Good OpenGL accelerator? Anyone?

[JamesA]

Could anyone recommend a good OpenGL accelerator? The brand, model, and where I can get it (online or phone number). Also please point me to the URL of the card's maker.

I am just curious what is out there other than the "cheap" gaming cards.

I have a friend who needs an OpenGL card to accelerate some of the OpenGL apps he is writing (actually Java3D with Magician).

Thanks.

JamesA

[motub]

What I've always heard of as being the best (and most expensive, being professional level) OpenGL accelerators can be found here:
http://www.elsa.com/AMERICA/WELCOME.HTM

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Holly

Who has put her V2 in her roomie's new (in a way) K6-266 (be quiet, she doesn't play games! well, not like Half-Life, anyway, she's a bleem! kinda roomie) because now her [Soyo 5EMA, K6-2 333 not o/c, 256MB PC100, Millennium G200 8MB SGRAM, Win98] works plenty good enough 'til she's saved the moolah for the G400/Athlon rig [drool, pant, drool...]

[Wombat]

I might try to get Kruzin's attention on this one, he's more into the professional aspect of OGL, and he's just a big pain in the a-- umm, big help -- in general.

-Wombat

P.S. Hi Kruzin

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503+ rev 1.2a, 128MB PC100 RAM, K6-2/350@400,RH6 & Win98,G200 Millenium (SGRAM), no plans to buy a G400

[agallag]

The most popular pro OGL cards are:

- Elsa GLoria series, like motub said (www.elsa.com/AMERICA/WELCOME.HTM)
- 3DLabs Oxygen series (www.3dlabs.com/products/)
- Intergraph RealiZm (might only be available in Intergraph workstations, www.intergraph.com)
- Intense3d Wildcat (www.intense3d.com/products.asp)

Be prepared to pay 4 figures for most of these puppies. Remember, you get what you pay for. Hope this helps...


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Andrew Gallagher - andrew@agallagher.com
Asus P2B-S, PII-350, 64MB PC100, 12.7GB Quantum Fireball EX ATA-33, 3.2GB IBM Deskstar3 EIDE, 2 Quantum Atlas I 2.1GB UWSCSI, Toshiba 6201 SCSI CD, WangDAT SCSI, MillG200 8MB (Anxiously awaiting my G400MAX), SBLive! Retail, Win98SE



[This message has been edited by agallag (edited 07-25-99).]

[Jon McGarry]

The best OpenGL accelerator you can get is either the Permedia 2 or Permedia 3 card from 3DLabs. I have the Permedia 2 card, and it is currently the best performing OpenGL card for 3D apps like 3D Studio. The Permedia 2 even outperforms the TNT 2 and Matrox G400 by a wide margin in OpenGL apps.

Alas, the Permedia cards are terrible at OpenGL games. If you want to play games at anything other than 640x480, the Permedias are not for you. They were designed primarily for 3D apps, not games.

Diamond sells an 8 meg AGP Permedia 2 card called the "Fire GL 1000 Pro" which you can pick up for under $80.

The Permedia 3 is slightly better, but I'm not sure it's hefty pricetag is worth the minor performance increase.

[Buuri]

John,

They're no mach for Oxygen cards. The are closer to $1000 tho.

B

[Jon McGarry]

I understand that, but you can't really compare a $80 card with a $1000 card now can you? I was assuming that he wanted an affordable OpenGL solution, not something with a ridiculous pricetag. At $1000 it had better offer better performance than anything else.

[Buuri]

Yes, Jon but with it's hardware geometry acceleration and 96megs, it is worth it.
That is if you want the best.

B