Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!bu.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cunixf.cc.columbia.edu!cunixa.cc.columbia.edu!nkb From: nkb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Norman K Bucknor) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware Subject: Re: Graphics accelerator theory of operation question Message-ID: <1991May3.044309.5669@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Date: 3 May 91 04:43:09 GMT References: <1991May2.085707.11955@cascade.Stanford.EDU> Sender: usenet@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (The Network News) Reply-To: nkb@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Norman K Bucknor) Organization: Columbia University Lines: 18 Nntp-Posting-Host: cunixa.cc.columbia.edu In article <1991May2.085707.11955@cascade.Stanford.EDU> simoni@strat.stanford.edu writes: > >How do graphics accelerators for the Mac (say for instance the Apple card >with an AMD 29000) gain their graphics speedup over a stock Macintosh? That >is, do they use: > >1. Parallelism: Graphics operations are off-loaded to separate processor,.. >2. Faster Graphics Processor: Graphics operations are off-loaded to... >3. Other factors: e.g., block transfers on bus to increase available... >Rich Simoni >simoni@strat.stanford.edu I'm no expert, but from what I've read most accelerators do one or more of the things you've mentioned. Some Quickdraw operations do not benefit from this acceleration, so the effectiveness of the accelerator varies with what you're doing. Norman