dwade@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Doug Wade) (03/22/90)
I know that graphics accelerators exist on one of the new Apple cards, and I know there are some other companies that have options like this. But is there a card I can plug into my Mac II that will accelerate an existing Apple 8-bit card? Company and cost information would be appreciated if such a product is available. dwade@jarthur.claremont.edu
lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) (03/22/90)
The new Apple accelerator will also accelerate other screens, although not as much as the screen directly attached to it.
dumais@nixter.UUCP (Paul E. Dumais) (03/23/90)
In article <5285@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> dwade@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Doug Wade) writes: > > I know that graphics accelerators exist on one of the new Apple > cards, and I know there are some other companies that have options like > this. But is there a card I can plug into my Mac II that will accelerate > an existing Apple 8-bit card? Company and cost information would be > appreciated if such a product is available. > > dwade@jarthur.claremont.edu The latest graphics cards from Apple Computer Inc range from 4bit to 24 bit with on of the 24bit cards having a RISK processor running QuickDraw(tm) in its own RAM. The graphics accelerator card allows you to move a photographic quality picture around on your screen with almost instantanious screen refresh. You won't believe your eyes. It gets better. If you have other NON accelerated video cards in your MacII the RISK based card can act as bus master and take over the NuBus for doing large block transfere of data to any of the other video cards on the bus. It's like having all of your video cards accelerated!! You will see Apple phase out the old style cards very quickly and replace them with the new 24 bit capable cards. All of the new cards can upgrade to 24 bit with a memoty upgrade. When Apple says that the entry level card is 4/8 bit that means 8 bit on a 13" colour or monochrome and 4 bit on the big two page display. It boils down to "how much RAM do I need on the board to handle all these pixels at this pixel depth? DISCLAMER: The graphics acceleration of "regular" video cards by the accelerated card may only work for the new style cards. I don't know. But I can find out!:-) Call your Authorized Apple Dealer for more details. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Paul E. Dumais:A/UX Specialist:Apple Canada Inc.:+1 416 474-9872 | | "Where *does* he get those wonderful toys - The Joker" | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
dwade@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Doug Wade) (03/24/90)
Several people have pointed out that I can pay $2000 for Apple's video card with an accelarator. I know this, I'm not an idiot. I'm just a simple guy with one monitor and no special urge to pay for a second set of video circuitry, 24-bit or not. (I don't have a single piece of software that uses it. I'm afraid I don't care how good it looks in theory if I'll never see it.) I want to buy just an accelarator. I believe raster-ops has one that works with their card, I just want to know if a card exists that works with a standard apple 8-bit video card. I know people are trying to help but I have to wonder if they read my original post at all, or just saw the word "accelerator" and decided to show off that they read press releases too. <shrug>