The 9900, with 256MB of memory, will be ATI's answer to 3Dlabs' high-end Wildcat line. The 9800, with 128MB, will target mid-range professional users. Though in recent months ATI has fallen behind in benchmark races, the company expects the new accelerators to perform well in SPECviewperf tests. The FireGL 9900 will sell in the sub-$2000 range, and the FireGL 9800 will cost less than $1000.
NaturalMotion Intros AI CharactersNatural Motion Limited (Oxford, UK) has announced Active Character Technology, a new character animation engine for use in the film, gaming, and viz/sim industries. The technology is designed to deliver characters that are controlled by artificial intelligence.
benchmarkWildcat III Bests DRV-08 PerformersThe Wildcat III graphics accelerator from 3Dlabs, paired with both an HP and a Dell workstation, earned the best scores out of eight systems running the Design Review (DRV-08) subset of the SPECviewperf 7.0 OpenGL benchmark. The DRV-08 test consists of five operations, including walkthroughs, common to Design Review, a 3D plant design review program.
The mean scores represent the combined, weighted results of the five tests, measured in the number of frames per second the machines were able to execute. The larger the numbers, the better the performance.
To see how the same systems fared in other benchmark tests, or to review results from additional systems, visit www.spec.org/gpc.
| Design Review (DRV-08) Results |
| Workstation |
Graphics Card |
Price |
Mean Score |
| HP x2100 2.4GHz |
3Dlabs Wildcat III 6110 |
$4408 |
60.78 |
| Dell 530 2.4GHz |
3Dlabs Wildcat III 6110 |
$4827 |
60.50 |
| Dell 340 2.53GHz |
Nvidia Quadro4 900 XGL |
$3146 |
54.46 |
| Dell 340 2.53GHz |
Nvidia Quadro4 700 XGL |
$2646 |
54.26 |
| IBM M Pro 2.4GHz |
Nvidia Quadro4 900 XGL |
$3448 |
54.12 |
| HP x2100 2.4GHz |
Nvidia Quadro4 900 XGL |
$3508 |
53.40 |
| IBM M Pro 2.4GHz |
3Dlabs Wildcat III 6110 |
$4208 |
50.84 |
| IBM M Pro 2.4GHz |
ATI FireGL 8800 |
$2907 |
40.33 |
Companies listed are voluntary participants.
Source: SPEC/GPC benchmark results June 2002. Copyright Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. |
For additional CG industry news updated daily, see: www.cgw.com
News is written and compiled by Jenny Donelan