[rescue] OT: Games and workstations (was OT: Linux and USB on Intel)

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 deanders at pcisys.net wrote:

> 16MB isn't much for a consumer video card (I haven't seen anything (new)
> with less than 32MB in years); most current PC games seem to require at
> least 32MB, sometimes 64MB (higher-resolution textures, etc.).

Yes, but how much of that can be allocated as texture memory, and how
much is for the framebuffer?  By the time you've allocated enough
framebuffer for 1600x1200x32 double-buffered, you're already chewed up
15MB.  That leaves you 17MB for textures, at -best-, assuming that the
video memory isn't used as scratchspace for geometry calculations, and
that textures are referenced, not copied, during intermediate
calculations.

16MB of TRAM (that is, raw TRAM, not multiple copies of texture and some
framebuffer, but all TRAM) is quite a lot.  I think SGI RealityEngine2
only has 16MB of TRAM, and it's certainly up to snuff for playing games.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke *) "who has been feeding my cats crack again??  they
Thorndale, TX     (*  were doing chuck norris shit all over the apartment
                  *)  this morning"                     --alex j avriette