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To: James Wright who wrote (2479)	2/7/1999 10:31:00 PM
From: wily	Respond to of 3645

I'm currently trying to figure out what I want in my next computer. I thought I'd try to figure out a little bit about how graphics cards work, and came across this on Tom's Hardware Guide. Tom is of the opinion that future video game software will be designed towards Direct 3D , which will therefore favor graphics cards that are designed with that in mind: Direct3D or Proprietary 3D Engine? You'll now have to decide what kind of games are important to you. Currently the graphically best games are often designed for a special graphic chip, or at least they look best with this one chip. The number one supported 3D graphic chip is nowadays the 3Dfx Voodoo, found on add on cards like the Orchid Righteous3D, Diamond's Monster3D and several others. It looks as if upcoming games will still support this particular chip and since the Voodoo 2 is already on the horizon, you can expect 3Dfx's 'Glide' engine staying supported by many games for a long time. Alternatively to a special 3D chip support, many new games are using Direct3D's new features quite heaviliy, so that it depends on how well the 3D card's driver translates Direct3D to their proprietary engine. PowerVR's PCX1 and PCX2 chips are quite powerful 3D chips, but the cards that use them are highly incompatible. I've seen only very few games that run on this chip properly. If the PCX engine is used directly, the games look awesome though. The only 3D chip to my knowledge, that doesn't have a dedicated 3D engine, but is using Direct3D as its API directly, is NVidia's RIVA 128 chip, currently the fastest Direct3D chip available on the market. The RIVA 128 is wonderful for Direct3D games, but games that are only supporting a bunch of proprietary 3D engines will not run on the RIVA 128. The future will bring almost any game in Direct3D, which will help NVidia's RIVA a lot. www1.tomshardware.com I'm not sure how up-to-date this piece of Tom's is or how important the ideas are. Anyone have any opinions on the importance of Direct 3D for future graphics cards and the relevance to Neo? TIA wily

To: James Wright who wrote (2479)	2/8/1999 1:14:00 AM
From: Mad2	Respond to of 3645

To all infoworld.com The above link is to a article from Infoworld and a article titled " Intel sees 3-D as siren call for Pentium III" I can't find how improved processers might effect the market for graphic's chips. Infoworld can be accessed at www.infoworld.com They have online and print editions, it's free and has search capability as well as forums

To: James Wright who wrote (2479)	2/8/1999 10:13:00 AM
From: vincenzo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3645

James - I've also been watching for design wins, but Neo being true to form will not announce until the finished products are announced by their customers. If it is any consolation, ATI's "integrated chip" was announced in the same time frame, and I have yet to see a design win for this chip. Both these products were nearly finalized with sample quantities available for evaluation about the time of the last conference call. We may hear something about it in this conference call. vincenzo