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List:       suse-linux-e
Subject:    Re: [SLE] GeForce 3 by Visiontek
From:       Bryan-TheBS-Smith <b.j.smith () ieee ! org>
Date:       2001-11-30 20:48:28
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"Christopher D. Reimer" wrote:
> I'm curious to know if it would be worthwhile to upgrade from the original
> Geforce 256 (32MB) to one of the newer video cards with a 2x AGP
> motherboard?  Or should I wait to get a 4x AGP motherboard and then get a
> new video card?

AGP throughput doesn't make much difference.  Unless, of course, you are
thrashing around hundreds of MBs in textures.  Of which, of course, your
framerate would suck anyway, so it matters little.  Intel found this out
first hand when it purposely "crippled" its own drivers to force its own
cards to use AGP DME instead of local framebuffer for textures.

Remember, all AGP is is a dedicated PCI bus with a few tricks.  Some
video cards use them more effectively than others, but rarely does it
make a whole lot of difference.  If you really want to upgrade your
mainboard (to Athlon), consider the budget ECS K7S5A for $60-65.  It's
got an on-board 10/100 NIC, AC97 audio, AGPx4 slot, and both SDR and DDR
SDRAM slots.  Quite a performer too.

> I used to upgrade my computer every year.  Since the performance curve is
> so far out these days over what software actually need, I find myself very
> reluctant to upgrade anything.

If "Moore's Law" dictates that processors double in performance every 18
months, "nVidia's Law" (or whatever) dictates that video controllers
double in performance every 9 months.  It seems that only ATI and nVidia
can "keep up" nowdays in the consumer video controller market.

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith    mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   chat:thebs413
Engineer  AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.  http://www.linux-wlan.org
President     SmithConcepts, Inc.   http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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"The [US] Constitution guarantees you Free, not Fair.  'Fair' is
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