[rescue] Re: SGI Onyx4 - uses ATI graphics chips (sigh)

[Joshua D. Boyd]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2003 at 02:31:57AM -0400, Aaron Finley wrote:
> At 05:36 PM 7/14/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> >ghub005 at xtra.co.nz said:
> >> I think the real story here is that ATI and Nvidia have been pursuing
> >> an extremely agressive development strategy for the last few years
> 
> This is an old thread, but...
> 
> Looking at the specs for the SGI Onyx4 and the ATI FireGL X1 card they use 
> inside it, they can only get 32-bit RGBA. I know that the InfiniteReality4 
> and numerous other SGI offerings all were capable of 48-bit color. I don't 
> understand how film and oil and gas customers, etc. are going to want to 
> upgrade to lose billions of rather essential colors. Am I missing something?

Better performance?  How much do people other than the film industry and
medical profession really care (I really don't know here)?

Since it can render a lot more bits internally, I'm surprised that SGI
didn't just use better ramdacs or something.