Download 3d graphics for games. How is DirectX different from other drivers? Required System Requirements

Hardware acceleration is an important feature that allows you to use not only the main processor of the computer, but also the processor of the video card when performing complex graphics processing tasks. As a result, performance increases, and the PC is able to carry out even very resource-intensive processes. For example, almost all new games require hardware acceleration, which is supported without problems by most modern video adapters. However, in some cases, software installation conflicts may occur, resulting in messages like “Hardware acceleration is disabled or not supported by the driver.” Let's try to understand the reasons for such malfunctions in Windows 7/10.

How to check if hardware acceleration is enabled

As already noted, all the latest video card models operate in hardware graphics acceleration mode by default, but, of course, only if the drivers are installed correctly. In Windows 7, click right click mouse on the desktop and select “Screen resolution” from the menu.

In the window that opens, go to the “Diagnostics” tab. We look at the state of the “Change parameters” button. If it is not active, then hardware acceleration is already enabled, and the driver does not allow them to be manipulated (disabled or changed level).

If the button can be pressed, then click on it and go to the acceleration settings window graphics adapter. Move the slider in the desired direction, thereby setting the level of hardware acceleration. For maximum performance, it is recommended to set the switch to the far right position.

In Windows 10, there is no “Diagnostics” tab in the properties of the monitor adapter, so enabling/disabling hardware acceleration can only be controlled through the registry. As in the "seven", in Windows 10 acceleration is active by default, so no changes to the registry are required.

A surefire way to make sure that hardware acceleration works is to use the DirectX library package. Through the Start menu, go to the “Run” window and enter the command dxdiag.

In the DirectX Diagnostic Tools window, select the Display tab.

We check that the parameters “DirectDraw Acceleration”, “Direct3D Acceleration” and “AGP Texture Acceleration” are set to “On”. If any of them is turned off, then you need to look for the reason, which is what we will do.

Causes of errors related to hardware acceleration

Most often, users wonder how to enable hardware acceleration of the video adapter when they receive errors when launching games or graphic applications. And the reason for the appearance of such errors does not lie at all in the disabled acceleration function, as such. The source of problems may be:

• Outdated (incorrectly installed) video card drivers;
• Incorrect installation of the DirectX package;
• Absence necessary updates operating room Windows systems 7/10.

Let's go through all the points.

Checking the availability and relevance of video card drivers

Normal operation of the video adapter is possible only if the appropriate drivers are available. Moreover, even if necessary software seems to be installed, there is no guarantee that problems with hardware acceleration will not arise. To avoid their occurrence, drivers should be regularly updated.

Let's go to Device Manager through the Start menu or Control Panel. Next, open the “Video adapters” branch and make sure that next to the graphics adapter there is no yellow icon with exclamation mark. If there is one, then there are definitely problems with the drivers and you need to install them. In our case, the driver is installed, but it's worth checking if it's too old.

Right-click on the name of the video card and select “Properties”.

On the “Driver” tab we look at information about it. If the version is quite old (the line “Date of development”), then it is better to update it.

Click on the “Update” button and select one of two search modes – automatic or manual.

If automatic search ended in failure, go to the official website of the video card manufacturer, download the latest version of the driver and install it manually. You should also do this when complete absence drivers.

DirectX update

Modern games often require the latest version of the DirectX library, which is responsible for drawing graphic objects. If the required version is not available, an error message is displayed, but it usually indicates that the problem lies specifically in the outdated DirectX package. If the message refers to hardware graphics acceleration being turned off, then, most likely, some dll files of the library were somehow lost or it was initially deployed, as they say, “crookedly”. This is possible if the installation was not made from the official distribution.

To install or DirectX updates go to the Microsoft website and download the latest version of the package. Next, install it and restart the computer. If the cause of the problem was DirectX, then after these steps hardware acceleration should be enabled.

Installing Windows 7/10 updates

As you know, Windows 7 and 10 developers periodically release updates for their operating system. These patches are designed to improve the interaction between the computer's hardware and new applications, the creation of which uses constantly improving tools. Lack of the latest updates in Windows 7/10 may result in errors indicating that hardware acceleration is disabled or not supported by the driver. For users with enabled automatic update operating system, this problem will not be relevant, but for those who, for example, have completely deactivated the update service, it does not bother to periodically update their version of Windows.

The update mode is configured through the "Center" Windows updates» in the Control Panel.

In the “ten” you can get to the update configuration through Settings - Update & Security.

How to disable hardware acceleration in browsers

In some situations, it becomes necessary not to enable, but to disable hardware acceleration. This most often happens when there are problems playing videos in browsers. The issue is resolved through the browser settings. For example, in Mozilla Firefox, to deactivate the corresponding option, go to the section Tools – Settings – Advanced – General. Here we are interested in the item “Use hardware acceleration if possible.”

IN Google Chrome the scheme is almost the same. You need to find the “System” subsection in Settings and uncheck the “Use hardware acceleration (if available)” option.

Conclusion

That's all we wanted to tell you about how to enable hardware acceleration in Windows 7/10 when the corresponding errors appear. If none of the above recipes helped, it makes sense to roll back the system to the state when everything worked fine. To do this, you need to have pre-created . In rare cases, acceleration not working may be due to a hardware malfunction of the video card itself.

Apparently, many users modern computers Have you heard of such a thing as “hardware acceleration?” But not everyone knows what it is and why it is needed. There are even fewer who understand how to enable hardware acceleration on Windows 7, for example. The solutions proposed below will allow you to use the settings not only in the seventh Windows versions, but also in any others.

Why do you need hardware acceleration (Windows 7)

Let's start with the fact that some users mistakenly believe that the use of hardware acceleration applies exclusively to video cards in order to utilize the capabilities GPU, which reduces the load on the central one. This is partly true.

If we look at this issue a little more broadly, we can confidently say that all this applies to both the video and audio systems of the computer (for example, the DirectX platform includes support for multi-channel audio). In any case, hardware acceleration is a reduction in the load on the CPU and RAM due to the fact that it is partially (or completely) taken over by other “hardware” components.

But many people don’t understand how advisable it is to use it. Judge for yourself, because if the load is redistributed upward for graphics or sound chips, they can wear out quite a lot over time and even fail. Therefore, in the question of how to enable hardware acceleration on Windows 7, you should not go to extremes. It is necessary to use balanced parameters with reasonable use of all devices and even distribution of load between them. In the case of setting peak values, no one can give guarantees about the durability of a component.

How to enable hardware acceleration on Windows 7

So, let's start with the simplest thing. First of all, let's look at the graphics. Enable hardware acceleration (Windows 7 is an example, though this decision can be used in all other versions) can be done through the graphics chip settings. But first you need to check whether user intervention is required.

Through the RMB menu in the free zone of the “Desktop”, go to the screen resolution and use the hyperlink additional parameters. In the properties window that appears, look at the diagnostics tab. At the top there is a button for changing parameters. If it is inactive, then hardware acceleration is already enabled.

Otherwise, click on it, after which it will be redirected to the graphics adapter settings. There is a special slider here, by moving it left and right, you can change the level of the parameters being set. The rightmost position corresponds to the maximum applied acceleration.

Note: in Windows 10, there is no diagnostic section in the graphics adapter settings, and hardware acceleration (actually, like the seventh modification) is enabled by default.

DirectX Questions

Now a few words about how to enable hardware DirectX acceleration. As is the case with general settings system, it is included initially for both the video and audio adapters, so there is no need to change anything. But it doesn't hurt to make sure it's active.

For viewing and diagnostics, the DirectX dialog is used, called by the dxdiag command entered in the “Run” console. Here, on the monitor tab, you need to check the DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP texture settings (sometimes the ffdshow parameter may be included in the list). By default, the value “On” will appear next to each line, and in the window below there will be a message that no problems were found. If for some reason they are discovered, we move on to eliminating them.

Possible causes of problems

Most often, the inability to enable hardware acceleration at the system level or in the DirectX platform settings is due to incorrectly installed, missing or outdated drivers the above devices.

We check them in the “Task Manager” (devmgmt.msc). If there is a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark next to the sound or video card (or the device is not detected), this is a clear sign that there are problems with the driver. It needs to be reinstalled using the system's own database, original disc or downloaded distributions from the Internet.

But it also happens that everything is fine with the devices. Nevertheless, through the RMB menu we select the properties line, and in the new window on the driver tab we look at the release date. If the driver is on current date is very outdated, click the update button and wait for the process to complete (note that Windows cannot update drivers on its own).

However, it is much better to use special search and update utilities like Driver Booster. Firstly, the appeal will be made directly to the equipment manufacturer’s website; secondly, the driver that is most suitable for the operation of the device will be installed; thirdly, it will be installed into the system as correctly as possible. User involvement is minimal.

Conclusion

That, in fact, is all that concerns how to enable hardware acceleration on Windows 7. Whether to do it or not is a purely personal matter. But if you approach the issue wisely, it is better not to use hardware acceleration, as they say, to the fullest. In this case, the service life installed equipment can shrink greatly.

When we buy a 3D accelerator, each of us expects a dramatic increase in the performance of our favorite 3D programs, including 3D modeling applications, VRML browsers, 3D games and God knows what else. With 3D accelerators aimed at the gaming market, the situation is quite clear; many people are writing about them now; all you have to do is go and buy at least a magazine about games at a nearby kiosk. With the release of the second version of Kinetix's 3D Studio MAX software, these 3D accelerators become a tempting purchase, eliminating the need to purchase an expensive 3D accelerator. In this review, we will look at 3D accelerators aimed at the professional application market. Some of the OpenGL accelerators reviewed can be purchased in Moscow, but others cannot. In the latter case, you can only order them, and you will have to make an advance payment, since not a single seller intends to risk their money. But it can be argued that a market for professional OpenGL accelerators is gradually beginning to form in Russia.

Knowing the information hunger in Russia for good articles, we decided to test several OpenGL accelerators based on the requirements Russian market. Russian buyers, not having a lot of money, strive to get the optimal solution when buying or assembling their future computer, on which they will later create their masterpieces of computer graphics. It is worth saying right away that specialized workstations from HP and Intergraph are superior in their characteristics to workstations assembled at home. Workstations from these manufacturers use 3D subsystems on chips own development, and 3D accelerators on these chips are not sold separately from workstations. If you buy workstation from a reputable manufacturer using standard OpenGL accelerators, you are overpaying a lot of money. We are sure that there are people for whom technical support and getting rid of headaches about hardware compatibility is more important than money.

Almost all of the 3D accelerators reviewed are primarily designed to work with OpenGL, which is why they are called OpenGL accelerators. OpenGL is a cross-platform standard, which makes it much easier to port programs that use this API to other platforms, including Wintel. There are a huge number of OpenGL accelerators on the market for the Wintel platform, and this is pushing developers to port 3D programs to this platform. It is also worth considering that Silicon Graphics has announced support for the Wintel platform.

Tested boards

Four 3D accelerators were selected for testing:

• AccelGraphics AccelEclipse II based on Mitsubishi 3DPro/2mp chipset
• ELSA GLoria-L/MX based on the 3Dlabs Glint DMX 1000 chipset
• Diamond FireGL 3000 based on 3Dlabs Glint 500TX Gold chipset
• Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro based on 3Dlabs Permedia 2 chip

The functionality and usefulness of each board is determined precisely by the chipset on which it is made, so attention is focused, first of all, on the chipsets themselves. If different boards on one chipset have some features, the text specifically emphasizes what features the tested board has.

Pay	Chipset	Boot VGA	RAMDAC	Frame buffer	Texture memory (local buffer)	Maximum 3D resolution for truecolor/hicolor
AccelGraphics Eclipse II	Mitsubishi 3DPro/2mp	Cirrus Logic GD5446BV	TI TVP3026	15 MB 3D-RAM	16 MB CDRAM	1280x1024/NA
ELSA GLoria-L/MX	3Dlabs Glint DMX	S3 Virge	IBM 37RGB5	8 MB VRAM	16 MB EDORAM	1152x864/1920x1080
Diamond FireGL 3000	3Dlabs Glint 500TX Gold	Avance Logic ALG2064	2 x IBM 37RGB5	8 MB VRAM	32 MB EDORAM	1152x870/1600x1200
Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro	3Dlabs Permedia 2	built-in	built-in 230 MHz	8MB SGRAM	combined with framebuffer	1024x768/1280x1024

What is OpenGL?

Currently, only two 3D APIs are widely used: OpenGL and Direct3D. Both have their pros and cons, but so far they are each in their own niche. Direct3D is a common API for 3D games, OpenGL is an API for 3D modeling and CAD programs. Since professional boards are usually used in simulation programs, the main emphasis is on OpenGL. OpenGL, created by SGI, is currently open standard. The standard is controlled by the OpenGL Architecture Review Board, which includes DEC, E&S, IBM, Intel, Intergraph, Microsoft and, of course, SGI.

The OpenGL driver can be implemented in two versions: as ICD and as MCD. ICD (Installable Client Driver) is a highly optimized driver that provides maximum performance. The ICD driver is quite difficult to program, since the driver creator is forced to implement all the OpenGL functions. MCD is much easier to program, since the developer programs only those parts of the driver code that he considers necessary to optimize for his chipset. However, MCD is much inferior to ICD in performance. Moreover, if a 3D program uses a function that does not have hardware support in the MCD driver, then hardware acceleration is completely disabled. All professional boards have ICD drivers, and the reason for the high price of these boards is not least the difficulty of programming the ICD driver.

3DPro and Glint boards allow customization various parameters rendering. Moreover, you can configure the board to work with specific application(for example, Softimage 3D or 3D Studio MAX), and change the values ​​of various parameters. You can enable or disable 32-bit textures, overlays, patterns, gamma correction, etc.

How we tested

We tested the boards both with synthetic tests and in real applications.

For testing we used Indy3D 2.2 software from SENSE8. Indy 3D is a program for Windows NT 4.0 designed for thorough testing of OpenGL. Indy3D requires a carefully written OpenGL ICD driver and does not work on a wide range of cheap boards with MCD drivers, such as Matrox Millennium 2 and Number 9 Revolution 3D. Being a synthetic test, Indy3D reflects the behavior of a 3D accelerator in real applications. Indy3D focuses on three segments of the 3D graphics market: MCAD, Animation and Simulation. According to the creator of Indy3D, SENSE8, tests such as Viewperf do not reflect real-world problems, and the results obtained from them will not be adequate in the real world. However, the same can be said about Indy3D. In addition to performance tests, Indy3D thoroughly tests image quality, which is affected by the presence of a 3D accelerator different functions OpenGL. You can read more about Indy3D.

All results with an "Official SENSE8 Score" correspond to a resolution of 1024x768 at truecolor. Testing was carried out according to all SENSE8 rules, such as:

• Default hardware cursor
• All applications and windows except Indy3D are closed
• Screen-saver disabled
• No network
• Disabled vsync (sync to video retrace) where possible

The boards were tested under Windows NT 4.0 on a computer with a Pentium II 266MHz processor, 160 MB RAM, motherboard A-Bit on LX chipset and hard drive Quantum Fireball SE, with the following drivers:

• Eclipse II: used AccelGraphics driver dated March 13, 1998
• GLoria-L/MX: 3Dlabs beta driver dated March 17, 1998 used
• FireGL 3000: 3Dlabs beta driver dated March 17, 1998 used
• FireGL 1000 Pro: 3Dlabs beta driver dated March 17, 1998 used

Mitsubishi 3DPro/2mp

The AccelGraphics AccelEclipse II board, which has 15 MB 3D-RAM and 16 MB CDRAM, was tested.

	MCAD	4.88
	Animation	11.76
	Simulation	16.80

The 3DPro/2mp chipset is based on technology REALimage by Evans & Sutherland and optimized for memory architecture 3D-RAM/CDRAM Mitsubishi company. 3DPro is a combined 2D+3D accelerator with a built-in triangle setup. 3DPro provides full compatibility with OpenGL 1.1 and is ideal for Windows NT 4.0. 3DPro performs high-quality texturing with perspective correction, bi- and trilinear filtering and sub-pixel accuracy.

Frame buffer is based on 3D-RAM memory technology optimized for frame buffer functionality. 3D-RAM is an intelligent dual-port multi-bank synchronous memory with caching. The main advantage of 3D-RAM is one write operation where other accelerators need three operations (read-write-read). 3D-RAM provides six parallel operations: raster operations, alpha blending, z-comparison, pattern test, and bit masking and block padding. This functionality is supported by the built-in ALUs, Compare Module, and ROP/Blend Module. 3DPro supports up to 15 MB of 3D-RAM to produce resolutions from 640x480 to 1280x1024 at 32-bit truecolor with double buffering.

Texture memory is based on CDRAM memory technology optimized for reading texels. 3DPro supports 4-16 MB CDRAM. 3DPro supports 32-bit RGBA textures up to 1024x1024 in size and 16-bit RGBA and RGB textures up to 2048x1024 in size, processed with 32-bit precision.

We also tested the Eclipse II version with the AGP interface. However, due to the lack of AGP support under Window NT, there was practically no difference in the results obtained. And the difference that was there corresponds to the calculation error. Therefore, in the review we're talking about only about the PCI version of the board based on the 3DPro chipset. Probably, if a service pack for NT 4.0 with AGP support appears or with the release of NT 5.0, we will re-test it. Today, there is absolutely no difference with which interface to use a board for NT: PCI or AGP.

Performance:

• Throughput 650k triangles/sec with 24-bit z-buffering, mipmapping, transparency, fog and overlay
• Throughput 1.5 million lines/sec with antialiasing and z-buffering
• Fillrate 60 million pixels/sec with bilinear filtering and alpha blending
• Fillrate 30 million pixels/sec with trilinear filtering and alpha blending

Functionality:

• 32-bit truecolor
• Antialiasing of points, lines and sorted polygons
• 24-bit floating-point z-buffering
• Overlays (8-bit double buffered, 4-bit non-double buffered)
• Templates (4-bit)
• Colored lighting with multiple light sources
• Pixel haze, polygon fog

There are only three manufacturers making 3DPro boards: AccelGraphics, Diamond (FireGL 4000) and DEC (PowerStorm 4D30T). The poor marketing policies of these companies, as well as Evans & Sutherland and Mitsubishi (creators of 3DPro) for end users, led to the low popularity of the chipset. 3DPro boards are noticeably more expensive than their closest competitors. The boards are very expensive and are supplied as part of the bulk of computers from famous manufacturers. To purchase such a board, the buyer must order the board from Diamond or AccelGraphics.

3DPro is the undisputed leader in this review and, perhaps, in the professional 3D board market in general. 3DPro won in Indy3D, in real applications 3DPro looked noticeably better than others. No other accelerator could match the numbers we got from Glaze. With all effects enabled, the frame rate did not drop below 30 fps. Also worth noting is the phenomenal acceleration performance vector graphics with antialiasing - Glaze showed speeds of over 80 fps.

A large number of OpenGL settings are pleasing to the eye. The board can be configured either for a specific application, and there are more than 10 of them in the settings, or you can enable or disable certain specific options yourself. We haven't seen more sophisticated settings on any other board.

3DPro copes with large textures, and thanks to the presence of 16 MB of texture memory, 3DPro went through the 16 MB version of Indy3D without any slowdown.

3Dlabs Glint DMX

We tested the GLoria-L/MX board from ELSA, which has 8 MB VRAM and 16 MB EDORAM. By the way, I would like to note that 2 MB of soji were used on the board.

	MCAD	2.90
	Animation	5.45
	Simulation	4.40

The Glint DMX 1000 chipset combines the Glint MX rendering processor and the triangle setup Glint Delta. Glint MX supports resolutions up to 2048x2048, including HDTV 1920x1080. Delta, with 100 MFLOPS of performance, provides high-precision vertex preprocessing, including sub-pixel correction, vertex normalization, and floating-point to fixed-point conversion. Glint DMX provides full compatibility with OpenGL 1.1, and is also compatible with Direct3D and Heidi. Glint MX supports 32-bit RGBA and 8-bit palette textures. Glint DMX supports a framebuffer of up to 32 MB VRAM, which contains the forward and reverse buffer, alpha buffer and overlay buffer. The local buffer, which stores textures, z-buffer and template buffer, can be up to 48 MB EDORAM.

Performance:

• Throughput 1.2 million lines/sec
• Fillrate 33 million pixels/sec with bilinear filtering and mipmapping

Functionality:

• Bilinear and trilinear filtering with perspective correction
• Antialiasing 4x4 and 8x8
• Overlays
• Templates (8-bit)
• Fog

Glint has become the industry standard 3D systems for the Wintel platform. A huge number of suppliers make boards on 3Dlabs chipsets, including AccelGraphics, Densan, ELSA, Leadtek, MaxVision, NeTpower, Omnicorp, Symmetric. This popularity is explained by the fact that 3Dlabs itself writes drivers for its chipsets, and board manufacturers do not need to write their own drivers.

In Indy3D tests, Glint DMX was far behind the leader - 3DPro, and even slightly behind Permedia 2. But in real applications, Glint MX was much faster than Permedia 2, and only slightly inferior to 3DPro. In addition, given some problems in working with Permedia 2, the latter may not be suitable for serious work. In such a situation, Glint MX can boast of being completely problem-free.

Glint DMX also ran through the 16 MB version of Indy3D without any slowdown.

3Dlabs Glint 500TX

We tested Diamond's FireGL 3000 board, which has 8 MB VRAM and 32 MB EDORAM.

	MCAD	2.66
	Animation	2.96
	Simulation	2.68

The Glint 500TX Gold chipset combines the Glint 500TX rendering processor and the triangle setup Glint Delta. Glint 500TX supports resolutions up to 2560x2048, including HDTV 1920x1080. Glint 500TX provides full compatibility with OpenGL 1.1, and is also compatible with Direct3D and Heidi. Glint 500TX supports 32-bit RGBA and 8- and 4-bit palette textures. Glint 500TX supports a framebuffer of up to 32 MB VRAM, which contains the forward and reverse buffer, alpha buffer and overlay buffer. The local buffer, which stores textures, z-buffer and template buffer, can be up to 48 MB EDORAM.

Performance:

• Throughput 500 thousand polygons/sec with z-buffering
• Throughput 2 million lines/sec with z-buffering
• Fillrate 25 million pixels/sec

Functionality:

• 24- and 32-bit truecolor, 15-bit hicolor
• Bilinear filtering with perspective correction
• Antialiasing 4x4 and 8x8
• 24-bit and 32-bit z-buffering
• Overlays
• Templates (8-bit)
• Fog

Glint 500TX also ran through the 16 MB version of Indy3D without any slowdown.

3Dlabs Permedia 2

We tested Diamond's FireGL 1000 Pro PCI board, which has 8 MB SGRAM.

	MCAD	3.21
	Animation	6.20
	Simulation	5.23

The Permedia 2 chipset integrates a full-featured 2D accelerator with video support (YUV conversion and dual-axis scaling), a 3D accelerator with a built-in triangle setup with strips/fans support using Glint Delta technology, and 230 MHz RAMDAC. Permedia 2 supports 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32-bit RGBA, YUV, and 8- and 4-bit palette textures. Permedia 2 supports up to 8 MB SGRAM or SDRAM. Permedia 2 supports PCI and AGP 1X with sideband addressing.

Permedia 2 is one of best solutions, combining high-performance 3D graphics for working in OpenGL and Direct3D and fast 2D graphics. An OpenGL ICD driver has been developed for Permedia 2, as well as for Glint chipsets, which makes systems based on Permedia 2 an ideal solution for professional graphics stations entry level.

Performance:

• Throughput 1 million polygons/sec with z-buffering
• Fillrate 83 million pixels/sec with bilinear filtering
• Fillrate 42 million pixels/sec with bilinear filtering and z-buffering

Functionality:

• 24- and 32-bit truecolor, 16-bit hicolor
• Bilinear filtering with perspective correction, mipmapping
• 16-bit z-buffering
• Overlays
• Patterns (1-bit)
• Pixel fog
• Offscreen (for caching fonts and bitmaps)

Despite the formal 16-bit z-buffering, Permedia 2 passed the 32-bit z-buffer test without introducing artifacts specific to the 16-bit z-buffer. Apparently Permedia 2 uses mechanisms that increase the accuracy of z-buffering.

Permedia 2 did not pass the 16 MB version of Indy3D, as it contains only 8 MB of video memory.

Other OpenGL accelerators

The choice of 3D accelerators was made according to the traditional Russian principle of “getting what you could.” Therefore, I would like to briefly mention those 3D accelerators that are on the market today, but were not included in the review. Dynamic Pictures Oxygen 402 is a board with four Oxygen processors, optimized for multiprocessor computers thanks to a multi-threaded OpenGL driver. It is relatively common in Russia, although there are diametrically opposed opinions about it. 3Dlabs Glint GMX - the most powerful chipset from 3Dlabs, contains 1 or 2 Glint MX rendering processors and a Gamma geometry processor. GMX 2000 gives a throughput of 4.5 million polygons/sec and a fillrate of 66 million pixels/sec. Intergraph Intense 3D Pro 3410, Realizm II - powerful boards, supplied with Intergraph graphics stations. HP Visualize fx4 - Powerful boards that come with the company's Kayak graphics stations Hewlett Packard. The more powerful Visualize fx6 cards are designed for HP UNIX stations.

In addition, we must take into account the imminent appearance of boards based on the new REALimage 2000 chip from Evans & Sutherland. REALimage 2000 will give a throughput of 1.3 million triangles/sec (twice as much as 3DPro) and a fillrate of 90 million pixels/sec (50% more than 3DPro).

Indy3D results

We separately evaluated the performance of the boards in truecolor and hicolor. First of all, you should pay attention to the performance in truecolor, since this mode is the working mode for modeling programs.

Chipset	Pay	32-bit textures	Trilinear filtering	Transparency	Antialiasing	Z-buffering
Mitsubishi 3DPro/2mp	AccelGraphics AccelEclipse II	OK	OK	OK	BADLY	OK
3Dlabs Glint DMX	ELSA GLoria-L/MX	OK	OK	OK	BADLY	OK
3Dlabs Glint 500TX Gold	Diamond FireGL 3000	OK	BADLY	OK	BADLY	OK
3Dlabs Permedia 2	Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro	OK	BADLY	BADLY	BADLY	OK

• 32-bit textures- ability to work with 32-bit RGBA textures; texture processing must also be performed with 32-bit precision.
• Trilinear filtering- Permedia 2 and Glint 500TX do not support trilinear filtering.
• Transparency- support for transparency for unsorted polygons. Permedia 2 failed the test.
• Antialiasing- antialiasing support for unsorted polygons. No one passed the test.
• Z-buffering- support for high precision z-buffer (24-bit or 32-bit). Permedia 2 has a 16-bit z-buffer, however Permedia 2 passed this test.

Texturing

Indy3D has three versions that use different amounts of texture memory: 4 MB - official test, 8 MB and 16 MB. The 4 MB test uses 128x128 textures, and the total volume of textures does not exceed 4 MB. The 16 MB test uses 1024x1024 textures, bringing the total texture size to just under 16 MB. We tested the operation of 3D boards on a 16 MB version of Indy3D without measuring the results in order to find out whether the board could work with textures big size.

Only Permedia 2 failed the test. This is explained by the small amount of video memory - all the textures cannot fit into it.

Large texture support is desirable for some 3D programs that require high detail and where low-resolution textures will appear blurry. You can appreciate the difference between 1024x1024 and 128x128 textures in the pictures below. These are textures on the chest, face and head.

Textures 128x128	Textures 1024x1024

Antialiasing

Antialiasing is the most confusing feature of modern 3D accelerators. Primarily because there are many types of antialiasing, which should not be confused with each other. I’ll say right away that we couldn’t turn on antialiasing in the modeling programs we used.

Line antialiasing

Needed in programs where the main work is done with wireframe models. Such programs are mainly CAD. Therefore, the MCAD Indy3D test tests a wireframe model with line antialiasing enabled. A wireframe model with antialiasing looks much nicer than without it. Line antialiasing is tested by the Glaze program. You can evaluate the edge antialiasing in the pictures below.

Edge antialiasing for sorted polygons

A program that must be written properly and output the triangles in order of proximity to the observer (that is, having previously sorted them). This type of antialiasing is supported by most tested 3D accelerators, but, apparently, is not used in modeling programs. The only program where we noticed it was a demo from 3Dlabs (pictures below).

Edge antialiasing for unsorted polygons

It is this type of antialiasing that Indy3D is testing. This is exactly what all tested 3D accelerators lack. And, apparently, this is exactly what modeling programs require.

OS

On the Intel platform, the only serious operating system is Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. All other operating systems, such as UNIX, Windows 95, DOS, etc., do not represent anything serious, if only because most OpenGL accelerator manufacturers do not write drivers for these operating systems.

If you really love UNIX (meaning all its varieties - Linux, FreeBSD, etc.), then you should buy yourself a video card from Matrox, configure X-windows correctly and forget about OpenGL hardware acceleration.

Windows 95 has a number of undeniable advantages, for example, Direct3D. On this platform you will have all the games, but it is worth considering that many OpenGL accelerators for this OS do not have drivers. Also lack of support multiprocessor systems makes Windows 95 uncompetitive. Yes, and many graphic applications They just won't work with this OS. Although, if you bought yourself a 3D accelerator optimized for working with Direct3D, as well as a pirated disk with 3D Studio MAX 2.x (instead of another gaming magazine), you may not want to switch to Windows NT.

Windows NT 4.0 is devoid of all the disadvantages described above. Under NT there are drivers for all OpenGL accelerators, it supports multiprocessing, and all applications that use OpenGL run on it. You can't play on it, although when a person buys a $3,000 accelerator and a $10,000 3D animation program, he's unlikely to play games on that workstation.

Is multiprocessing necessary?

We studied the speed of simulation programs on dual- and single-processor systems. We were interested in the speed of the modeling process itself and working with animated objects when using OpenGL, as well as the speed of the visualization module to obtain final result. On none of the tested accelerators did we notice a difference in speed when using different numbers of processors. From this we can conclude that, in general, drivers for OpenGL accelerators are not multi-threaded, so we cannot benefit from a second processor. So if you're doing simulation, there's no point in adding a second processor to your workstation. An exception is the OpenGL accelerators of the Oxygen series from Dynamic Pictures (we have not tested them), the driver of which parallelizes the work of two Pentium Pro or Pentium II processors, which should give an increase in performance in OpenGL when using two processors.

We looked at the speed of the final rendering in 3D Studio Max v1.2 and LightWave v5.5. As you know, Windows NT is an operating system that supports multiprocessing. The OS itself decides how to load the processors, and a multi-threaded program gets a speed advantage, since threads are executed in parallel on two processors. Both programs are well parallelized and get a strong speed boost on two processors in the final rendering. For example, on two processors, 3D Studio Max performed final rendering exactly twice as fast as on a single processor.

We were also interested in how the Heidi API from Kinetix, which is used in 3D Studio MAX v1.2, behaves. 3D Studio MAX v2.x uses a new Heidi, not compatible with the Heidi used in 3D Studio MAX v1.x. Therefore, Heidi drivers written for 3D Studio MAX v1.x do not work with version 2.0. Therefore we used version 1.2. It turned out that Heidi is highly tailored for software rendering. Heidi supports multiprocessing, but weakly supports 3D accelerators. The speed of accelerated Heidi was always lower than the speed of software Heidi. For example, on FireGL 3000, our preview speed dropped almost three times.

Quake 2

Due to public demand, we have tested the FireGL 3000, GLoria-L/MX and Eclipse II boards for use as a platform for Quake 2. All of them have very low speed even at low resolutions. The fact is that games require high speed processing of triangles and texturing from a 3D accelerator. Professional boards provide relatively low throuhput and fillrate, which is why they show low speed in Quake 2. A professional board is required high quality on high resolutions And stable work optimized for specific applications. As we already said 1024x768 in truecolor, truecolor texture mapping 1024x1024 and texture memory of 16 MB and above are mandatory requirements that are completely unnecessary in games.

Unfortunately, in terms of rendering quality, the Eclipse board on 3DPro turned out to be poorly compatible with Quake 2. The GLoria-L/MX board on Glint DMX produced a high-quality image, which can easily be considered a standard when testing gaming boards. You can see the screenshots below: perfect color lighting, 32-bit truecolor with good color reproduction, trilinear filtering, absence of even small errors - not a single gaming board achieves such image quality in Quake 2.

Summary

By purchasing any of the 3D accelerators reviewed, you will receive a significant increase in speed in OpenGL. For entry-level systems, it makes sense to take a closer look at 3D accelerators based on Permedia 2. Considering the low cost of boards based on Permedia 2 and high-quality drivers for Windows 95, we can consider Permedia 2 optimal solution. For getting maximum speed in any application that uses OpenGL, you simply need to purchase a 3D accelerator at 3DPro. Of course, it has a very high price, but if 3D graphics is your bread and butter, then you should seriously consider buying this accelerator. The other two accelerators (Glint 500TX and Glint DMX) are in the middle. On the one hand, they are cheaper than AccelEclipse II, but are significantly inferior to it in speed. On the other hand, they are more expensive than Permedia 2, but are almost no faster than Permedia 2 in speed, although they have richer functionality. Ultimately, you have to pay for everything - it is impossible to buy a full-fledged OpenGL accelerator at a price comparable to 3D gaming accelerators. But at the same time, we should not underestimate the manufacturers of 3D gaming chips who write OpenGL ICD drivers for their products. Therefore, it is possible that the line between professional and gaming accelerators will begin to blur after some time. In the meantime, you are faced with the difficult task of choosing a professional 3D accelerator.

Lesnik 61 29-01-2009 20:56

Friends, my son is asking for the 3D Game Graphics Accelerator program. latest version. I'm in this like a blind man in the forest.
Best regards, Lesnik61

ober 29-01-2009 21:14

uh, not a new video card? like Nvidia Quadro FX 5800? maybe you need DirectX 11?

Lesnik 61 29-01-2009 21:33

quote: uh, not a new video card? like Nvidia Quadro FX 5800? maybe you need DirectX 11?

The son claims that DirectX 11 is just in development. And DirectX 10.1 is only available for the ADM video card.
Sorry, I'm passing the keyboard to my son.
Hello, the accelerator works to speed up the video card (2 assistant), for example the game conr strike source for 20 people is slow, we launch the program and everything works fine, the problem is that I have outdated version capable of overclocking a video card from 1% to 18%, in this version you can turn it on to medium (by default), but the new one will allow it to maximum, on the network this is just right. I have DirectX 10, I recently downloaded it. Help me please.
Best regards, Gleb.

seysen 29-01-2009 21:39

This is the first time I've heard of this...

person 29-01-2009 21:48

the problem is that I have an outdated version

... what? When the name is known new version search is a little easier
Riva tuner or what?

ober 29-01-2009 22:01

what video card?

Lesnik 61 29-01-2009 22:11

quote: what video card?

INVIDIA
Best regards, Gleb.

seysen 29-01-2009 22:21

quote: Originally posted by Forester 61:

INVIDIA

maybe nVidia?
If so, then something must go further....

Ostwind 30-01-2009 02:09

So it’s true that the Riva tuner will probably speed up, you’ll have to buy a new video card

Mihoshi 30-01-2009 15:22

This refers to a physics accelerator, a separate board is no longer produced and the company was bought by NVIDIA to support it with branded firewood on new chips. I’ll warn you right away, it’s expensive, but it’s not that much use.
GeForce GTX 295
GeForce GTX 285

Choose one of these

Ostwind 30-01-2009 15:34

I strongly doubt that it is a physics accelerator, what kind of 1-18% do you mean then?

Mihoshi 30-01-2009 15:52

They are. Really working technology in a crisis, for example, the difference is shocking. But games with penny support.

Ostwind 30-01-2009 17:31

I know that they exist, but as I understand it, they haven’t really caught on, and I doubt that CS:S supports it

Mihoshi 30-01-2009 18:16

They have just entered the market. And the KS really supports the invisibility partner for. They simply process commands from havok.

Walenok 30-01-2009 22:00

Contra Source is slowing down, apparently due to something else. It ran with a bang on my GeForce 6800. Physics has nothing to do with it. The power of the processor should be enough.
Further, all overclockers for video cards can burn them. A more or less significant increase in performance is possible on stripped-down versions with lower frequencies, blocked by converters (video devices 5000, 6000, 7000 series) or processors (all from the 8000 series), I wrote about Nvidia. This is if the unlocked blocks are functional.
In the Nvidia Control Panel you need to improve performance.
Anisotropic filtering- Application controlled. If you can, then maybe 2 or 4.
Antialiasing (all types) - Application controlled.
In the game, you can reduce the detail of textures and models. Simplify physics if it exists. (it's still not noticeable). Resolution has little effect on modern video cards. (within reasonable limits).
Still out latest driver Nvidia where there is hardware acceleration of physics using a video card. (from 8000 series)

Walenok 30-01-2009 22:06

GeForce Driver 180.48 is available for XP and Vista.
Two or three video cameras are only useful if the monitor is 24" or, even better, 32". Or the chickens don't eat money. Take a top-end video camera and live in peace for 2 years.

Mozgun 31-01-2009 09:15

The guy obviously meant G3dAccel, I didn’t use it, but it would be interesting to read the statistics of serious testing, because I have little faith in such programs. Although there are positive reviews.
The trick is that this program replaces DirectX libraries with its own in assembler, due to this everything that runs on DirectX resources starts to run faster.
Anyone want to try?
There are tons of links on Google.

PS: I downloaded the first version I came across, I’ll run it on 3DMark 2001, with and without it, and I’ll post it here. If it accelerates, it will be visible.

ZZY: I tested it - on my ancient Radeon 9000 there is no increase, on the contrary, performance drops by about a percentage.

zim 31-01-2009 14:03

quote: The GeForce 180.48 driver is available for XP and Vista.

Absolutely right. It’s true that I don’t have a system unit, but a laptop, but still.
On the NVIDIA website, this driver is positioned as a “new driver for laptops” with a built-in engine. After installation, the card on the laptop in the game warmed up to 90 degrees. Whereas on a year-old driver 177.51 dated March 03, 2008 without a built-in engine, the temperature in games remains stable at 84-86 degrees. On the old game IGI 2 Hidden Strike, the temperature remains stable at 65-67 degrees. I didn't notice any differences in physics.

Lesnik 61 31-01-2009 16:12

What programs can be used for overclocking, powerful games will soon be running, but you don’t want to change your computer, you need to prepare in advance, otherwise they’ll release you and start not working, and when you find the game, it’s no longer popular, I’m so thoughtful))) .
Riva tuner, Graphics accelerator for 3D games. What else can you find interesting?
Who worked with riva tuner, what are your opinions on this program, is it worth downloading or not?
With all the same, Respect Gleb.

Mihoshi 31-01-2009 16:54

Expect that New driver will speed up the calculation of physics as naively as to hope that the blue scribblers and spoiler speed up the nine and make the ride more comfortable. The driver works only on cards of the GeForce GTX 295 and GeForce GTX 285 series. On others, only if there is an SLI mode where the second video card will go under physics. Also, this is only compatible with the Havoc physics engine, and only if the game supports physics accelerators. I translate into Russian only Crisis and 5 other games released in 2008. Contrasting due to constant patching too.

Lesnik 61 31-01-2009 19:34

What is patching??? Is this a patch or something like that?

Walenok 31-01-2009 21:15

Well, yes.
And forget about this physics. Apart from beauty, it doesn’t affect anything. Even on graphics. With the help of Riva you can squeeze out a little, but the video can burn. It's not worth it.

Mihoshi 01-02-2009 03:59

If you buy the above vidyuhi you can get 280/290 current, they heat up more and you unscrew everything all the way in the control panel.

person 01-02-2009 13:07

quote: Originally posted by Walenok:

With the help of Riva you can squeeze out a little, but the video can burn. It's not worth it.

If the cooling is normal, including the case, then 10-15% is quite safe. Although there is of course a difference...

quote: Originally posted by Mihoshi:

unscrew everything all the way in the control panel

Now you can change the mode (bus overclocking) in the BIOS.

Mozgun 01-02-2009 15:20

You can also stir up voltmode if you think like that. I have sinned like this before. And I modified the BIOS of the video card, but it’s all just pampering, just a workout for the brain. Moreover, it’s a risky business, you need to have a bunch of iron that you don’t mind burning if it fails.
If you have a separately purchased cooling system like Zalman, it is quite possible to run the software without risk. You just can’t kick out a lot. The website http://www.overclockers.ru/ has everything for beginner overclockers, and there is also a good forum there. What if they made the video card “at the end of the month” and installed memory chips faster than necessary, or is the chipset on the card also from the next generation with locked pipelines? There have been such cases in history...