VSA100 what?

[Chris123234]

I wasnt to deep into computer technology when the TNT Gf1 and others were coming out. Can anybody tell what the VSA100 had compared to what was around at the time? I've heard about an "amazing" card that would have saved them but I dont know if its this VSA100 or something else.

Could someone elaborate on it by giving specs of things around at the time compared to the VSA100's specs? or of this other "amazing" card?

 

[Xmas]

Here's a table that shows the specs of chips around that time, with the one-, two- and four-chip versions of VSA-100 (V4, V5).

The chip that should have 'saved' 3dfx was Rampage.

 

[Chris123234]

what are the specs on the Rampage

 

[KimB]

Well, the VSA100 was the basis chip for 3dfx's Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 products. Its primary benefit was FSAA. Its primary drawback was an utter lack of advanced programmability features (DOT3 bump mapping, hardware T&L). That and nVidia managed to significantly outdo 3dfx in performance with the GeForce2 GTS.

 

[Xmas]

what are the specs on the Rampage

Rampage never made it to the public, but you might find some rumored specs in this thread:
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3122

 

[Mulciber]

what are the specs on the Rampage

Rampage never made it to the public, but you might find some rumored specs in this thread:
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3122

that thread is classic!

 

[Brent]

Also VSA-100 chips could be used in multiple configurations (SLI on one card kinda deal) to increase performance. That was one thing 3dfx did well.

 

[Pete]

Here's another chip chart, with links to reviews.[/url]

 

[Neeyik]

While I know the VSA conversations have been done to death but there's nothing like a good bit of necromancy to keep one occupied ...ahem... anway, Tech Report's chart. I was under the impression that the VSA could not do multitexturing with both pixel pipelines at the same time; something along the lines of the TMU in each pipeline is combined for, say, two texels per clock? If that was the case, then the Mtexels/sec for the Voodoo 5500 should be half the single texel fill rate...or am I eating cheese?

 

[Xmas]

I was under the impression that the VSA could not do multitexturing with both pixel pipelines at the same time; something along the lines of the TMU in each pipeline is combined for, say, two texels per clock? If that was the case, then the Mtexels/sec for the Voodoo 5500 should be half the single texel fill rate...or am I eating cheese?

The VSA-100 could not do trilinear filtering with multitexturing, that's why it used trilinear dithering.

 

[Reverend]

The VSA-100 could not do trilinear filtering with multitexturing, that's why it used trilinear dithering.

trilinear dithering.... boy, what a term!

 

[Xmas]

Hmm, I guess I should have written mipmap dithering

 

[OpenGL guy]

While I know the VSA conversations have been done to death but there's nothing like a good bit of necromancy to keep one occupied ...ahem... anway, Tech Report's chart. I was under the impression that the VSA could not do multitexturing with both pixel pipelines at the same time; something along the lines of the TMU in each pipeline is combined for, say, two texels per clock? If that was the case, then the Mtexels/sec for the Voodoo 5500 should be half the single texel fill rate...or am I eating cheese?

If you can do two single textured pixels per clock and one dual textured pixel per clock then the texel rate is the same either way. However, the pixel rate is halved when doing dual texturing.