[geeks] Itanium 32 bit performace.... hahahaha

[Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez]

On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 jdboyd at jdboyd.zill.net wrote:

>
> On Tue, Dec 09, 2003 at 10:52:09AM -0800, Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez wrote:
>
> > Actually the problem with FeeCee graphics, is that those are not real
> > graphics cards, but rather rastering engines. A lot of the geometry is
> > still calculated by the processor. So the faster processor actually helps
> > in FeeCee graphics.
>
> > It is not like real gfx architectures like most SGI machines, in which
> > the actual graphic pipeline is offloaded from the processor.
>
> Are you sure your information is still current on that?  I realize that
> was the case as of the TNT2 era, and perhaps even to some extent the
> Geforce 256 and Geforce2 era, but it would seem that the Geforce3s and
> later change that.
>
> I wouldn't have expected the projects mentioned on GPGPU
> (http://www.ibiblio.org/harrism/index.shtml) to bother if the geometry
> was just being shoveled to the CPU to do the work.

Most of the transforms are done in the CPU, the GeForce line is geared
towards raterization (and that is what they are good at).

There is a reason why 3Dlabs is still in business, or why you have to
showel the big buck for a Quadro :).