Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 12077 from 2003/5/22
From: Germany
>>> if you were a SAM owner, would you want to spend $150 on an HD 7750 when you
>>> could get an earlier card for $20-30?
>> If I was a Sam460 owner then this would certainly be the case because I wanted to
>> also run OS4 with a 3D-supported graphics card. Thus, I would of course spend the
>> surcharge [...] for a 3D-supported GCN-based card instead of buying a cheaper
>> pre-GCN card unsupported in terms of 3D.
> You would.
...if I was a Sam460 owner, yes.
> But then, how much time have either of you spent using OS4?
My time spent using OS4 equals the time I have spent on a Sam460 ;-) For someone who doesn't want to run OS4 there's no reason to buy a Sam460. Thus, someone who buys a Sam460 wants to run OS4, either as sole OS or with MorphOS and/or Linux multi-boot options. I'm sure that virtually every Sam460 owner prefers his graphics card to be 3D-supported by every OS he boots on the machine.
Current and future X5000 owners are surely no different in that, but they should be able to install a second graphics card in the PCIe x4 slot (the PCIe x16 slot also has just 4 lanes connected, so bandwidth is the same).
> Until recently most Amiga software relied on composting,
> and they still managed to get fairly decent results.
Compositing doesn't work too well with real 3D programs (as opposed to apparent 2D programs which use 3D functions for effects), and it doesn't work at all for ports of 3D programs from other platforms that only support 3D hardware rendering.
> Most of the cards I've mentioned work fine under OS4.
...in 2D and Compositing. Bar ancient R100/R200-based cards, pre-GCN cards are not supported by Warp3D or Warp3D Nova, and thus also not supported by MiniGL or OpenGL ES 2.0.
> I'd settle for an R500 card in an X5000 right now. Then again, I'd primarily be running
> MorphOS or Linux, rarely OS4.
Yes, that's you. Most current and future X5000 owners' priorities are reversed, I bet. And there may be X5000 owners with priorities quite balanced between OS4 and MorphOS who would like to have 3D support under both OS.
