As some of you may have noticed, I've been writing less
frequently over the last few months. This has been due to
schoolwork. However, I've now been done with classes for a few
weeks - long enough to get back into the flow of the gaming
world.
One of the greatest developments over the last few months is Mac
OS X. However, I don't have much experience with X yet, so I
won't try to write a column about it.
Another area in which the landscape is changing rapidly is in 3D
acceleration. There are a lot of different things to know about
modern 3D hardware and how it relates to gaming, so I will try to
clarify things a bit.
For those of you who aren't really sure what it is, hardware 3D
acceleration is a feature found on most newer graphics cards which
greatly improves the rendering of 3D objects on your screen. In
general it comes in the form of a video card which takes care of
running your monitor (although in a few cases, the 3D accelerator
only runs the 3D things, leaving the rest to your other graphics
support).
One of the most common uses of 3D acceleration is improving the
appearance of games. The first games to take advantage of 3D
acceleration, around 1996-1997, were mainly first-person action
games, but more and more games are using 3D acceleration.
The earliest Mac to ship with built in 3D acceleration was
the original Power Macintosh G3, and
all Macs since then have included some form of hardware 3D
acceleration except for the original
PowerBook G3. Several clones also came with hardware 3D
acceleration.
3D Video Cards
There are several companies which are or have been involved in
the Mac 3D acceleration market. Three of the biggest names are 3Dfx
Interactive, ATI Technologies, and NVidia.
3Dfx is generally credited with starting the 3D revolution, with
its Voodoo Graphics card (sometimes called Voodoo1 after the
release of newer Voodoo cards). All the 3Dfx chipsets have made it
to the Mac in some form, but 3Dfx was bought out by NVidia in late
2000 and is no longer making graphics cards.
For a long time ATI was the company which supplied Apple with
all of its graphics cards, and it still is Apple's primary
suppliers.
NVidia has made 3D accelerators for other platforms for quite a
while, but has only lately entered the Mac market. Apple now seems
to be favoring NVidia, even though it still uses some ATI
products.
There are some other companies in the market as well, such as
Formac, but though their cards may support 3D acceleration, they
are generally not targeted specifically at gamers.
3D Video Standards
There are three main standards (or APIs) for hardware
acceleration: Glide, RAVE, and OpenGL. These are the way the
program interfaces with the graphics card. Glide is supported by
3Dfx cards. RAVE was initially the favored standard for use with
ATI cards, but it has been less favored lately. At the same time,
other cards besides ATI have gained support for RAVE. OpenGL seems
to be the standard of the immediate future, at least on the Mac.
Any modern 3D card should support it, as do most 3D games.
You may be wondering whether your 3D acceleration is adequate,
or, if you do not have a 3D accelerated graphics card, whether you
should get one. To start with, any pre-PCI Mac cannot have 3D
acceleration. No 3D accelerator cards were ever made to fit the
NuBus slot. If this does not eliminate you, read on and see what I
have to say.
Third Generation
ATI's cards can basically be grouped into three generations from
oldest to newest: Rage Pro, Rage 128, and Radeon. Anything older
will not be of much help to modern games.
3Dfx' cards can also be more or less put into three generations:
Voodoo1/2, Voodoo3, and Voodoo4/5.
There are two generations of NVidia cards with Mac support:
GeForce 2 and GeForce 3.
Currently, many games will still run on Rage Pro or Voodoo1/2
cards, but not optimally. Rage 128 is still widely supported and
is, in fact, still used in some Apple products. Voodoo3 was never
officially supported by Apple, but 3Dfx unofficially supported it
with downloadable drivers. Voodoo3 cards, while no longer
superfast, should run most games. Radeon, Voodoo4/5, and all NVidia
Mac cards are more than adequate power for current games.
PCI or AGP?
If you have a PCI-only Mac, your options are shrinking unless
you are willing to buy a used card. All 3Dfx cards are available in
PCI versions, but with 3Dfx' demise, they are no longer being sold
new. ATI has produced PCI versions of all their cards, but on May
30 they announced some changes to their business structure. It
remains to be seen how this may affect their production of
ATI-branded cards. NVidia sells their chips to other companies,
none of which produce a PCI card for Macs. Formac does produce PCI
versions of their cards. It is doubtful that the PCI market will
completely disappear for a while, since there will be some demand
from people using dual monitor setups, but the market is
shrinking.
So, to upgrade or not to upgrade?
If you have a pre-G3 and no acceleration, you should first make
sure you are using a modern Mac OS (8.6 or higher) and have at
least 64 MB of RAM. Then you can think about 3D. Any card will
help, but the best choice may be a Voodoo3 or Rage 128. More is
always better, but a pre-G3 computer is too old to fully utilize
more modern cards. The Rage may be the better choice overall
because of its better support.
If you have a G3 or higher, you probably have enough power to
fully utilize the most powerful cards. The Voodoo5 is a nice card,
but don't expect support under OS X. The Radeon is probably
your best bet if your system is PCI only.
If you have AGP, the GeForce 3 is the most powerful card
available, but it comes at a higher price. Even a Rage 128 or
Voodoo3 will provide adequate but not earth-shattering acceleration
for a modern system. If choosing between a Radeon and GeForce 2,
I'd go with the Radeon.
If your Mac is a laptop, you're stuck with whatever it came
with. Ditto for the iMac, except for the first models, which can
have a special Voodoo2 card added to them. The G4 Cube has a standard AGP slot, but there
is physically not enough space in the Cube for some cards. Check
before you buy.
There are other considerations besides just what chip powers the
board. The amount of video RAM (VRAM) on the card is also
important. Obviously, the more, the better. Unless you are just
getting a cheap card, make sure you are getting at least 16 MB.
2D performance is more important to some people than others.
Sites such as Accelerate Your
Mac have detailed performance analyses of most Mac video
cards.
Some cards also have additional features such as video in and/or
out, and DVD support.
The best rule in upgrading your 3D acceleration, if you have
decided to do so, is to decide how much you think you should spend.
Getting an ATI Radeon for that Power
Mac 7200 would certainly be cool, but the $175 Radeon might be
worth more than the rest of the system combined.
FYI, the system I am writing this on (a PowerBase 180) is driven by a Voodoo3
2000. I also use a Voodoo5 5500 on my other computer (a 7300/G3). I like 3Dfx' products and would
recommend them strongly if 3Dfx was still around. That said, I
still hope to play with a PCI Radeon sooner or later.
