On Fri, 12 May 2000, yosuke kimura wrote:
> Two of the system I am considering now says they come with "Integrated
> ATI Rage IIC Video Cotroller with 4MB Video Memory, 32bit PCI" and "ELSA
> Synergy Force with AGP 4X".
>
> I want to know some keyword to look for when choosing graphic cards. I
> would appreciate your comment or reference to some info.
ATI sucks. Look for professional video cards that fully support OpenGL in
hardware - example: 3DLabs Oxygen VX1. Most other cards are designed for
gaming and do not fully support OpenGL in hardware. OpenGL instructions
not supported in hardware require software support which is slower. The
nVidia geForce256 chipset is a high performance gaming card that
challenges the previous assertion. The ELSA card may have the geForce256
chipset.
Look for:
AGP 4x (4x the speed of the PCI bus)
32MB+ Video RAM
hardware OpenGL support
expensive extras:
geometry processor
Following is a summary from a GIS list I belong to.
Fred
-----------------------
Subject: SUM: Which graphic card is the best for ArcView (II)
Memory:
2D: If you are only working with 2D AV stuff,
then a 8MB card is more than enough
3D: If you have 3D-analyst then a 32MB to 64MB
depending on how complex your 3D is.
Chipset:
Do Not use a gaming card with AV like the
TNT2/Voodoo based cards,
go for the professional cards like the
3Dlabs (www.3dlabs.com) made card
(ESRI has an Performance Comparison on
selected Platforms and Graphic Cards for use
with the 3D-Analyst on there web-page with
lots of 3Dlabs-based graphic-Cards
http://www.esri.com/software/arcview/extensions/cardlist.html#data)
AGP: You need AGP slots on the mother board to
get best performance from an AGP type card
OpenGL:
it seems that you only need OpenGL if you are
working with 3D - Stuff
2. Suggested Cards
MATROX MILLENIUM G200
Paul Johns wrote that the MATROX MILLENIUM G200
was mentioned the most. It was also suggested by
Gerald (for 2D and 3D)
DIAMOND VIPER V550
"with 16MB on-board memory with a Pentium III 450
and it blazes"
DIAMOND VIPER V770
NVidia TNT2 chip, smooth 3-d views, needing to
load a fix for ERDAS Imagine's VGIS
geForce256
"nVidia is getting ready to release the geForce256
and it looks like it will be a Monster!"
ULTRA TNT2
"Nvidia is the best. Go with a GeoForce 256 or a
Ultra TNT2"
ATI Expert98
"I use am ATI Expert98 8mb RAM card and have been
very happy with it."
3. Problems
Rage cards
"Our current systems use Rage cards and we have
had some problems with polygon fills "switching"
(i.e. water fill will flip to everything not water).
ESRI tech support said that it was the Rage card."
(Remark by Oliver: we once had a problem that our card
(a different one)drawed everything inverse (in AV only!).
This was solved by setting the colordepth from TrueColor
to 32M Colors)
