Comparing the Voodoo5 5500 with NVIDIAâ??s Geforce2 Ultra :: essays research papers fc

This essay will compare Voodoo5 5500 with NVIDIA’s Geforce2 Ultra to determine which accelerator provides the best performance. Both companies’ accelerators share the same goal, to bring the highest visual quality possible. Although both companies share the same goal, their approaches are extremely different. Cost will also be addressed. The following features will be examined: - Dual 3dfx VSA-100 - T-Buffering - Fill Rate - 32-bit Z-Buffer/Stencil - Synchronous dynamic random access memory - 32-bit Color II 3D IMAGING 3D objects are created by connecting two-dimensional polygons. Objects appear to be 3D dimensional because the computer calculates the necessary angles to give the illusion of depth. The computer then assigns a give texture to each object, textures are the covering of the object. Like in the real world, different textures have different properties, like color, luster, opaque, etc. These objects are then displayed on the computer’s monitor. Many 3D objects can be combined to create a 3D environment. A 3D environment is the computers generation of a make believe world. When the camera, the point of view within the 3D world, moves, the computer calculates the height, width, depth and the lighting of every object and adjust them in way that from the perspective of the camera, you appear to be moving within the environment. What is 3D? The first dimension is a line. The second dimension, a plane. This world is described vertically and horizontally. This is what you draw on a piece of paper. The third dimension, our dimension, allows free movement and perception by adding depth. This allows movement in all directions, up, down, left, right, forwards and back. All personal computers come pre-installed with a two-dimensional (2D) graphics board - the hardware that creates the computer screen graphics for flat applications like Microsoft Word and Excel. But, to make 3D images in real-time (or on-the-fly), a computer must make millions of complex mathematical calculations every second. This can make games and 3D graphics applications slow and jerky as the computer gets caught up rendering 3D images in addition to running the program. 3D accelerators solve this problem. When you install a 3D accelerator, the 3D graphics previously rendered by the CPU (your computer's processor) are now rendered by the 3D accelerator. This significantly increases the performance, visual effects, and drastically improves the 3D experience. III VOODOO5 5500 The Voodoo5 5500 is 3Dfx’s latest 3D accelerator.