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S3
Virge |
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| The Virge and
the Virge/VX are the initial foray into the 3-D world by
chip-vending behemoth S3. While these chips offer a ton
of 3-D features and attractive rendering, they are
unfortunately saddled by slow 3-D performance. The Virge chips, which are basically the Trio 64V+ ASICS with 3-D technology attached, do boast the impressive (and cheap) technique of integrating everything - including the RAMDAC, a clock synthesizer, an SVGA core, 2-D and video playback, as well as the 3-D functionality - all in one chip. The chips' 3-D features include impressive anti-aliasing and texture-mapping techniques, including bi- and tri-linear filtering, MIP mapping, as well as transparent and fog support. On an entirely different note, the chip also supports decoding of compressed texture maps on the fly. The Virge/VX and the Virge are identical except for the fact that the VX supports VRAM and WRAM instead of just DRAM, and it's integrated RAMDAC runs at a gaudy 220Mhz, instead of the Virge chip's 135Mhz, allowing for higher resolutions and faster refresh rates. The DOS core and 2-D performance are excellent. Addressing its relatively poor 3-D performance, S3 has already announced the DX and GX versions of the product, which boast three times the performance of their predecessor. They sure need it. |
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| Rendition
Verite |
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| Designed from
the outset as a Direct3D accelerator which would not
compromise SVGA DOS or 2-D Windows speed, this low-cost
ASIC really hits the mark for consumer 3-D products. The Rendition chipset offers a unique feature: the addition of a RISC-core inside the chip. This feature allows for much of the geometry set-up of the frame to be handled by the board itself, instead of by the system's host processor. As expected, this chip provides the required 3-D features for attractive gameplay, including perspective-correct texture mapping , bi-linear filtering, edge anti-aliasing, Gouraud shading, alpha-blending, z-buffering, and fog/haze support. The low cost and high performance of this chip have, without question, allowed board vendors to easily sell these products in the sub-$200 price range while still offering outstanding performance. | Creative Labs 3D Blaster | Intergraph Intense 3D 100 | Sierra On-Line's Screamin' 3D | |
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| 3DFX
Voodoo |
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| This chip is
a bit more expensive than the rest, but boy, is it worth
it. Coming from one of the few ASIC companies whose boasts are not exaggerated, the products based on this particular chip render the fastest and best looking frames we've seen yet. The expected menu of 3-D features is supported: perspective-correct texture mapping, bi-linear and advanced texture filtering, MIP mapping, Gouraud shading, anti-aliasing, and alpha blending. Also, per-pixel special effects are supported including fog, transparency, and translucency. The Voodoo also supports one particular feature not normally found on low-end 3-D graphics chips: sub-pixel correction, a sophisticated form of anti-aliasing that, when near an edge, takes portions of the pixels both on and off the edge and colors them properly. |
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