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To: AreWeThereYet who wrote (6305)	6/23/1998 6:50:00 PM
From: Andrew C.R. Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14266

aC- Story on Banshee from Next-Generation- 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee: The Complete Story While Next Generation Online has been reporting about the Banshee since last April, today 3Dfx released all information regarding its new hardware publicly for the first time. June 22, 1998 When 3Dfx Voodoo was about to come to market, analysts never expected an expensive, 3D-only part to make any sort of sizable dent in the semi-conductor market. What the analysts didn't count on was the massive support from developers (who had for years been screaming for exactly the hardware they were provided with) and the deluge of eager hardcore consumers who sought out the titles created by said support. As a result, here's 3Dfx, nearly two years later, with an installed base of over four million cards; clearly establishing it as a platform unto itself. Banshee is the next extension of the 3Dfx platform, though it is branching in slightly different direction than its forebears. For those who are unaware, the Voodoo Banshee is the first 2D/3D integrated solution completely from 3Dfx. In the past, the debacle that was 3Dfx's Voodoo Rush was the first step in this direction, though 3Dfx only had control of the 3D segment of the project. As a result, mediocre performance, incompatibilities and limited support of the Rush chipset resulted in a product that 3Dfx would almost certainly rather forget. In addition to the Banshee's integrated 2D/3D nature, 3Dfx is also trying to push the price/performance issue to the forefront of the chipset's features. Analysts are expecting boards using the technology to cost between $150 - $200 depending upon configuration and given the card's performance and features, it should prove attractive to OEMs. Since this is the first 2D hardware that 3Dfx has ever created, the company has been keen to point out the areas where it is strong. 3Dfx is already boasting that it will have the fastest 2D on the market. Benchmarks claimed by 3Dfx in a 2D Winbench performance test (on a PII 400 running Windows NT 4.0) put its score at 260, as compared to the numbers claimed by Matrox for its G200 (which it is also claiming to have the fastest 2D performance) at 240. The chipset has a dedicated 128-bit interface to external memory with an internal 256-bit datapath for optimized memory utilization. To compliment this, 3Dfx has taken nearly every function in the Windows Graphics Driver Interface and implemented them in hardware. One of these key features is hardware polygon support where polygons are drawn directly from their vertices rather than requiring software translation and rasterization of each polygon. The result is that the card should approach near Null Driver performance (the absolute fastest that could theoretically be achieved). DVD assist can be provided via direct hardware (on Pentium II 350 and up) or through an optional DVD hardware decoder daughter card. 3Dfx claims that playback can be handled at resolutions as high as 1920x1440 with the card's 230/250MHz RAMDAC. While 2D performance is obviously excellent, the question to be asked by gamers is how does the Banshee's 3D compare to other technologies on the market? To answer this, let's look at the selling points of Banshee: Voodoo Compatibility - Full Glide support, unlike Voodoo Rush Solid 3D Performance - in certain circumstances, performance can exceed that of a single Voodoo 2 (games that are fill-rate constrained and most benchmarks). Good Rendering Quality - 3Dfx's typically well saturated and bright RAMDAC carries on its tradition of good (but not excellent) rendering quality. The 3D features supported by Banshee are all the same as those in Voodoo 2 because the architectures are nearly identical. Per-pixel mipmapping, alpha blending, LOD calculations, programmable and exponential fog tables and floating point Z buffers are all available. The clock speed of the Banshee chip is considerably faster than that of Voodoo 2 though it has only a single texture unit compared to Voodoo 2's dual TMU setup. In addition, Banshee is optimized for Pentium 2 processors and can handle out of order commands. Instead of spending time reordering commands, the hardware can execute them as they arrive with no CPU stall. 3Dfx expects that this feature will result in a 20%-25% performance increase. In 3Dfx's own internal 3D benchmarks, it is claiming that the Banshee is nearly twice as fast as the Riva 128ZX and more than twice as fast as the Intel740. On the flip side, a Voodoo 2 SLI setup is supposedly only 40 percent faster than the Banshee. Next Generation Online has not yet been able to test a Banshee board itself, but expects in the coming weeks to receive an evaluation unit. At that time, tests and benchmarks will of course be run on both the 2D and 3D capabilities of the card providing you with an even more complete picture Andrew Todd- Thanks for the info on TLC AND BROD's future plans.

To: AreWeThereYet who wrote (6305)	6/24/1998 10:59:00 AM
From: Steve T	Respond to of 14266

Andy, I hope to get a preview when I meet with Noah Davis next week. I left a message to try and schedule it. With regards to graphics chips, I don't follow each of the players closely. But, I strongly believe that the performance will plateau and even out. Companies like Micron/Rendition may have technology advantages. Rendition claims to have a RISC based engine--allowing small die size and flexibilty--and Micron can integrate the memory. The integration allows optiized memory sizes and especially bus widths. The problem with 128 bit buses is the i/o pins on the packages drive the cost to an impossible level. With memory on-board there are no pins. Micron will become the next S3. How much of an impact will this have on their bottom line? Also, Micron owns60-70% of Micron computer, (their first socket X customer!). Steve