3Dlabs Oxygen GVX1 PCI

GLINT Gamma G1 Geometry Processor

If you ask a gamer about the origins of the term Hardware T&L (Transforming & Lighting), they would most likely spit out the name NVIDIA because of the support for it in the GeForce 256. Professional users will provide a different answer as they are quite aware of the fact that Hardware T&L has been around for quite some time in workstation level graphics accelerators, including the GVX1.

The GVX1 does not take NVIDIA's more cost-effective route of integrating hardware T&L support into the Rasterization processor; rather, they provide it using a chip external to the rasterizer. In the case of the GVX1, this chip is the GLINT Gamma G1. The G1 is capable of processing 4.75 million lit, transformed triangles per second courtesy of its 3 GFLOPs floating point performance. The G1 pales in comparison to the only other graphics accelerator we've had the liberty of testing with hardware T&L, the GeForce, in terms of its polygon rate.

While the 3GFLOP G1 can process 4.75 million triangles per second, the 50GFLOP GPU of the GeForce 256 is capable of up to 15 million triangles per second, with current rates falling around the 10 million lit, transformed triangles per second. This factor is important when considering the performance differences between the GeForce and the GVX1. Also, the GeForce manages to deliver this level of raw performance at around 1/3 the price of the GVX1. So why doesn't everyone just go out and buy a GeForce for their professional applications? We're getting there, but first let's take a look at another difference between the Gamma G1 and the GeForce's GPU.

While the GeForce's hardware T&L engine supports up to 8 simultaneous light sources, the G1 supports twice that at 16 simultaneous light sources. The reasons for this discrepancy is because of the nature of the two different solutions, the support for 8 more simultaneous light sources is more of a factor when considering a professional level graphics accelerator then when looking at a gamer's card.

The GVX1's drivers currently support full hardware transforming and lighting in both the OpenGL and DirectX 7.0 APIs. While support for the latter is not of much importance with a professional level card (as the card is aimed at more of an NT user base) it is good to know that 3Dlabs kept all ends covered with the driver support for the on-board G1 processor.