Message: 2
   Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 21:07:32 -0500
   From: "Evelyn" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Net accelerators

What do you think about does accelerators do they do
what they offer
and which one of the is the best?

Eve


Evelyn,
 Do you mean 3D graphic accelerators?  I think they're
great.  They're
 pretty much essential for playing most of the latest
games arriving on the
 market today.  I can't get technical about it but
essentially they use
 specific hardware encoded features to quickly
calculate the visuals in
 video games (or any other type of visual application
that utilizes hardware
 acceleration).

 Graphic card types tend to be categorized by the
primary chip (or recently
 Graphics Processing Unit).  Different manufactures
often make cards using
 the same chip with very similar performance
characteristics.  Typically the
 only difference will be additional features added to
the card (such as TV Out).

 The "best" of course is always debatable and specific
to what you want to
 do and how much you want to spend.  If you really
want the best consumer
 grade card wait a few weeks or a month for the cards
based on the NVidia
 GeForce3 to arrive on the market.  One of these will
certainly hold you for
 some time to come.  If you can't spend the ridiculous
$600 asking price for
 one of these (join the club) your next best bet would
be either the NVidia
 Geforce 2 or ATI's Radeon.  These (I think) are
running around $300 a pop
 which IMHO is still a bit pricey but doable if you've
just gotta have top
 notch 3D performance.  You can certainly get
acceptable performance,
 however, for significantly less money.  As a starting
off point here's a
 link to the sharkyextreme video reviews.  It may be a
bit overwhelming but
 they are organized by chip type, which is a nice way
to look at the market
 choices, and you can get some names of card
manufacturers allowing you to
 do some further research.


http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/hardware_video.shtml

 Browse around there's no shortage of information on
this subject on the
 Internet.

Hope this helps,
Stephen


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