Fwd: [CUBE] Geforce3 VGA and DVI

[RedEclipseTurbo]

Hello,

I just joined the Cube list in order to learn as much as I can about  
these unique G4's and to hopefully contribute to the list once I get up  
to speed as I've been a computer tech for all my life. I recently  
purchased a cube locally and have to admit that it is quite a  
collector's item as far as computer history goes. I'm the guy that is  
flashing the GeForce3 video cards from the PC world and bringing them  
to the mac side where they can do more good! Why Apple stopped making  
the GeForce3 cards for the mac  just when we could all begin to afford  
one is a mystery to me.

Anyways, I noticed that a few people had some questions on video  
mirroring and indeed they are just like the Apple branded models and  
only have a single head 350Mhz RAMDAC. If you want dual displays then  
you have to sacrifice some 3D performance in games for a "twinview"  
video card with dual RAMDAC's. The fastest model that I know of that is  
known to fit in the cube is the ATI Raden 8500 but you need to relocate  
the "DC-Power converter board". Check out:  
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/cube/CUBE_8500_MODS/ 
cube_8500_mods.html

As far as value goes it's true that if you are hooking this up to an  
Apple ADC display you are going to spend about the same money:
Apple GF3 (ADC & VGA) ~$300 + Apple ADC 17" LCD Display ~$700  = ~$1000
PC GF3 (DVI & VGA) ~$220 + Apple ADC 17" LCD Display ~$700 + DVI to ADC  
adapter ~$85  = ~$1005 (www.macs4all.com has the cheapest DVI-ADC  
adapters I've seen)

Where the real value comes in is if you can't afford the price of an  
Apple display and can settle for a DVI flat panel display:
PC GF3 (DVI & VGA) ~$220 + PC DVI 17" LCD Display ~$350  = ~$570

This card is indeed centered around having the best 3D gaming  
performance possible in a cube. I also recently found out that LCD flat  
panel displays are not as good for fast action 3D gaming when compared  
to good old standard CRT's. Apparently it takes much longer to turn a  
pixel on and off on a flat screen than a CRT but the latest models are  
improving on this. You can pick up a decent 19" CRT Monitor for under  
$200 these days which is all that I really need.

I don't want to clog up this mailing list any more but here are some  
interesting frame per second numbers I just got done recording from one  
of the cooler screen savers, "Marine Aquarium" (millions of colors with  
no fish chosen to keep things consistent): ATI Rage Pro 128 16mb,  
nVidia GF2 MX 32mb,  nVidia GF3 64mb
640x480     144, 168, 394
800x600       96, 114, 315
1024x768       57, 71, 200
1280x1024     33, 39, 119
1600x1200       1, 14 , 80

As you can see the extra ram and higher memory bandwidth really help  
out 3D video speed at the higher resolutions. Any other questions can  
be sent directly to me unless you think it would benefit everyone else  
on the cube list.

Thanks for your time,

Chris
RedEclipseTurbo