Do PCMCIA 3Dfx (graphics) cards exist?
Greg Rotter
Do such things exist?
thanks in advance,
Greg
Steve Ferguson
No, not 3dfx at least. The only option is a full docking station
with a PCI Voodoo card. I heard noises about a "PC-3d card" a
while ago (someone found a cryptic web link at an online vendor's
site) butI never found outwhat they were selling.
I see questions like this so often, I wonder why no one has
bothered to test the waters with a product. Certainly cardbus
can pass enough data to make it feasible...
Stephen
Greg Rotter <gr...@uclink4.berkeley.edu> wrote:
: Is anyone aware of a PCMCIA card that enables 3D graphics acceleration?
Psycho`Wolf
but the heat and the additional power drain caused by 3d chipsets these days
are killer on laptops...
best wait + see what the ATI fury lite will be like (or the ATI laptop
chipset that's based on their new chipset....fury 128 or something like
that)
Steve Ferguson <ferg...@me.queensu.ca> wrote in message
news:796aa0$9ki$1...@knot.queensu.ca...
J. Wang
>
> I'm curious why they couldn't just go "outboard" with the
>thing...that would eliminate the most severe problem of having the
>card in the laptop.
I don't know much about PCMCIA memory, but the ram chips on a PCI/AGP will
definately not fit in anything remotely similar to a PCMCIA card...
(the ram that the latest 3d acceleration chipsets are quite fast..... 125mhz
SG/SD ram on some of the latest cards)
I'm also not sure about the power voltages of a PCMCIA slot, but my TNT in
my desktop runs at about 3.3v ...
bascially if they did go outboard with this device, it would be about the
same size an onboard PCI/AGP card....
also remember these new 3d chips run really REALLY hot, and most require
massive heatsinks/fans to be able to run decently....
Generally, I think the current state of technology/micronization process
just doesn't allow for such a device....going outboard with such a device
would probably result in something that's not practical, and if it did it
would most likely cost a hefty bundle...
>
> I can't imagine any 3D card w/enough memory actually fitting
>on a PC card and not producing massive amounts of heat...but just
>having the thing in a small module only interfaced through the PC card
>slot would sell. It might not look pretty, but it would work, and
>people would pay for it.
>
>============================================
>Visit The Silicon Edge at:
> http://siliconedge.ml.org
>
>Comprehensive reviews of computer hardware and software,
>plus daily updates with the best and the latest news!
Richard Kuo
I'm curious why they couldn't just go "outboard" with the
thing...that would eliminate the most severe problem of having the
card in the laptop.
I can't imagine any 3D card w/enough memory actually fitting
Steve Ferguson
: I'm curious why they couldn't just go "outboard" with the
: thing...that would eliminate the most severe problem of having the
: card in the laptop.
: I can't imagine any 3D card w/enough memory actually fitting
: on a PC card and not producing massive amounts of heat...but just
: having the thing in a small module only interfaced through the PC card
: slot would sell. It might not look pretty, but it would work, and
: people would pay for it.
My idea exactly. Just stick it in a vented box (hell, run it bare, I
don't care) and I will pay an extra 100 for the CardBus interface. I have
so many other things hanging off my subnote (floppy, CD etc.) I don't care
about another external gadget. I would only want it for home use, so I
could just leave it on a desk, hooked up to a monitor.
I want one.
Hell, just give me a CardBus - PCI interface box at a price somewhere
approaching reasonable and I will buy that. But those don't exist either.
The only thing I have seen is over 600, as it is special interest, I guess
for people who want to run a few special cards, like data aquisition etc.
Stephen
Richard Kuo
<jwang@*nospamhell*thegrid.net> wrote:
>I don't know much about PCMCIA memory, but the ram chips on a PCI/AGP will
>definately not fit in anything remotely similar to a PCMCIA card...
>
>(the ram that the latest 3d acceleration chipsets are quite fast..... 125mhz
>SG/SD ram on some of the latest cards)
>
>I'm also not sure about the power voltages of a PCMCIA slot, but my TNT in
>my desktop runs at about 3.3v ...
>
>
>bascially if they did go outboard with this device, it would be about the
>same size an onboard PCI/AGP card....
>
>
>also remember these new 3d chips run really REALLY hot, and most require
>massive heatsinks/fans to be able to run decently....
>
>
>
>Generally, I think the current state of technology/micronization process
>just doesn't allow for such a device....going outboard with such a device
>would probably result in something that's not practical, and if it did it
>would most likely cost a hefty bundle...
>
Practical is subjective. I'd say the majority of people who'd
buy it wouldn't be buying it as a portable solution...they just want
to be able to sit down and play games without having to buy a whole
new computer. I.E., as long as it works, what the hell.
Wouldn't really matter how hot or big it was...you'd just put
a big fan on it and give it its own power source.