Next-generation graphics target high-end apps
By Brian Dipert -- EDN, July 22, 2004
Wildcat graphics boards from 3Dlabs have long dominated in markets in which performance and features are kings, price is a secondary consideration, and customers are too few to attract serious attention from volume-motivated competitors. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Technology, extends this trend with its latest generation Wildcat Realizm boards, the first fruits of its mid-April architecture announcement at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Conference in Las Vegas. The $1599 Wildcat Realizm 200, scheduled to enter high-volume production in August, contains 512 Mbytes of 500-MHz (1-Gbps/pin) GDDR3 memory in a 256-bit-frame-buffer configuration. Its two dual-link DVI-I connectors, along with dual 400-MHz 10-bit RAMDACs within the VPU (visual-processing unit) and discrete TMDS (transition-minimized-differential-signaling) transmitters, drive analog and digital displays at high resolutions and refresh rates, and it interfaces to the rest of the system over an AGP 8× bus.
If your needs are more moderate, consider the Wildcat Realizm 200’s smaller AGP 8× sibling, the $1249 Wildcat Realizm 100 with 256 Mbytes of GDDR3 memory and no DVI-digital-output capability. According to 3Dlabs, the Wildcat Realizm 100 and 200 deliver a 50-frame/sec score on the Viewperf 7.1.1 UGS-03 professional-graphics benchmark, along with scores of 47.2 and 37.1 on Viewperf’s ProE-02 and 3dsmax-02 tests. Conversely, if your requirements outstrip the Wildcat Realizm 200’s capabilities, you can graduate to the pinnacle of 3Dlabs’ product line, the 16-lane, PCI Express-based, $2799 Wildcat Realizm 800 (with predicted Viewperf 7.1.1 UGS-03, ProE-02, and 3dsmax-02 scores of 80, 53, and 38, respectively).
Like the Wildcat Realizm 200, the Wildcat Realizm 800 contains a 512-Mbyte frame buffer; this time, however, it is split between two VPUs, whose activities (in a 64×64-pixel-checkerboard load-balancing pattern) a front-end VSU (vertex/scalability unit) coordinates, communicating with each of them over a 128-bit interface (Picture). As the VSU’s name implies, its dual vertex shaders supersede the functions of the single vertex shader in each downstream VPU; the VSU additionally interfaces to 128 Mbytes of GDDR3 DirectBurst memory, which caches rendering commands and geometry data, over a separate 128-bit bus. The Wildcat Realizm 800’s production time frame will coincide with the general availability of PCI Express-based systems; 3Dlabs hopes this production will occur by the end of the third quarter. The company also offers the Wildcat Realizm Multiview kit, which partners with the model 200 and 800 graphics boards and provides frame-, rate-, and generator-locking capabilities.
Creative Technology, 1-408-428-6600, www.3dlabs.com.
