by Shui-Che Lim
Letter 1: from Bjorn
Some of the statements on your "tech corner letters" on your site is seriously flawed and misleading. I'm referring to for example this line, I quote:
>"The advent of hardware 3D like Voodoo2 makes FPU performance irrelevant."
This is so NOT true.
The main CPU is still doing a lot of geometric transformation. This requires lots of floating-point computation due to the fact that the Vodoo2-drivers are using FPU. Just take a look at www.tomshardware.com and see for yourself. The Voodoo2 test shows that a P200MMX is faster than a K6 233 when using Voodoo2 (also Voodoo). Other than that, very nice site! :-)
Regards, Bjorn K Myskja
Okay, I may have simplified and generalized a little too much. True, some geometric transformations are still being handled by the CPU so there will still be a performance difference between what you could obtain with an Intel chip vs. AMD/Cyrix. However, this is one of those cases where you end up spending 4 times as much for a Pentium II vs an AMD-K6/233 and don't even double the performance. This is a bad value in my book.
Yes, I admit that for the forseeable future you will get better performance with faster CPUs and also better performance with Intel's Pentium II due to the better FPU. But in the real world, people can only afford to do a major platform upgrade every 2-3 years or so. Many people don't even do that but elect to spend a few hundred dollars wisely slowly upgrading their systems.
My main point was that you can spend far less money than buying a Pentium II-300 with a new Pentium II motherboard by buying Voodoo2 cards and running them in SLI mode. I'm guessing Diamond's MegaMonster package (2x Voodoo2) will run around $450 as opposed to the $770 you'd spend just on a new Pentium II-300 and a new motherboard.
If I had a limited budget, even if it were limited to $800, I'd get better value sticking with my current CPU and motherboard and getting dual Voodoo2's. And then spending some money to add more memory since everything will need to run under Windows95 or NT. I'd still end up with over $250 which I can use to buy new controllers or software.
At the end of the day, it's nice to see who has the best performance yada yada yada, blah blah blah. But it does no good if 90% of the gaming public can't afford it.
Shui-Che Lim
Letter 2: from Erik Montcalm
I am a first time reader, but very impressed with your comments. Here goes my question:
I have read on your page (and elsewhere) that because the voodoo2 does triangle setup on the graphics card, FPU is less and less important. Why, in this case, does Toms's hardware show a very big speed increase between a AMD k6 233, and Pentium 200 MMX.
Also, the Pentium II 300 gets almost double the framerate as the k6? I was going for a k6 and voodoo2 in the near future. But now, who knows? I just might have to break down and buy (gasp...!) Intel. Erik Montcalm
Erik,
The reason you see this large difference in the benchmark you mention is that the triangle setup engine in Voodoo 2 requires the use of 3Dfx's Glide API to enable. Tom's tests used Direct3D as opposed to native Glide to test the Voodoo2. Direct3D has no idea about Voodoo2's triangle setup engine.
Keep in mind that Voodoo2 is claimed to be compatible with the older Voodoo chipset. Up till now, all those amazing framerates everyone's been talking about for Quake were using Voodoo drivers. If there is no native triangle setup in the chipset being enabled yet, then there would be a big difference as the triangle setup is still done by the CPU.
I'm willing to bet that with the correct Voodoo2 drivers where the triangle setup is supported with a native 3Dfx benchmark (such as Wizmark), then we'll see that the difference in performance between the various CPUs will become minimal.
Shui-Che Lim
Letter 3: from Ron Hamric
Really enjoy your enlightenment on Combat Sim. I too have been frustrated watching the "addiction" that Intel plays to. As a hard-core simmer, of course we are looking for the optimum performance in our hardware to allow us to optimize the sim software. Chasing the faster Mhz CPU's by Intel will put you in the poor house faster than you might wish, but the "craving" just won't go away.
How long do you feel we will have to wait before AMD & Cyrix come out with practical alternatives to satisfy us "speed junkies"? I am looking to upgrade my entire system in the near future and I would prefer to spend some of the $$$$ on two(2) Voodoo 3D cards instead of the higher priced Intel CPU's but I want to be sure that I put the $$$ in the right hardware so that I end up with the kind of sim performance worthy of my investment. Thanks for your work. I only wish I had the technical knowledge that you possess. Would make the indecision process less aggravating. Peace!
Ron,
I'm currently working on a piece that will do some further analysis on this very topic so hold on to your $$$. However, I can give you a quickie preview. While it is true that (at least in the near future) Intel CPUs will always give you the best FPU and overall gaming performance, the price can be kind of steep.
Consider that you'll spend about $570 on a Pentium II-300 and another $200 on a good Pentium II motherboard. That's $770! However, consider the alternative... Diamond has announced an 8MB Voodoo 2 board, the Monster 3D2 (4/2/2) with a software bundle for $249. They are also going to sell a package called the MegaMonster which has two Monster 3D2s. Since the second card won't need an additional software bundle, that will probably knock about $50 off of the price. This brings the MegaMonster in at around $450.00
If you're currently running even a run of the mill Pentium 166, a single Voodoo 2 will give you 70 FPS under Quake. Dual Voodoo 2's will pump that up to 140 FPS. Anything beyond 30 FPS can not be perceived by the human eye. As long as you can maintain 30 FPS continually, you're good to go. Just by going with a MegaMonster upgrade, you'll definitely get better performance than even just upgrading to a Pentium II-300 and a Pentium II motherboard. And guess what? You've just saved yourself $320... which you can use for additional memory (really cheap now) or even a bigger harddrive or more software.
Even if you were going to get a new Super 7 motherboard and an AMD-K6/266... that will set you back another $280.00 or so. You'll still save $40.00 over the Pentium II only route and get dual Voodoo 2's... AND screaming performance. I think everyone loses sight of the fact that using the CPU to keep moving you along the performance curve will bankrupt entire nations. Sure a Pentium II-300 or 333 will give you the best performance money can buy... but you need awfully deep pockets. Most people don't have that kind of money sitting around waiting to be spent.
However, you can spend as little as $450.00 and get performance good enough that most software won't be able to even come close to taxing for at least 6-12 months... and perhaps never. Dual Voodoo 2's are going to be the exception rather than the rule and I think most software companies realize this. They will write their software to push a single Voodoo 2 hard, but I seriously doubt they'll ever write software that REQUIRES dual Voodoo 2's.
Sincerely, Shui-Che Lim
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