[rescue] WTB: SGI

[Björn Ramqvist]

Dave McGuire wrote:
> 
> On June 18, nick at snowman.net wrote:
> > I've seen an SI octane for 1195 or so, 195mhz 256 or 512meg.  Only place
> > the i2 beats it is textureing, and pick up a tex module for 875/2 (someone
> > was selling two brand new octane tex modules for 875, gah I need
> > cash).  Once that is done kiss the i2 g'bye.
> 
>   Nope, sorry Nick...benchmarks say otherwise.  See below.  Reprinted
> from http://www.futuretech.vuurwerk.nl/gfxtables.html.  Granted I'm
> comparing I2 MaxImpact with OctaneSI (the equivalent of SolidImpact)
> but the I2 MaxImpact goes for $800 and the OctaneSI goes for $1100-1200.

Ofcourse, you can't compare an I^2 MaxImpact (which is maxed out with
1/4MB TRAM, 2GEs and 2 REs) with a pure Solid Impact Octane (which have
no TRAM, only 1 GE and 1 RE). That's like comparing apples with pears!
:-)
Even if you put 1 or 4 MB TRAM on the Octane/SI, you're still limited
with just one RE, which explain the benchmarks.
Compare I^2 MaxImpact with Octane/MXI and you're definitly comparing
apples with apples. :-)

But then again, price-wise that will blow a hole in your wallet.
If you want to do even more studies between the systems, things like
memory-limits, I/O-subsystems, expansion, etc, etc, should be in count
and I'm confident that GIO-64 (Indigo2) won't last long in competition
with XIO (Octane).

So, we all can be pretty sure about two things;
If you need texture/3D: go for Indigo2 MaxImpact
If you need anything else: go for Octane/SI
...right? :-)

/Bjorn