that many 3D accelerators shipping at this time. (Until I have some personal experience with these products, I don't believe I can safely make recommendations to customers.) The technology is moving very quickly in this area. I suppose one really needs to weigh a number of considerations like: a) What's available when I need it b) How much better will the next offerring be c) How quickly will one's investment lose value. We are working with a number of HW accelerated solutions, and in a month or two I'll probably be a whole lot smarter about what some of these products can or can't do. Finally, sorry I can't make the water a whole lot clearer than that. -Kevin