Not to be a pain, Chip, but I still don't get 3DFX's reasoning to not go AGP AND keep 8-12 MB local RAM.
1) Half-Life is supposed to have 40 MB of textures. It's fine if TDFX does not believe in AGP, but then why do we not have a Banshee or Voodoo2 with 64 MB of RAM? RAM is supposedly virtually free, right?
2) Given, say, 40 MB of textures, I think the concern/claim is that 8 MB of local RAM is *slower* than some local + AGP 2x combination.
I think I understand the argument about AGP being marginal. What I do not see is why we are not seeing a race in local DRAM size led by our own favorite underperforming company. Heck, why don't we stick four DIMM sockets on the board and let users install as much RAM as they can afford? Then, game designers can make super high-res versions. Better yet, TDFX can add value by offering proprietary versions of games that fit on super large texture sizes.**
Get with it TDFX! I want a 64 MB Banshee 2 by March!
Matt
**Footnote: might this be exactly what Micron has in store for its Rendition-based product, to put gobs of RAM on the graphics card? No one makes RAM more cheaply than MU (Go USA!) and this could develop into a strategic advantage. Now, where else can 128 MB of RAM help? My guess is that a 128 MB DRAM buffer on a disk drive would offer a huge performance benefit. But that's another thread. |
