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Intro, Why Accelerate?, What to Look For, PCI vs. AGP Entry-Level, Low-Cost, High-Speed 3D Acceleration: Sub $300 Cards Mid-Range, High-Speed 3D Acceleration: Sub $1000 Cards High-End, Maximum 3D Acceleration: Cards Over $1,000
When shopping for a workstation for your digital creative endeavors, it is important not only to look at the system manufacturer, but also at the range of component options offered. One of the most important components to consider is the graphics accelerator card. Depending on the type of work you want to do, you can pay anywhere from $200 to $3,000 or more for the accelerator card included in your workstation. Therefore it is important to know the difference between some of the most common new card options offered by the DCC workstation market vendors. Over the past 6 months, prices for high-end graphics accelerators have dropped dramatically. Recent developments in the graphics chip processor market like the introduction of NVIDIA's GeForce 256 and Quadro GPUs have drastically changed the landscape of the market. Cards costing under $300 are now capable of competing with old standards costing 3 times as much. It also seems like workstation vendors are offering fewer options for workstation graphics. Matrox, NVIDIA (and its OEM partners), 3Dlabs and Intense3D are clearly emerging as the leaders, with almost every workstation manufacturer offering some combination of the following cards: Matrox Millenium MAX G400; 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1, GVX1 and GMX; NVIDIA GeForce 256 and TNT2 Ultra products from Diamond and ELSA; and the Intense3D Wildcat 4000 and 4110. Specialty niches such as dual monitor display (formerly dominated by Appian) are being eaten into by solid generalist boards like the Matrox G400 (which now supports dual display). In the
following pages you will find specs and descriptions of some of the most
popular new cards being offered as options by system integrators today.
In compiling this list, computer systems from Compaq,
Dell, HP,
Intergraph, Siemens,
IBM, DTK
Computer, Core Microsystems,
Gateway, Enorex,
MaxVision, NEC,
Quantex, Tri-Star,
UMAX, and XI
Computer, amongst others, were compared, to find out what workstation
vendors are offering in entry-level, mid-range, and expert level 3D acceleration. |
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