Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

30 Jul 00

Architosh Macworld Expo Report -1: Page 2

This Report: 3D modeling, graphics cards and FirstClass Intranet Server

Graphics Cards

A year ago Architosh published a report on the ultimate Mac CAD machine. The article, which compared a decked out Macintosh G3 to a PC magazine online article which configured a decked out PC, was criticized by some pro-PC users for not pointing out two obvious problems—one of which is widely debatable.

Some wrote in saying that an ultimate Mac CAD workstation could never equal an ultimate PC CAD workstation because there weren't any serious high-end graphics cards for the Mac. And to be honest (and we were) they were right!

Things have changed....

Today that situation is looking much better and it is helping to address the other situation as well (which was lack of software for Macintosh CAD—which is true for only some industries). In just one year's time the Macintosh platform is now poised to take on three new leading graphics card makers, with others contemplating the market as well.

3dfx, Nvidia and Appian (not to mention Matrox) are all making new graphics cards for the Macintosh market. And these guys matter.

3dfx

The new Voodoo 5 5500 PCI graphics card accelerator was featured prominently at Macworld Expo. 3dfx had a great presence at the show, with a very large booth featuring gaming stations around its perimeter and a guest vendor theater for showing off technical apps.

3dfx has a few cards planned for the Macintosh but the Voodoo 5 5500 is the top of the line. This card features full screen hardware -based anti-aliasing and 64 MB of video RAM among other things. The card is reported to have awesome 2D acceleration as well for CAD and technical apps. Nemetschek demo'd its VectorWorks on the machine and so did Amapi 3D.

A key feature of this card is its full API set support, including: Apple QuickDraw, OpenGL, Glide, Rave, QuickDraw 3D, and QuickTime video acceleration. For more information click here.

ATI

ATI Inc. was there at Macworld as well, featuring its new Radeon 256 bit graphics card behind closed doors in backroom sessions. ATI has long been Apple's graphics partner since Jobs' return and the Power Mac G3. At Macworld it was reported that ATI was scheduled to be featured at Jobs' keynote and that the Radeon was going to be a build-to-order (BTO) option. Apparently ATI spilled the beans before the show and Jobs went through the roof because ATI announced what surprises Apple had for us.

The Radeon is a powerful contender to 3dfx's Voodoo 5, and judging by our eyes, both chips offer stunning 3D graphics abilities. However, ATI's card may have the added ability to work with Apple's new digital video flat panel displays, while a representative at 3dfx said their Voodoo 5 card would get that ability shortly.

One difference between the two cards is that Radeon does not support Glide like the Voodoo 5 card. This could matter to you if your games work with the Glide API set. Another advantage of the Voodoo 5 card is the 64 MB video RAM compared to only 32 MB of video RAM on the ATI card. The ATI Radeon card features TV out and wide screen support for DVD movies.

Nvidia

Nvidia was not at Expo but was in attendance this last week at SIGGRAPH. The company has announced plans for a Macintosh product very shortly. Nvidia plans to bring their GeForce2 MX product to the Macintosh from a card vendor not yet announced.

Formac Electronics

Formac was present at Expo with a very large booth. The company was featuring its new ProFormance 4, 256-bit dual head graphics card. The card features two 128-bit Glint R3 processors from 3DLabs plus a Glint Gamma G2 chip for handling OpenGL transformation and lighting. This card is seriously powerful. The Glint R3 processor by 3DLabs is the same one used in its workstation-class graphics cards for the Windows and UNIX markets. The ProFormance 4 is very similar to the 3DLabs Oxygen GVX210 card. The ProFormance 4 is an AGP card only (at the moment?) and features support for QuickTime acceleration in addition to QuickDraw and OpenGL 3D.

Appian Graphics

While Appian was not at Expo, the company this week released its Jeronimo 2000 for Macintosh dual head AGP card. Like Formac's card, the Jeronimo features two chips from 3DLabs, the Permedia 3 chipset. This card is aimed at the multimedia, Web, or video professional looking for dual monitor support off of the same card. The company is currently tweaking its 3D performance, according to MacWEEK.

Graphics Cards Conclusion

Last year Mac CAD/3D professionals had little choice in the graphics department, having additional options from ATI and Formac, for the most part, to choose from. This year both Nvidia and 3dfx have seriously jumped into the Mac market. That alone would have been a large accomplishment, yet with the addition of Appian and the new ProFormance 4 card, the Mac graphics market is looking four times better. And there is more...

Matrox is also coming to the Macintosh market with dual head, high performance cards dedicated to the advanced video and broadcast-quality effects professional. This card was shown at Macworld in the Apple area dedicated to video. First introduced at NAB this year, this card offers the Mac video professional first time technologies for video and FinalCut Pro.