3dfx Rampage ;)

[Ailuros]

I feel like repeating myself, but I don't believe for a second that a single chip Rampage would have performed close to a GF3.

With half the multi-textured fill rate of a GF3, no way. SLI was Rampage's ace up its sleeve (near 13GB of bandwidth in early 2001? impressive), and a rather costly one (for the consumer) at that.

Ah, but all that multitexture fill rate isn't worth much if you run out of bandwidth.

And besides... go look up recursive texturing.

Oh sweet Jesus there we go again...these kind of threads are informative and worth reading up to the second where things get blown out of proportion. There's not a chance in hell that the low end/value Spectre could have come close to a NV20, period.

a) For the last time games with quad texturing appeared in larger quantities only recently and no it wouldn't have driven for more than 4 texture layers either.

b) I didn't see any bandwidth constraints on the NV20, compared to it's MT fill-rates.

And since I'm not really fond of the wording either: John is probably amongst those that knew about recursive texturing long before you, me or anyone out there. I'll leave you to guess why.

 

[Geeforcer]

Wait, there are 3 functional Rampage boards in existence, total? With two of them being "dual Rampage-dual SAGE", that leaves one Rampage-only board, right?

 

[Tim Murray]

Wait, there are 3 functional Rampage boards in existence, total? With two of them being "dual Rampage-dual SAGE", that leaves one Rampage-only board, right?

no SAGE chips were ever produced. apparently they were about a week away from taping out when 3dfx was bought.

 

[Lecram25]

Wait, there are 3 functional Rampage boards in existence, total? With two of them being "dual Rampage-dual SAGE", that leaves one Rampage-only board, right?

Yes and no...3 Rampage boards, yes. Two are single chip, and one is, well, not accounted for; supposedly nonfunctional. There are a number of rumors that it's dual Rampage in SLI mode with one SAGE. I would really like to see how that'd look though.

 

[Geeforcer]

Well, that hardly seem to add up...

Tagrineth[/url]]

I've said it before, I'll say it again, two functional dual Rampage dual SAGE boards do exist.

 

[Tim Murray]

WELL THAT'S FUNKY.

to quote a conversation I had with Tag two weeks ago:

No SAGE was ever produced, though the design was ready for tapeout.

 

[Sage]

as for recursive texturing- I think that it would not have made up the perforamnce difference when it was needed, but would have proved a good boost. I think that the low-end card could have effectively competed against the low-end Ti 200 and the high-end board could have easily beaten the Ti 500.

 

[John Reynolds]

as for recursive texturing- I think that it would not have made up the perforamnce difference when it was needed, but would have proved a good boost. I think that the low-end card could have effectively competed against the low-end Ti 200 and the high-end board could have easily beaten the Ti 500.

Rampage would've been competing against the original GF3s; the Tis were refresh parts released in the fall of '01.

Yes, the dual board would've beaten any of the GF3s but the expected MSRP for it was $500, and while the original GF3 was priced at $400 (USD) nVidia and its AIBs could've cut into their margins more easily (one chip, less RAM, less complex board) and lowered that price had 3dfx somehow remained in business 1H of '01.

 

[Tagrineth]

Well, that hardly seem to add up...

Tagrineth[/url]]

I've said it before, I'll say it again, two functional dual Rampage dual SAGE boards do exist.

Yes. My apologies on that score. Blame Aquoues, he was loaded with mis-information... he made a lot of inaccurate claims.

Aquo being gone means I've had more chances to find more real facts. Aquo was a hopeless dreamer... possibly even a con artist. I don't know. Never actually met the guy, of course.

Anyway. I retract a number of things I have said in this thread, that being one of them, the others being the 'performance numbers' I was fed. My apologies for the hopeless idealism.

The real fact of the matter is indeed that no SAGE core was ever produced by 3dfx. If any SAGE was produced elsewhere based on the design, it sure as hell isn't known to more than the most select group of people in the industry... 'cause nobody in our community is aware of it.

3dhq was fun, but god damn did a lot of bullshit fly around. Pretty much the only real things in the group were whatever DIDN'T involve Aquo (for example, the D3D and GLide 3dhq drivers are indeed new runtimes)... it's such a shame.


Now, of course, the third Rampage board is indeed completely unaccounted for, and none of the engineers have confirmed what's on it... it could very well be a dual Rampage SLI board (with no SAGE), but I doubt we'll ever find out.

I'd almost be willing to wager that whoever has it... has no idea what it is.

 

[Tim Murray]

I'd almost be willing to wager that whoever has it... has no idea what it is.

Probably just sitting around in a closet somewhere gathering dust. I can tell that the thought of that makes you berzerk...

 

[Tagrineth]

I'd almost be willing to wager that whoever has it... has no idea what it is.

Probably just sitting around in a closet somewhere gathering dust. I can tell that the thought of that makes you berzerk...

Not angry... but sad. It'd be a waste if that was the case. A depressing waste.

 

[Lecram25]

meh...Raiders of the Lost Rampage?

 

[Xmas]

Ah, but all that multitexture fill rate isn't worth much if you run out of bandwidth.

Twisted logic. The more clocks you need for texturing, the less bandwidth limited you are. And you conveniently forgot trilinear and anisotropic filtering. With 8x trilinear AF enabled, NV20 is fillrate limited most of the time.

And besides... go look up recursive texturing.

Recursive texturing seems to be 3dfx' term for generalized dependent texture reads. R200 has that too. And Rampage was limited to PS1.0, so at least in D3D NV20 was more capable wrt pixel processing.

 

[sonix666]

OMG, is this thread still active?

I will let you guys in on a little secret. Bear with me now. 3DFX is no more and neither is Rampage.

 

[John Reynolds]

OMG, is this thread still active?

I will let you guys in on a little secret. Bear with me now. 3DFX is no more and neither is Rampage.

Lies, all lies!

Like the phoenix of ancient mythology, 3dfx shall rise from its self-induced, fiscal grave, and with a shout that shall reach the heavens--"By the hoary beard of Ballard's recursive texturing!"--slay their enemies with the keen-edged blade of Rampage.

Or something like that.

P.S. I should've kept the e-mails I had with Kilgraaf (sp?) from '99.

 

[Joe DeFuria]

bah screw that, if I take over the world the first thing I'm going to do (after publically executing all nVidia spinners, of course) is use Intel's best fab and mass-produce multi-core rapages / sage chis...

And here I was thinking you'd first put an end to world violence. 8)

 

[Sage]

And here I was thinking you'd first put an end to world violence. 8)

yeah, actually that is first on my list of things to do... list of things to do after I get rid of the nVidia PR people, that is

 

[Ailuros]

P.S. I should've kept the e-mails I had with Kilgraaf (sp?) from '99.

W/o being sure about the spelling myself anymore, I think it is Emmit Kilgariff.

 

[Randell]

Aquo was a hopeless dreamer... possibly even a con artist. I don't know. Never actually met the guy, of course.

come on Tag, you only just realised that?

 

[Tagrineth]

Aquo was a hopeless dreamer... possibly even a con artist. I don't know. Never actually met the guy, of course.

come on Tag, you only just realised that?

Of course I knew the whole time that ~90% of his claims were quite far-fetched... didn't stop me from wanting to believe them.