Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!crackers!cpoint!frog!rmkhome!rmk
From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: (Video) Hardware Idiots ?
Message-ID: <9106211515.55@rmkhome.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jun 91 04:15:00 GMT
References: <1131@stewart.UUCP> <1991Jun15.032812.15122@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1137@stewart.UUCP> <1991Jun20.010310.9667@sugar.hackercorp.com>
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Lines: 31

In article <1991Jun20.010310.9667@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <1137@stewart.UUCP> jerry@stewart.UUCP (Jerry Shekhel) writes:
>> Actually, the SuperVGA cards I mentioned, the ones with 1MB RAM, are
>> very quick, since they have a 32-bit internal memory path.
>
>They can have a megabit wide internal data path, and it wouldn't help.
>Animation requires a better bus than the AT bus. It's the external data
>path that's at fault.


Just to inject a little reality here.  There have been a number of articles
doing cost comparisons of various Mac, Amiga, and PC configurations.

I have seen video cards for EISA bus that will do quality animation.  They
are made by companies like Imagraph, Vermont Micro, etc.  They are 1280x1040,
have 256 shades of gray, and lots of colors.  And they cost $2000-$4000.
At Imigraph I saw a PC doing an animation that was incredibly fast.  You
can have that PC for about $12000.

I set up a drafting department with an Autocad system running on a PC.  It
had a 800x600 VGA to do text, and a Vermont VGA to just do the graphics.
In fact, all the Vermont card could do was graphics.  It cost $2000.  The
19" Mitsubishi monitor for this system cost $2000.

I see a lot of articles quoting prices for PC, Mac, Next, and Sparc that
are all basically low end system prices.  When you see one of these systems
doing these wonderful things, find out how much that configuration costs.

And stop looking at the fold-outs in Computer Shopper. :-)

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	frog!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP